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Eye bags—i.e. those saggy pouches underneath your lower eyelid—are often mentioned in people’s top 10 concerns. We always notice issues around the eyes first, like dark circles or crow’s feet, because we’ve evolved to make eye contact—both with others and with ourselves in the mirror. So what can you do about under-eye bags? Read on to find out and scroll down for answers to all the FAQs about eye bags.
When we talk about ‘eye bags’ we mean puffiness and swelling around the eyes. Because the skin around your eyes is so thin and comparatively weak, the swelling is not only particularly visible but it also tends to hang in little pouches underneath the eyes.
Eye bags can generally be attributed to one of three things:
Yes. Eye bags are completely non-discriminatory, so there’s no dodging the draft with a Y-chromosome, I’m afraid.
As you’re probably aware, a whole host of restorative and regenerative processes take place throughout your body while you sleep. If you don’t get enough sleep, your body doesn’t have time to finish doing everything on its maintenance list, resulting in symptoms with which we’re all too familiar, such as dark circles under the eyes, pallid colour and general sluggishness. One of the things the body does while you sleep is to regulate hydration and water retention levels. However, without a good 7–9 hours of sleep, you’ll end up with unregulated hydration and water retention levels, which can result in fluid pooling around the body, including under the eyes.
Well, the thing that really gets rid of under-eye bags is a lower blepharoplasty, but what you’re talking about there is a surgical eye lift. That will remove any excess skin in the area, and smooth away eye bags by, if necessary, re-draping the fat pads under the eyes that are causing the bagginess. So it’s the most certain way of dealing with the issue and will give a very clear improvement but obviously it involves surgery, which is invasive and a good deal more expensive than non-surgical treatments, and requires two weeks’ recovery time afterwards.
This really depends on what kind of under-eye bags you have, although most non-surgical options focus on brightening the under-eye area to reduce the appearance of bags.
Polynucleotides – If its discolouration around the eyes that you are concerned about, these anti-inflammatory biostimulators are increasingly well-regarded for the treatment of dark circles. Brands such as Nucleofill and Pluryal Silk are injected very superficially around the target area, in a quick and relatively painless treatment that boosts both collagen and elastin, while enhancing hydration. The result is a brighter, firmer eye area without added any puffiness.
Mesotherapy – Another needling treatment focusing on brightening the under eye area, mesotherapy involves injecting a cocktail of ingredients into the skin. Light Eyes Ultra is one such example, especially designed for around the eyes, using a combination of hyaluronic acid, ruscosides, vitamin c and antioxidants to improve microcirculation, cutaneous elasticity and drainage in the periocular area. Your eyes will look brighter, firmer and smoother, giving you a refreshed and rejuvenated appearance.
Filler – Some practitioners can work wonders with under-eye fillers to reduce the appearance of baggy eyes but if you have a problem with fluid retention in the eye area, this isn’t the right treatment for you, as adding hyaluronic acid gel, which retains water, to the area will only make the problem worse. If you have eye bags of loose skin which hangs in what doctors describe as ‘festoons’, filler can’t help much either. So it is really important to find a good practitioner who can assess your particular eye bags and discuss what treatment might work best for you.
If your eye bags are of the puffy variety that are caused by fluid retention, there are a couple of things you can try. One is doing a light massage in the eye area—using the tips of your ring fingers so you don’t put too much pressure on this delicate area—to encourage blood circulation and lymphatic drainage. Follow these steps:
The other thing that’s well worth trying is applying something cold. Splashing your face with cold water may help, but even more effective is to chill a pair of metal teaspoons in the fridge, then, holding the backs of the bowl of the spoon lightly against your eye bags, roll the spoons gently from the inside to the outside of the bags.
Some people like to use a jade roller on puffy eye bags, to lightly flatten them. I prefer a battery-operated device with a vibrating metal T-bar head which seems to help a bit. I apply a serum then work the device gently across the eye bags for a few minutes, to encourage puffiness to disperse.
Using skincare that supports the skin in the eye area without irritating it is important. Make sure that the product you are using around your eyes does not contain fragrance, as this is the ingredient that most commonly irritates the skin, and any irritation around the eye can quickly lead to puffiness and eye bags.
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It depends how bad your under-eye bags are, but the only way to cover them is with a lightweight concealer. This will disguise any shadows and discolouration in the eye bags and may make them look a bit less obvious, but it won’t get rid of them.
Nothing gets rid of eye bags fast unless your eye bags are the result of a bit of temporary puffiness, say, from drinking too much alcohol the night before, in which case trying some of the home remedies I’ve described above may do the trick. There are some cosmetic products that reduce the appearance of eye bags by forming a film across the skin, which shrinks as it dries, and so can hold the skin in for a number of hours. The only one I have tried left my skin so sore when I took the product off that it gave me worse eye bags the next morning than I had started with the previous day, so I would advise caution if you are tempted to give these a go.
Living a healthy lifestyle – which includes getting enough sleep, eating plenty of vegetables, drinking lots of water, taking a reasonable amount of exercise — can help. So can using sunscreen every day, to reduce the speed at which the skin in the eye area becomes damaged and starts to sag. But if your genes have decided to give you eye bags, they will win, however much you try to stop them.
There are several serums designed for the eye area that contain retinol, which helps strengthen the skin. While this is a good approach, do start slowly with any retinol-based product as it’s strong stuff that the skin needs some time to get used to.
If you are allergic to any foods, then eating these may cause under-eye bags. Apart from this, alcohol is something that brings on puffy eye bags, the following morning, in many people. Monosodium glutamate (MSG), the flavour-enhancing additive, is another common culprit. For some people, high-salt foods prompt eye bags, too.
A dermatologist is likely to offer similar non-surgical tweakments to those mentioned above. They may also work on pinpointing any allergies that could be causing eye bags, and provide you with prescription medications to alleviate these.
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