9 Ways You Can Get Rid Of Dark Circles Effectively

Who doesn’t love pandas? They’re cute, cuddly and have the most adorable eyes. However, the same cannot be said about our “Panda eyes” situation, especially during the party season. Under-eye dark circles make you look exhausted enough to seem like you’ve given up on beauty sleep altogether, even though that may not be true. Genes, ageing, dry skin, hyperpigmentation, working long hours in front of the computer, partying too much, inadequate sleep and/or poor diet are all potential causes for dark circles under your eyes.

Whatever the reasons, dark circles are distressing and need to be dealt with properly. You need to identify the cause and often make dramatic lifestyle changes. While you work on correcting your diet and sleeping pattern, here’s what you can do to minimise their appearance over time.

 

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1. Wear Sunscreen

We never tire of extolling the virtues of wearing sunscreen here at Hauterfly HQ. It is especially important that you don’t miss the under-eye region while putting on sunscreen, since the skin there is thinner and more delicate than the rest of your face. This makes it more susceptible to hyper-pigmentation due to sun exposure.

2. Use Retinoids in moderation

Retinoids are known to fade pigmentation marks and increase the skin’s ability to produce collagen. This helps in decreasing the appearance of dark circles over time. However, use it in moderation as it can irritate the skin and turn it red and flaky and that’s not the look you’re going after. Too much of a good thing and all that!

 

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3. Use Gentle Cleansers

Pick cleansing products that do a thorough job of cleaning your skin while being gentle not to strip it of essential facial oils. Let your make-up soak in the remover by placing it on your eyes for a few minutes before wiping it clean. Rubbing and tugging to get your eyeliner off will cause inflammation and capillary damage, which worsens the appearance of dark circles.

4. Cool It

Hot water and steam can emphasise the appearance of dark circles. This is precisely why you should keep teaspoons in the freezer and hold them against your eyes to counter under-eye bags.

 

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5. Use Brightening Eye Creams

Once you’re in your late 20s, it’s a good idea to invest in a good eye cream. Use creams that have active lightening ingredients like arbutin, kojic acid, licorice, vitamin C, etc. that help in lightening under-eye discolouration over time. We just wrote about a good quality, cooling eye serum recently.

6. Try Hyaluronic acid fillers

Sometimes you might not have dark circles, but the hollows under your eyes could be quite deep making it look like you have dark under-eyes. If the hollows cast shadows under your eyes, you should consider getting hyaluronic acid fillers, which make the lower lids look fuller and reduce the shadows.

 

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7. Use a colour corrector

Concealer can only conceal minor pigmentation. Pronounced dark circles need some colour correction before proceeding to conceal the area. Generally, dark circles tend to have a bluish or purplish tint, so orange or peachy colour correctors work very well in cancelling the tint before you proceed to apply the rest of your make-up.

8. Apply Thin Layers

The golden rule for make-up is to build on the layers little by little. The same goes for concealer. Apply it in really thin layers, concentrating on the darkest spots as you don’t want it to cake up the area. Draw an inverted triangle under your eyes with the concealer and blend it downwards. Secondly, DO NOT rub. Instead, pat it in gently.

 

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9. Curl Your Lashes

Don’t forget to curl your lashes. Curling your lashes upwards prevents them from casting a shadow around your under-eyes. What’s more, they open up your peepers, making you look wide awake and bright-eyed. Also, using a nude eye pencil along your waterline brightens the under eye area and makes dark circles less noticeable.