They say our eyes are the windows to our souls. But we say our eyes give away our deepest, darkest secrets, like late nights out or inadequate eye care. Whether you’ve been neglecting proper skincare for the delicate skin around your eyes or simply staying up too often to binge-watch Netflix and scroll through your Instagram feed, the signs of ageing show up first around the eyes. This is because the skin around our eyes are up to six times thinner than the skin on our face. Plus, there are a lot less sebum glands in this area so it is unable to moisturise itself as well as the rest of our face. As a result, any visible signs like wrinkles, poor circulation and puffiness become most obvious around the eyes.
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While we know that dehydration and repeated expressions can cause wrinkles to appear and deepen, what exactly causes puffiness? Allergies aside, there are several other lifestyle factors that can lead to puffy eyes. For example, you might notice puffiness the morning after you’ve had a salt-laden meal. This is because when your body’s salt level rises, it reacts by retaining more water, which can be seen as puffiness. Similarly, if you’ve had a bad night’s rest, your body essentially goes through the thing as if it were under stress. This means that a hormone called cortisol is elevated in your body, which disrupts the way your body balances salt levels, and in turn, affects the way your body retains water.
In addition, if you’ve had one too many cocktails during happy hour, chances are, your body’s water level is thrown out of balance, which leads it to hold on to as much moisture as it can, and eventually results in puffiness. And since the skin around our eyes are thinner as mentioned, puffiness is most visible around this area.
To alleviate this problem, you should increase your intake of water immediately. When you introduce more water to your body, it restores your body’s original salt-water ratio so it doesn’t hold on to water at all the wrong places like your face and especially around your eyes. Of course, you can also improve signs of puffiness from topical products like some eye creams which have been specifically formulated to combat puffy eyes.
Most importantly, look out for eye creams that help with reducing any congestion around the eyes. Some of the most common ingredients that do so include caffeine, aloe and green tea. You should also try gel-textured eye products as they provide skin with a cooling sensation and that usually helps to depuff the area. Many eye creams also come with a metal applicator or roller ball so you can easily perform a DIY eye massage to reduce puffiness. You should also look out for eye creams that contain skin-strengthening ingredients like peptides and hyaluronic acid as they help improve skin density and resilience for firmer eye contours to help diminish the appearance of puffiness.