How to Care For Skin Around the Eyes

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It is very challenging for me to go out in the blazing sun. Or extreme cold, for that matter. Or whenever it is humid. Well, pretty much throughout the year. I blame my sensitive skin for that. My skin around the eyes, in particular, is very reactive to strong UV radiation. It starts to flare up if I don’t take care of it daily. You should know how to care for skin around the eyes because it can end up being very annoying.

The very first rule of caring for the skin around your eyes is to understand that it is different from the rest of the face. The skin around our eyes is very delicate. It is comparatively thinner and demands care. As quoted from an article at Heathline: Your eyes work a lot throughout the day, from blinking to expressing your emotions, this alone can cause premature aging.

What can damage the skin around your eyes?

There are many factors that can damage the skin around your eyes. Your skin may develop wrinkles, dark circles and puffiness around them in this case. These factors include:

Prolonged exposure to the sun
Genetic factors
Dehydration
Lack of sleep
Deep bone structure
Depleted collagen
Pollution and smoking
Fluid Retention
Allergies and make-up
Rubbing and scratching
Waxing
Age

Prolonged Exposure to the Sun:

Direct sunlight has many harmful UV radiations. It damages the skin cells without any skin protection. We have all heard about protecting our skin with sunscreens and sunblocks. However, if you notice, you will put sunscreen on your face, but nothing for your eyes. When you are protecting the rest of your face from harmful radiation, protect your eyes as well. There are special eye balms, eye moisturizers available that you can use.

Genetic Factors:

Puffiness around the eyes and dark circles may be among the features that you inherit from parents. If this is the case, it is difficult to take care of your skin around the eyes. You will need special, medicated creams, preferably with retinols and antioxidant vitamins. This will help prevent your skin from getting damaged by the sunlight as well as lighten the dark circles around your eyes.

Dehydration and Diet:

Dehydration is one of the most obvious causes of dryness and dark circles around your eyes. Stay hydrated. Hydration is not only good for your skin but also good in all other aspects of your health. Eat healthy foods and lead a healthy life.

Lack of Sleep:

Lack of sleep is the second most obvious cause of bad skin around the eyes. Fatigue, restlessness, anxiety and lack of sleep can promote dark circles, wrinkles and puffiness around your eyes.

Deep Bone Structure:

Deep bone structures can cause shadowing around the eyes creating dark areas.

Depleted Collagen:

Collagen plays a very important role in making the skin elastic. Other than that, it also gives a youthful glow to the skin.

Pollution and Smoking:

Pollution and smoking are causes of damaged skin, not just around the eyes, but the rest of the face too. There are many irritants in pollutants and chemicals in cigarettes. They can deteriorate the skin’s cells and cause microvessels in the skin around the eyes to burst. This creates further dark circles and wrinkles.

Fluid Retention:

If you ate something with a high salt content or drank a lot of alcohol, there might be puffiness around your eyes due to fluid retention.

Allergies and Make-Up:

Certain make-up and allergies can irritate the delicate skin around the eyes. When you are removing your make-up, make sure to remove it gently from your eyes using a Q-tip or cotton ball soaked in some moisturizer. Rubbing and forcing it in a bad direction will cause wrinkles, dark circles and puffiness.

Same goes for inserting and removing contact lenses from the eyes. It is possible that you touched your eyes roughly or pulled at them more than you should.

Rubbing and Scratching:

Rubbing and scratching will always cause damage to your eyes and your skin. It causes further irritation.

Waxing:

Using wax for your facial hair and eyebrows can damage the skin around your eyes due to the forceful pulling of the skin. Waxing is very harsh, stay away from it if possible.

Age:

Age is a natural, inevitable factor for the skin around the eyes to deteriorate. The cells lose their ability to regenerate. It is also difficult to reverse the damage at an older age.

How to Care for Skin Around the Eyes?

As highlighted above, there are many available creams, medicines, sunscreens, and eye balms that you can use. There are also things you can do. For instance, do not scratch or rub your eyes. You can also take care of your skin daily. Cucumber slices and chilled teabags are perfect ways to exfoliate the skin. They will give a fresh look on your face.

If your lifestyle involves smoking and alcohol consumption, reduce both of them.

Moisturize. This goes for all the skin. If you are using creams for your eyes, make sure they are rich in cholesterol, retinols, vitamin K.

Always touch the skin around your eyes gently. Eat healthy foods and drink plenty of water.

If there is puffiness around the eyes after you wake up, massage the area for a minute or two very gently.

Avoid direct sunlight on your eyes. Wear sunglasses, always wear sunlight protection and a good sunscreen.

These tips helped me improve the skin around my eyes. I hope it works wonders for you too! If you have any queries regarding skin around your eyes, be it flakiness or flaring up of skin, you can ask a question from our doctors directly on Marham forum.

Image by Obsessive Potato.