Dark circles can be quite bothersome. These are accompanied by under-eye bags that are darker in color than the rest of your skin.
They instantly make you look older than your age and give you panda eyes.
A makeup concealer is a good way to hide them in your face but that is not a definite solution.
This article discusses how do you get them and what you can do to make your eyes and face look vibrant and beautiful.
Why Do You Have Dark Circles?
The skin under your eyes is known as the periorbital skin. The thickness of the skin in your body is 2mm while the periorbital skin is just 0.5mm thick.
Hence, it is much thinner than the skin on the rest of your body, so is it delicate.
Hence, it can darken easily than the rest of your skin and more melanin production in that area can lead to periorbital hyperpigmentation.
Also, if you get a lot of sun exposure then your body produces more melanin. This darkens the area beneath your eyes and the surrounding ones.
One of the common reasons to have dark under eyes is fatigue.
If you are severely fatigued and tired then you are likely to develop these.
This is because a lack of sleep can result in your skin becoming paler, allowing the dark tissues and blood vessels to become more apparent.
Sleep deprivation is not the only reason behind fatigue and tiredness. Oversleeping and overworking can cause it too.
Age is another big factor you will notice is that people older than you have darker under eyes in comparison.
As you get older, you lose fatty tissue and collagen. Hence, your already thin skin under the eye becomes much more thinner and loses elasticity.
Therefore, you can see darker blood vessels under the eyes clearly.
You can also get them if your intake of water is very less. This will result in dehydration which will make your eyes look sunken and cause your under-eye skin to look dull.
Your genetics also play a part in darkening skin under the eyes. An inherited trait may decrease over time or even get darker as you age. Furthermore, genetic predisposition to certain diseases like thyroid can also cause them since a young age.
Other Significant Causes
If these are not the reasons behind your eye bags then others include:
- Dryness in the Eyes and Reaction
An allergic reaction can cause your eyes to become dry. In an allergic reaction such as hay fever, your body will first try to counteract it naturally by releasing histamines.
This histamine induces redness and puffy eyes. It also causes itchiness. Moreover, it dilates the blood vessels under the eyes which makes them more apparent.
In fact, the dryness can cause you to rub your eyes intensely. This casts dark shadows under the eyes and also worsens the condition causing inflammation and swelling.
- Blood Vessels Enlarge Because of Eye Strain
If you keep looking at the laptop screen for long hours or fixate your eyes on anything else such as books then you will cause a strain on your eyes.
This results in the enlargement and dilation of blood vessels near your eyes hence they become more visible.
Your under-eye skin can also darken from constantly rubbing your eyes, skin diseases such as eczema, a deficiency of iron resulting in anemia, smoking and through some treatments.
Also, there are more common in people with a non-white ethnicity who have darker skin tones. This can be a result of different pigments in the skin.
Moreover, your increasing age and hereditary factors that can pass onto generations are other risk factors that can lead to under-eye bags and circles.
Now that you know the reasons behind your dark under-eyes, let’s find out how you can treat them.
Medical Treatments
You can treat your circles under the eyes with home remedies and lifestyle changes but if they are persistent enough, then you can directly take medical treatments for it.
These cosmetic and medical procedures include:
Injecting Fillers
Volume loss is a reason behind your under-eye bags and circles. Your doctor can inject fillers inside your under-eye tissue to repair this volume loss. This will brighten up the area.
Topical Creams, Serums and Acids
Topical Skin brightening creams contain hydroquinone, Azelaic acid, tretinoin and Kojic acid.
Kojic acid is known to treat darkness and pigmentation in the body. Similarly Azelaic Acid also fights pigmentation beneath the eye.
Hydroquinone and tretinoin are bleaching agents that lighten skin color. After regular use of 3 months, you will begin to see changes.
Furthermore, Vitamin C Serums and creams can also help lighten and brighten the area under the eye.
Using Laser Therapy
The laser can vaporize and cells that are damaged. It can stimulate collagen production which can renew the skin, resurface and increase tightening under the eye and brighten it.
Diode lasers and other less invasive treatments can limit the risk of scarring in that sensitive skin area.
Fat Removal or Implants
You can get a lid blepharoplasty in your lower lid. This surgical procedure can help remove excess amounts of fat near your under-eye area.
This reduces eyelid shadow cast hence, also decreases the visibility of the dark circles under-eye.
Furthermore, this removal will give a rather smoother-looking under-eye area.
Though, this reverse can also help. Fat surgical implants and those of other synthetic products can decrease the darkness.
Chemical Peels
These can exfoliate your skin and brighten it removing dead cells.
Light chemical peels with glycolic acid and hydroquinone can lightens dark hyperpigmentation and reduce the appearance of your under-eye bags and circles.
While these medical procedures are effective, you should first aim to lighten your under-eye circles using home remedies regularly. Keep reading to know about them!
How To Remove Dark Circles At Home Naturally?
Tea contains caffeine which is an antioxidant and is anti-inflammatory. This also helps to increase the blood flow in that area.
As a result puffiness decreases and the area brightens. You can use these by boiling two tea bags in water. Then take them out and cool these tea bags in the refrigerator.
After they have cooled down, put each on one eye. You can use any type of tea bag, green tea is a popular choice but black and herbal teas are fine too.
- Use a Cold Compress for Dark Circles
You can make a cold compress by washing cloth in cold water or wrapping ice in a cloth.
Moreover, you can also freeze steel spoons and apply them to your eyes. You can apply all of these to your eyes for 20 minutes.
This helps to shrink the dilated and enlarged blood vessels. Hence, as a result, the puffiness decreases so does the swelling. Therefore, the under-eye circles become less apparent.
Sleep deprivation and fatigue deriving from that are one of the common causes of under-eye circles and bags.
Hence, if you are in a routine where you are constantly under-sleeping then it is high time that you adjust your sleeping habits.
Make sure that you get good enough sleep of at least 8 hours a day. Turn off your phone an hour before you sleep.
Moreover, raise your head by using extra pillows. This helps to prevent fluids from building up in your area under the eyes. Hence, this elevation helps to reduce puffiness.
- Use a Sunscreen and Reduce Sun Exposure
The darkness may be due to hyperpigmentation. Hence, try to avoid the sun to decrease excess melanin production.
Use a broad spectrum sunscreen for face when you are outdoors but overall try to limit outdoor activities.
Other Home Remedies
Eye creams and moisturizers containing caffeine, retinol and hyaluronic acid can help decrease puffy eyes and circles over time.
Similarly, you can also look for natural oils and vitamins. A combination of almond oil and vitamin E or caffeine and Vitamin K can brighten the skin.
Massage the mixture in the under-eye area during the during and leave it overnight. Wash it, the next morning with cold water. You will see a significant decrease in not only the darkness but also puffiness and wrinkle depth.
An old method is to use cucumbers. Chill the cucumbers in the fridge and then cut thin slices.
Place the slices on your eyes for at least 10 minutes for it to have any effect. Clean it with water and then repeat it at least one more time in the rest of the day.
Potato is another vegetable that contains Vitamin C hence it helps to produce more collagen and has antioxidant properties.
Extract potato juice by grating them and apply it to your under-eye area using cotton pads. Let them stay on for 10 minutes.
You can also include foods such as dark chocolate and salmon in your diet. Dark chocolate contains flavonol which protects you from UV radiation hence decreases signs of aging.
Salmon contains Omega-three fatty acids that can increase blood flow in your body. This promotes the blood to flow across the whole body rather than pooling in the under-eye area.
Similarly getting facials can also help increase the blood flow and circulation in your body through massaging that area.
Summing Up
There is no best treatment for Dark Circles. Some of these may work for you, while others may not.
This depends on reasons behind your under-eye bags and circles.
Though begin by getting adequate sleep and adopting a healthy lifestyle maintaining a good diet and sleeping habits.
