Dark Circles Under Eyes: Causes and Solutions for a Brighter Look

Advertised patches, face fitness, and even tea bags… What can you do when you’ve tried all methods, but dark circles under your eyes persist? In reality, the skin around your eyes isn’t just being “difficult,” but signaling potential health issues or an unhealthy lifestyle. We asked a cosmetic doctor about preventing dark circles under the eyes and a makeup artist about quickly concealing them.

Why Do Dark Circles Appear Under the Eyes?

The skin around the eyes is delicate and thin, often reflecting the body’s overall condition. Several factors can cause dark circles under the eyes:

Lack of sleep: This leads to pale skin and reduced blood flow. It also disrupts adrenal function, impairing vitamin and mineral absorption, which negatively affects the skin.
Poor nutrition: Reduce salt intake and increase greens and water consumption. It’s proven that eating salty foods at night guarantees dark circles and puffiness under the eyes in the morning!
Smoking and excessive alcohol consumption: These habits cause vascular problems throughout the body, making blood vessels more visible and bluish. Quitting these habits will benefit your eyes.
Stress and anxiety: These disrupt emotional well-being, sleep, and nutrition.
Internal organ diseases: Thyroid problems, kidney or liver diseases, cardiovascular issues, anemia, etc.
Allergies: A common cause of pale skin under the eyes. People with allergies often lack folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12, which negatively affects the skin.
Hard-to-eliminate causes: Genetics, sun exposure, skin thinning with age, hormonal fluctuations (during pregnancy, menstruation), and a thin body type.
Side effects of medications: Dark circles under the eyes usually disappear after stopping the medication.

How to Combat Dark Circles Under the Eyes?

Find the cause! The methods to combat dark circles under the eyes depend on this. Start with the following steps:

Adopt a healthy lifestyle: If dark circles are due to an unhealthy lifestyle, get 7-8 hours of sleep, eat well, and avoid smoking and alcohol.
Relax and rest: Exclude stressful situations from your life. Even a simple walk, massage, or meditation can help.
Get a medical check-up: If you have a healthy and long sleep, are not subject to stress, and lead a healthy lifestyle, the cause of dark circles under the eyes may be a disease. Only a doctor can determine the nature of the disease after a detailed examination. It could be an allergic reaction or vitamin deficiency, or more serious issues with the thyroid gland or cardiovascular system. Only after treatment can you get rid of dark circles under the eyes.

Tip: Remember to protect your eyes from the sun with UV-filter sunglasses.

How to Get Rid of Dark Circles Under the Eyes?

After finding the cause of dark circles and starting to combat them from within, you can use the following remedies to improve the skin’s condition externally:

Cold compress: This is a “first aid” for the eyes. It improves lymph drainage, moisturizes, and brightens the skin. You can use cucumber slices, tea bags (which contain tannin that brightens the skin), a cold spoon, or ice cubes wrapped in a cloth. Leave any of these options in the refrigerator overnight, apply to your eyes for 10-15 minutes in the morning, and you’re good to go!
Almond oil or any product with vitamin E: Apply it in the evening 30-60 minutes before bedtime.
Eye creams containing vitamin K, retinol, and vitamin C: This is perhaps one of the best combinations. There’s also a wonderful complex called Haloxyl, consisting of bioflavonoids and peptides. It positively affects the breakdown products of hemoglobin in tissues (bilirubin, biliverdin, iron), thereby brightening the skin. If the dark circles under the eyes have a greenish, yellowish, or brownish tint, look for a cream with this complex.
Professional cosmetic procedures: Microneedling (using a special device – a mesoroller), mesotherapy (using therapeutic cocktails injected under the skin), hardware techniques (laser, microcurrents), lipofilling (filling under-eye hollows with the patient’s own fat tissue).
Facial massage with periorbital zone work: This is an excellent procedure that increases blood flow and drains lymph.
Masks and patches for the eyes: These help when a quick moisturizing effect is needed.

Take care of the skin around your eyes – then your eyes will look rested and bright!

How to Conceal Dark Circles Under the Eyes?

If we’re talking about ordinary dark circles, it’s enough to choose the right concealing product for your skin – a corrector or concealer. As a rule, it should match your skin tone or be half a tone lighter. If the dark circle under the eye is too bright, only a highly pigmented concealer or corrector will mask it.

I would advise choosing a light but highly pigmented concealer and trying not to use a corrector under the eyes. Because it’s a fairly dense product that, although it will hide the bluish tint, will quickly roll into folds and lie heavily under the eyes.

What is a Concealer?

This is a product for local masking of skin problems: pigmentation, acne, scars, dark circles under the eyes. Concealer is applied with a brush or finger and gently “tapped” locally. It’s desirable to set it with powder so it doesn’t roll. Some concealers contain caring elements, thanks to which they additionally dry out pimples, brighten, and tighten the skin.

There are several types of concealers:

Pencil: Dense, ideal for local inflammations.
Liquid concealer with a brush: Perfect for masking circles under the eyes, choose a shade lighter than your skin tone.
Cream concealer: Maximally masks imperfections.

Choose a concealer individually. It all depends on how thin and dry the skin around the eyes is, whether there are deep folds/wrinkles, and how strong the pigment of the dark circle under the eye is.

How to Properly Conceal Bags Under the Eyes?

If we’re talking about so-called bags under the eyes, it’s better not to brighten them excessively. This mistake is made quite often! To maximally hide the problem, in the morning, do a light massage with ice cubes or use special eye patches. Then, apply foundation to the skin under the eyes and brighten the area under the bag with concealer. And you’re good to go!

For more information on eye health and skincare, visit the American Academy of Ophthalmology.