photo: Kristin Cofer, Hair: Ericka Verrett, Makeup: Emily Hunt
Recently, one of my readers asked me how to get rid of her dark circles. While I could easily say to use a powerful concealer and leave it at that, I decided I wanted to go a step further. I needed to find out what caused these little buggers, and then use that information to formulate a multi-step frontal attack on them!
While poking around on Mayo Clinic’s website as well as darkcircles.net, I found many different causes for dark under eye circles. Heredity, allergies, lack of sleep, smoking, drinking, caffeine, sun exposure and broken down hemoglobin can all contribute to dark circles under the eyes. Upon discovering the many causes, I think we can all agree that all but two or three of those can be dealt with by puting a stop to some certain behaviors and habits. Heredity, allergies, and broken down hemoglobin is another story.
Unfortunately, our genes may leave us predisposed to many unpleasant inheritances, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t do things to alleviate the issues. If your mom or dad has dark circles, then chances are, you can send them a nice thank you note expressing your gratitude for the lovely facial feature. You can also do things like staying hydrated to making sure your skin functions at its optimum level. Keeping your skin’s moisture levels normal by using an eye cream like Olay Regenerist Eye Lifting Serum can keep the skin moist and full of vital nutrients. Take a multivitamin and make sure you eat lots of healthy fruits and veggies. Health and nutrition can help from the inside, while a good moisturizer can help from the outside. Like I said before, I did notice a big difference in dark circles when I used Chanel’s Sublimage Eye on my eyes, and though it costs an arm and a leg, it really did work.
Allergies can plague all of us, especially in Sacramento where the entire city sneezes all through the year. Though they may seem anavoidable, you can use over-the-counter and prescription allergy medications along with the suggestion above to counteract your body’s natural reaction to those pesky allergens.
Now, for the broken down hemoglobin. Your eyes have some of the thinnest skin on your body, and that skin is full of skin nourishing capillaries. These tiny blood vessels are so small that red blood cells sometimes have to line up single-file to get through. While looking at darkcircles.net, I found that sometimes blood cells get lost in the surrounding skin. While the body cleans this naturally, the remnants can leave behind dark circles. It makes sense that not getting enough sleep can sometimes make our dark circles appear worse. Think about it. Sleep is when your body repairs itself and gets ready to face the next day. If it doesn’t get the chance to recuperate, it won’t function as well, leaving you tired, groggy, and dark circle haunted! I would say that staying hydrated, getting sleep, moisturizing, eating healthy, and basically overall leading a healthy lifestyle is the best way to counteract this cause.
WebMD also lists many vitamins that are crucial to proper skin function. Vitamin C helps reverse sun damage caused by free radicals, along with vitamin E. Vitamin A is important for keeping your skin moist and collagen levels up. This is very important for dark circles, because we need collagen under our eyes to plump up that skin and keep those dark circles less noticeable. Vitamin A can be applied topically (in creams) to achieve healing results as well. Vitamin B, like biotin nourishes skin, makes it glow, and can improve aging. Biotin is the single most important B vitamin for skin. Vitamin K has been clinically proven, when applied topically, to reduce dark circles under the eye. When combined with vitamin A in a topical cream, it is even more effective. VivierSkin makes A/K capsules packed with vitamins A, K, C, and E to nourish and combat a slew of skincare dilemmas. VivierSkin can be found at www.dermstore.com.
Now that we have explored different ways to fight the circles internally and externally, lets talk concealer. I love Armani’s and Makeup Forever’s concealers. Benefit Cosmetics also has an under eye concealer that is specifically designed to eliminate dark circles, and while I haven’t personally tried it yet, it seems to get rave reviews. The Erase Paste can be purchased at Macy’s at the Benefit counter. Armani is sold at Nordstrom and Makeup Forever at Sephora. All of those stores are at Arden Fair, so you can try them all on one shopping trip!
The moral of this story is to take good care of yourself, and give your skin the nutrients it needs to function at its best. Hey, throw in a healthy dose of Omega-3 while you’re at it, and don’t forget to set that concealer with your favorite powder!
1 Comment
I have dark circles all day every day. Boo – genes. And allergies. And not enough sleep. Maybe I should take up smoking while I’m behind.