How To Cover Dark Circles And Under Eye Bags – With & Without Makeup

‘The bags under my eye are Gucci”… I say this to myself often (as consolation for days where I just have to deal with the undereye circles and bags as they are. Some days, however, I don’t want to embrace it. As someone who is always on the lookout for makeup hacks to make life easier,  I had to find and try out different ways to cover my dark circles and under eye bags. Luckily, I was able to figure out methods that work with and without makeup and I would be sharing them in this post.

Causes Of Dark Circles And Undereye Bags

Dark circles under the eyes can be hereditary, they can also be caused by lack of sleep, oversleeping, sun exposure, eye strain, age and dehydration. A Doctor, Dr Dendy Engelman, said “dark circles can be as the result of blood vessels under the eye that are swollen or not draining properly. The thin skin of the eyelid is translucent in many individuals and therefore it easily reveals the underlying vessels below”

How To Reduce Dark Circles And Under Eye Bags Without Makeup

1. Sleep Some More

It may or may not be easy for you to deliberately sleep but since sleep deprivation can cause dark circles and undereye bags, getting extra sleep can help reduce it. Try to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep every night.

2. Make Use Of Frozen Tea Bags

Soak two bags of tea ( green or black) in hot water for five minutes, bring it out and keep in the freezer for about 20 minutes then put it on your closed eyes for 15-20 minutes. Rinse your eyes afterwards. Now let me tell you why this works. Tea has been found to be able to help reduce eye bags by inducing vasoconstriction. Caffeine and antioxidants contained in tea in stimulating blood circulation, shrinks the blood vessels and reduces retention of liquid beneath the skin.

3. Sleep With Your Head Raised A Little

Asides sleep deprivation, your sleeping position also plays a role in eye bags formation. Sleeping with your head slightly raised can help prevent fluids from building up in your eye area thus preventing eyebags

4. Make Use Of A Cold Compress

Applying a cold compress on your eye area can reduce the puffy appearance of your eye bags by shrinking the dilated vessels. To do this, wrap few ice cubes in a towel and place on your eyes. Alternatively, you can soak a towel in cold water and place on your eye area for about 20 minutes. When the cloth becomes warm repeat the process.

Other ways to have a cooling effect on your eyes include:

• keeping your eye cream in the fridge
• keeping your sleep mask in the fridge during the day and wearing it at night

5. Reduce salt intake in your diet

Consuming less salt will reduce the puffiness under the eyes. The reason is this, body fluid retention is increased when you consume too much salt. Remember that eyebags is simply as a result of too much fluid build up underneath the eyes.

How To Reduce Dark Circles And Under Eye Bags With Makeup

Step 1: wash your face and dry it with a clean towel

Step 2: Apply your moisturizer all over your face. Then dab extra moisturizer or eye cream underneath your eyes.

Step 3: Color correct. This is basically using a colour corrector to even out the discolouration and create a fresh even complexion for your foundation. An orange colour corrector works well for this purpose although in some cases a purple, yellow or green corrector can be used depending on the colour of your dark circles and your skin colour. If you have fair skin, a peach or apricot concealer can be used counteract the blue tones prevalent in most under eye circles. Medium to darker skin tones can make use of orange concealer or red but be careful not to overdo it.

In some cases, using only a concealer can help to cover the discolouration but when only concealer fails try colour correcting.

My holy rail colour corrector is LA Girl orange corrector concealer and my favourite concealer at the moment is Zaron cosmetics concealer. 

Step 4: Apply your foundation

Step 5: Apply concealer in an upside-down triangle way to brighten up your entire eye area. It is preferable to blend the concealer with a beauty blender.

Doing all these will reduce the appearance of your dark circle if not totally cover it up.

Try it and let me know if it works for you.

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