May
Trying to find a way to hide those dark circles around your eyes?
Give some of these 10 beauty hacks a try!
Place Chilled Tea Bags Over Your Eyes
Placing chilled tea bags over dark circles and puffiness is one of the most common home remedies out there for brightening up the eye area.
How does this actually work?
The caffeine in tea bags helps to restrict your blood vessels, which is why this is such a popular eye cream ingredient (more on that further down). The tannins in tea bags act as astringents too, meaning that they also have a similar effect to the caffeine.
Does it matter which type of tea bags you use?
Green and black tea bags tend to be the most beneficial. This is because they contain higher amounts of caffeine and tannins.
What about herbal tea bags?
These contain plenty of antioxidants, making them great for eliminating puffiness and inflammation. However, they don’t work as well as green or black tea bags when it comes to reducing dark circles.
Before using teabags on your eyes…
Make sure that you have already used them to brew a cup of tea, and then put them into the fridge. Keep them in there for at least 15 minutes, before placing these over your eyes.
Use an Eye Cream
Do you regularly use an eye cream?
If your answer is no…
This could be why you are experiencing dark circles.
Wondering what an eye cream actually does?
They contain the necessary nutrients to enable the skin around your eyes to thrive.
Many people think that an eye cream is the same as a regular moisturizer, except packaged in a smaller container, but this isn’t usually true.
Of course, you will always get those low-quality eye creams that aren’t very beneficial at all, but the high quality eye creams out there will be formulated in a gentler way compared to moisturizers.
Why?
Because the skin around your eyes is up to ten times thinner than the skin on the rest of your face. It needs a more delicate touch when it comes to the ingredients you apply to the area. The eye area also experiences unique issues, such as dark circles and puffiness, and an eye cream will contain the ingredients needed to deal with these.
Which ingredients should you look for when choosing an eye cream to help with dark circles?
Here are some of the most beneficial:
- Kojic Acid – this is a natural lightening ingredient that reduces the amount of melanin produced by your skin, therefore minimizing any pigmentation
- Vitamin C – brightens up the skin tone, minimizing any mild pigmentation around the eyes. Its antioxidant properties also help to keep the skin around the eyes healthy
- Niacinimide – also known as vitamin B3, niacinimide is great for lightening and brightening the skin
- Vitamin K – dark circles are often caused by poor circulation and blood coagulation, both of which are issues that vitamin K can help with
- Caffeine – reduces the amount of blood that builds up underneath the eyes, therefore minimizing the appearance of dark circles
One more thing to remember…
When applying your eye cream, use your ring finger to lightly pat this in, rather than rubbing it in. This saves your skin from the extra friction and tension that rubbing causes, which may have otherwise ended up exacerbating your dark circles. Patting is not only much gentler on the skin, but it also helps to enhance product absorption, meaning that the ingredients in your eye cream will be able to have a much greater effect.
Enlist the Help of a Color Corrector
While the above methods are great for reducing dark circles, what do you do when you need an instant fix?
This is where color correctors come in…
Never used a color corrector before?
They are basically like light concealers, but are in a vivid, rather than a natural, shade. Colors such as red, green and yellow are common in color correctors.
How do they work?
They balance out the color of any dark circles or blemishes on your skin, therefore properly concealing them and making them appear invisible.
How do you know which color to go for?
A color wheel is a great tool to help you to do this. Colors that are on opposite ends of the color wheel will cancel each other out, so you ideally want to pick a shade that is the opposite color to your dark circles.
Since dark circles can often be various colors, here are some guidelines to help you:
- Purple or blue dark circles – go for a yellow color corrector
- Red or pink dark circles – a green color corrector will help
- Green dark circles – try a red or peach color corrector
Try the Triangle Trick with Your Concealer
Managed to conceal your dark circles with a color corrector?
That’s great, but you will likely still need to apply a concealer over the top of this.
Why?
Because your color corrector gave you a more neutral palette to work with, but you may still need to balance this all out with a concealer.
When it comes to applying your concealer…
Give the triangle trick a try!
Rather than applying your concealer in a semi-circle shape underneath your eyes, try creating a triangle instead. The corner of each eye would act as two points on your triangle, and the third should fall around the center of your cheek. Simply use your concealer to draw this triangle, and then blend it in well.
This is not only the best way to instantly conceal dark circles, but will also give your entire face a more lifted and youthful appearance.
If you want to treat your eyes to some extra radiance…
Try opting for a light-reflecting concealer. These contain special particles that reflect the light away, making your skin appear so much brighter and more radiant.
Slice Up a Cucumber
You have probably seen numerous images of people with cucumber slices over their eyes, claiming that this helps to reduce dark circles and puffiness.
Is this true?
It actually is!
Cucumbers contain a couple of different properties that enable them to have this effect…
Firstly, cucumbers are packed with antioxidants, some of which are especially beneficial for the skin around the eyes. Two nutrients in particular are vitamins C and K, both of which have been mentioned above as some of the best eye cream ingredients out there.
Cucumbers also have quite a cool temperature, and this can help significantly when it comes to minimizing dark circles.
For maximum benefits, make sure that your cucumber slices are as cold as possible. You may find it helpful to place the slices in the freezer for a few minutes to enhance this.
How do you actually use them?
Simply place a cucumber slice over each eye, and then lie back for between five and ten minutes. After this, remove the slices and rinse your face. You will likely notice a dramatic reduction in your dark circles.
Regularly Massage the Skin Around Your Eyes
As mentioned earlier, dark circles are often caused by poor circulation. This leads to blood pooling up underneath the eyes, giving off the illusion of dark circles.
Well, massaging the skin around your eyes is something that can really help with this.
How?
Because massaging boosts blood circulation, which then prevents it from pooling in your capillaries.
How should you be massaging the skin around your eyes?
You have a couple of options…
The first, and easiest, is to just use your fingers. Massage your skin gently in a circular motion, taking care not to tug or pull at your skin in any way.
Alternatively, you can purchase a special eye massager. Jade rollers are popular for this, because jade tends to retain a cooler temperature. This helps to constrict the blood vessels around the eyes, eliminating any dark circles.
Of course, you need to use some type of lubricant when massaging your skin, especially since the skin around the eyes is so fragile.
Almond oil is great for this. Not only does it contain vitamin A, which is ideal for renewing the skin and eliminating dark circles, but it also boasts anti-inflammatory compounds that will tackle any puffiness.
However, don’t go too crazy…
You only need to use a few drops of the oil. Anything more could lead to clogged pores and breakouts.
Try Some Other Cold Compresses
Cold tea bags and cucumber slices have already been mentioned, but what happens when you don’t have either of those ingredients to hand?
Well, pretty much anything cold will help, as the cool temperatures will constrict your blood vessels, therefore minimizing dark circles.
What else can you use?
Try one of the following:
- Metal easpoons that have been placed in the fridge for ten minutes
- Potato slices, which also contain a natural skin-lightening compound
- Any item from the freezer, wrapped in a cloth
Use a Red Lipstick Instead of a Color Corrector
Color correctors are great, but what if you don’t yet own one and need to hide your dark circles?
Well, chances are, you’ve got a red lipstick somewhere in your house…
You can simply use that instead!
It will work in a similar way to the color correctors mentioned above.
How do you actually apply it?
Dab a makeup brush onto your lipstick, and then use this to paint the lipstick in a semi-circle shape around the bottom of your eyes. Don’t worry if you look a bit like a racoon!
Once you’re done, take your concealer and apply this over the top of the lipstick, blending it all in. Not only will the lipstick fade seamlessly into your skin, but so will your dark circles!
Break Open an Aloe Vera Leaf
If you’ve got an aloe vera plant around, then the gel inside those leaves is exactly what you need to reduce your dark circles.
Don’t worry if you don’t have a plant – bottled aloe vera gel will work well for this too, as will eye care products that contain aloe vera extract.
How does aloe vera help with dark circles?
In a number of ways, such as:
- It contains anti-pigmentation properties
- It boosts blood circulation, preventing blood from pooling under your eyes
- It is a great source of skin-healing antioxidants
Try massaging the gel into your skin for added benefits.
Brighten Up
Adding touches of brightness to your face will help to draw the eye away from your dark circles, making them so much less noticeable.
Wondering how you would go about brightening up your face?
The easiest way is with the use of a highlighter.
Apply this to your face in the same way you usually would, focusing the product on the parts of your face that are naturally touched by the sun.
Don’t forget about dotting some highlighter into the inner corners of your eyes too, right beside the tear duct. This is usually the darkest and deepest part of a person’s eye, and brightening this area up can really transform how your eyes look.
You could also try applying some white or nude eyeliner to your waterline.
This will help to enlarge the appearance of your natural waterline, making your eyes appear larger, while also making the whites appear so much brighter.
All of these extra highlights will help to distract the eye from your dark circles.
Whether you need an instant fix or you have a few minutes to spare, each of these ten hacks are definitely worth trying. Don’t give up if something doesn’t immediately work for you either – dark circles can be caused by a variety of different factors, meaning that you may need to try a few different hacks before you find one that suits your skin.
