How to Care for the Skin Around Your Eyes

We’re betting that the majority of times people make comments about you looking “tired” vs. “refreshed” has to do with the skin around your eyes. Dry, puffy, or dark undereyes can make even the most well-rested person look like something is off — and who is always well rested anyways? Fortunately, there are tons of products and tips you can implement in your skincare routine to help you care for the delicate skin around your eyes.

While caring for your under eyes might be easy to overlook, incorporating this into your holistic skincare ritual will lead to more beautiful and healthy skin for years to come. One of the things that make the skin around your eyes so different to care for than other areas of your face is its sensitivity. In fact, the skin around your eyes is about 10 times thinner than any other areas of your body. This is primarily because there’s less fat, oil glands, and collagen underneath the skin layers. And while that might sound great, it can lead to some skin problems that you won’t find anywhere else.

Unique challenges around your eyes

Besides being right next to your actual eye, there can be complications with caring for this area of your face. In addition to the challenges that don’t occur anywhere else, others might be relatively common in other spots but have unique causes or treatments when it happens around your eye.

Dry skin

One of those common symptoms is dry skin, which can often be caused by things like eczema, psoriasis, or seasonal changes. However, it could also be due to the lack of oil glands in this area of the face, as we mentioned earlier. What makes dry skin distinct when it occurs around the eyes is the possibility of interfering with your vision and finding a safe treatment in case it gets in your eye.

Puffiness

Puffiness is usually caused by an accumulation of fluid in the area beneath your eyes from lack of sleep, stress, dehydration, genetics, or a number of other factors. As we age, fatty tissue that protects the eye and eye socket can move forward and fill this area too, causing puffiness. It’s much more noticeable under your eyes because of the thinness of the skin, which shows changes in swelling and discoloration much more.

Dark circles

On the subject of discoloration, dark circles or hyperpigmentation can be caused by many of the same factors as puffiness. Genetics can play a role, but lack of sleep, dehydration, and aging are some of the top causes. The skin under your eyes has more pigment-producing melanocyte cells than the rest of the face, which can begin behaving irregularly with too much sun or UV exposure. This erratic behavior also leads to the hyperpigmentation or dark circles that we all dread.

First wrinkles

As a product of the unique characteristics of your skin here, it often shows the first fine lines and signs of aging. Being thin and lacking much fat or muscle underneath allows the skin to become looser, less elastic, and even thinner, visually aging the area more than the rest of your face. Adding on to these elements is that our face is one of the most active parts of our body. Facial expressions, talking, and eating all move and stretch your face, which causes fine lines to start developing earlier than other areas that aren’t moved around as frequently.

Makeup on top

Not only can the skin around your eyes have challenges of its own, but it can also cause issues for other things like putting your makeup on. Taking care of this area can not only make applying makeup easier and smoother, but also prevent further irritation from repeated use.

Use specialized treatments for this delicate area

This is where a dedicated treatment like an eye cream comes in to help you. Your regular exfoliator or moisturizer works great for the rest of your face, but you risk damaging the delicate skin around your eyes unless you use something formulated specifically for that area. Keep an eye out for ingredients like Peptides and Vitamins A, B, C, and E as these are incredibly helpful for combatting the challenges above.

What is eye cream?

An eye cream is developed specially for the delicate skin around your eyes. An effective eye cream will usually hydrate and moisturize the skin while reducing the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, puffiness, and dark circles. They typically have more oil than regular lotions or moisturizers (because of the skin’s lack of oil glands) and use different ingredients such as Caffeine or Peptides that target the unique problems that we’ve discussed.

The how, where, and when of applying eye cream

How

The key to applying eye cream, as with finding the right product, is to be gentle. We’ve stressed how sensitive and delicate this skin is, and using too much pressure can irritate or damage the skin. After washing your face and preparing your skincare layering ritual, wash your hands and use your ring finger to gently pat the cream onto your skin (rubbing can irritate the skin). You shouldn’t need more than a pea-sized amount for both eyes because eye creams are formulated to be very concentrated.

Where

We recommend putting the eye cream on the back of your hand and using it like a painting palette, dipping your finger into the cream and patting a crescent of dots under your eye. Once you’ve dotted under your eye, do the same in a line between the outside corner of your eye and your temple. This targets where crow’s feet and other wrinkles start to appear. Lastly, pat a semi-circle of dots under your brow line above your eyelids, using the orbital bone as a guide. 

When

This will depend from product to product but most eye creams are meant for morning and night use. However, if you only want to use it once per day, night is the better option. This is because your body and skin repair and regenerate while you sleep, so the eye cream can give it an extra boost. On the other hand, some eye creams have ingredients like Caffeine to brighten your skin and are better for use in the morning before putting on your concealer (letting the cream absorb for 90 seconds should do it).

Rejuvenate the skin around your eyes today

Taking care of this fragile and sensitive area can be difficult. Finding an effective product that has naturally-beneficial ingredients without harmful ones like parabens and sulfates doesn’t have to be difficult, though.

Our Eye Rejuvenating Elixir is exactly that. It has Peptides and vitamins from natural ingredients like Rose Water, Almond Oil, and Avocado Oil to provide clinically proven benefits for your skin. These include reducing the appearance of even fine lines and wrinkles, mitigating hyperpigmentation, reducing puffiness, and improving the elasticity and firmness of your skin. It’s also made without irritants, synthetic fragrances, and animal cruelty so you can feel as good as you look.

Try it by itself or with the full ritual set today.