How to Get Rid of Under Eye Dark Circles

Daily Health Behaviors Causing Dark Skin

How to get rid of under eye dark circles starts with healthy lifestyle changes.  

• Fatigue: Extreme fatigue causes skin to become dull and pale, making the dark blood vessels and tissues under your skin more visible.
• Lack of Sleep: The lack of sleep can cause fluid to build up under our lower lids and create under eye dark circles. The fluid that accumulates there will make your eyes look puffy. The fluid accumulation eventually stretchs the skin to cause the bags that are both dark and create shadows.  Removing puffiness gets rid of under eye dark circles.
• Oversleeping is not healthy either. The thin under eye skin then is the most prone to looking dark!
• Eyestrain: Working long hours, reading small print, or hours on a screen puts strain on the network of blood vessels under your eyes. These blood vessels then swell with additional blood which makes the circles appear darker.
• Allergies: Allergic reactions and eye dryness can trigger dark circles. Allergic reactions result in a release of histamines. Histamines in turn trigger skin redness, swelling, and dilation of the blood vessels. Rubbing or scratching under eyes eventually breaks blood vessels sending blood seeping into the tissue and producing an undereye bruise.
  

   

  Other Causes of Darkening Undereye Skin
• Aging: Skin becomes thinner and loses some of the fat, as a result small blood capillaries become more noticeable under your eyes.
• Heredity: Dark circles under your eyes may run in your family, with darker more pigmented skin.
• Skin color irregularities: Some of us are born with naturally darker or lighter skin around their eyes due to variations in melanin production.  Resulting increased melanin production pigment that gives skin its color. Furthermore, melanin production is exaggerated by sun exposure. Decreasing local skin melanin is how to get rid of under eye dark circles. 

How to Treat Dark Circles Under Your Eyes

• Get more and restful sleep. 
• Elevate your head with more pillows at night.
• Applying a cold compress or chilled cucumber slices on your eyes for a few minutes at a time to constrict the blood vessels.
• Avoiding excessive sun exposure and wear sunscreen and sun protective sunglasses when outdoors.
• Drink plenty of water and minimize alcohol and caffeine to stay hydrated.
• Increase skin health by eating a more nutritional diet.
• Stop smoking, of any kind. 
• Relaxation, yoga, meditation and deep breathing will reduce strain, inflammation, and promote better circulation to brighten skin.
• Avoid triggering allergens and use antihistamines on a regular basis if you have allergies.
• Use medical grade eye creams or gels that contain brighteners and can firm, de-wrinkle, and smooth the skin so light is reflected away from your undereye circles. 

• Chemical peels: A chemical peel is a procedure that uses a mild acid solution to further remove the top layer of dead skin cells and reveal smoother and brighter skin underneath. It can also stimulate collagen production and reduce pigmentation. 
• Laser therapy: Laser therapy uses a focused beam of light directly targeting the pigmented or damaged skin cells and break them down eliminating dark circles. Lasers stimulate collagen production while tightening the skin.
• Botox: To smooth the lines around your eyes or filler to replace lost underlying tissue.
• Skin tightening treatments such as microneedling with or without PRP.