The skin under your eyes is the most delicate area of your body

but is also the one area that revels your age the most. Because of the skin under our eyes being thinner than other parts of our face and with consistent eye movement and blinking it is highly susceptible to forming excess wrinkles early on in life. Along with this, fluids gather under the eye holding toxins in it leading to puffiness and dark circles. One question I get asked a lot is to why you should use a separate eye cream to other face creams?

This is because the pores on the skin under eye skin are smaller so will need a cream with smaller molecules to penetrate through and be effective in the area. Your skin here is also much more prominent making the area seem rougher, and an optical illusion casts shadows forming deep, dark, unwanted craters.

So, eye creams are formulated to target these concerns

There are many reasons as to why dark circles happen; some stemming from hereditary gens but a lot of the time it’s from broken, interrupted sleep or eye strain from looking at computer screens for a long time. Certain eye creams and formulations target different or specific eye concerns. The most effective ingredient at targeting aging, dark circles and wrinkles is vitamin A also known as Retinol. Retinol stimulates cell turnover helping to strengthen skin and giving it a more youthful appearance.

As Retinol can make the skin more sun-sensitive and can be overly drying, just apply sparingly before bedtime only. If your finding that the skin around your eyes is looking like its loosing firmness and has a “crêpey” appearance, then you’re looking for an eye cream that has Vitamin C in it. Vitamin C stimulates collagen production so will be best to tighten the skin back up. Both of these vitamins are very active in the skin so I recommend applying them once a day (at night) as an over application can irritate the eyes.

As the skin around the eyes is thinner and more delicate its best to have its own stand alone “eye treatment”. In a standard facial the eye area is never really treated so I would always opt for adding an eye treatment to your facial. Having an eye treatment is very stimulating to the eye area and is the fastest way of getting rid of that tired, sleep deprived look. In doing an eye treatment it is very stimulating to the blood flow and capillaries in the areas around the eyes, helping to drain excess fluids, reduce sagging, tone and nourish new cell growth. It Speeds up lymphatic drainage to remove toxins and is relaxing the muscles that cause crow’s feet. I have been asked a lot on how to properly apply eye cream, so my top tips for you when applying eye cream are:

• Always gently pat/ dab product on
• Use your ring finger as it has the lightest touch
• Apply around the occipital bone (i.e. on the bone that forms the eye socket), never apply directly underneath the eyes as your product naturally seeps up. If its applied too close it will go into the eye and irritate them.
• Only ever use products designed specifically for the eye area.
• Don’t overload on product – use a small pea sized amount to dot around the occipital bone. Too much will clog up the pores around the eyes and lead to little congestion bumps.