A friend recently reached out to me asking me about whether she should purchase a cult eye-cream that’s been on the circuit since my youtube skincare tutorial/haul binge watching days. Somewhere along my skin care journey, (and after trying this particular brand for a good while) I opted out of ‘conventional’ skincare advice and product purchasing in favour of a more low-maintenance, low cost and natural routine that has helped do wonders for my skin care journey. So, today, we’re de-mystifying the information on dark circles and eye-bags as part of the anti-aging process and presenting an alternative.

Whether you’re happy with your under-eyes or not, with the barrage of anti-ageing propaganda in our beauty industry it’s unlikely you’ll have missed the shooting arrow of fear aimed at the female ageing process.

Let me first preface this article by saying that it’s not enough to say that the ageing process is a normal part of life and nothing to be feared but instead embraced, that you’re beautiful no matter what you look like or how you age because the cliches are true and beauty is always and will always be skin deep, but that it is categorically and unequivocally an invention by the money makers – part of a vicious cycle to make women feel less-than enough in the pursuit of male attention, or the object of admiration in ‘elite female’ friendship groups.

Best you can try not to fall into this trap. Outside of those factors, it’s very normal to have a sudden self-awareness of your mortality when you see a little wrinkle or a little sag under your eyes – and that’s all they are, an indication of the bigger picture of life. When you grow fond of your youth, or your face at a certain stage in your life, or when something changes, it’s normal to be a bit fearful. The idea with looking after your skin is that you don’t try to prevent it from doing what it’s supposed to do, but instead, look after what you’ve got the way it should be, the way you’d look after your lungs, or your heart or any other organ in your body – the skin is your biggest organ and needs looking after too.

So, with that – here’s one myth-buster about your anti-aging under-eye care and what you can do instead:

EYE CREAMS ARE YOUR SAVING GRACE 

You’ll hear about ladies who wished they’d used eye creams in their 20s so that their bags didn’t sag the way they do now. Or you’ll hear about how Jennifer Anniston has been using one since she was 16 and that’s why she looks as drop dead gorgeous as she does ‘for her age’ now. They’ll say that eye creams are extra thick moisturisers intended for the thinnest part of your face – under your eyes. Yes, the skin under your eyes is the thinnest skin on your face, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to fork out an extra £40 on WHIPPED AVOCADO CREAM with no real avocados in it when you can most definitely do that yourself, and better. Promise <3

There’s no denying that if you look after your skin the way an organ should be looked after it’ll look great – especially relative to people who aren’t looking after theirs (stresses of daily life, smoking/drinking/bad eating habits, not sleeping, dragging their skin).

In order to do that you need the following:

• Good, and consistent sleeping habits. 8 hours is the benchmark for many, the rule of thumb is, sleep as much as your body needs, but that could look like 3 naps a day to some people and a 4-hour stint at night. You know you best – so find out what works, but do not deprive yourself of sleep if you want good skin.
• Yes, I know, I’m sorry but I have to say it – drink your water. Good and consistent (note the pattern here) drinking of good quality water will keep the blood and lymphatic system in your body moving along nicely – there’s a reason people say this is the key to good skin, everything that’s going on underneath is what really effects your skin behaviours.
• Topical treatments – we’re talking natural ingredients only!! Skincare brands are especially formulated so that organic ingredients are more readily absorbed by your skin – okay cool, fine. But they also flood them with a bunch of chemicals to make them more palatable. The ladies of our earlier generations would swear by natural ingredients and recipe’s but these are lost on many now – they may be more a bit more work to conjure up but in reality – they’re the source of all your current skin care wonder vials! Vitamin K, B, C, Caffeine and good natural moisturisers and oils with the same properties, like Avocados, Shea Butter, Oats, Rose-hip Oil,  tomatoes, the list goes on.
• I’ll say the same for your diet. If you’re having cruciferous vegetables every day, you green every day, you’re getting the Vitamin K that you need to keep those blood vessels restricted under your eye, lessening the chances of them showing up as those ‘shadows’ or ‘dark circles’.
• Massaging is a saving grace for your entire face, not just under your eyes. The idea is to keep your blood flowing. Safe, facial massage tutorials are available everywhere, and the use of jade rollers are a beautiful aide to this process.