You can claim you don’t have baggage, but those suitcases under your eyes tell a different story.
Puffy bags under the eyes aren’t sexy. They make you look tired, older than you are, and in some cases, actually sick. You need a solution that works, and we’ve got one. What you need is a killer eye cream.
We get it, there’s a stigma. Eye creams remind you of your mom or grandma getting ready for bed. You picture thick, goopy lotion under the eyes and think it’s not for you. Trust us, if you want to have healthier-looking skin under your eyes, you need an eye cream asap.
Lucky for you your friends at Disco have your back. We know how to help you figure out what’s causing your puffy eyes and how to get rid of them (hint: no goopy lotion required). Go grab some ice packs for those under-eye sacks and keep reading.
What’s Causing Bags and Puffiness Under My Eyes?
Maybe it’s genetics. Maybe it’s stress. Maybe it’s because you don’t sleep enough, don’t take care of yourself, and don’t use eye cream.
Bottom line, there are a number of reasons why you can experience puffy eyes. From smoking, drinking a little too much, to just genetics, the cause of bags under your eyes can be hard to pinpoint. Here are a few of the main reasons you might experience them from time to time.
Too Many Late Nights
You can only burn the midnight oil for so long before it starts to catch up with you. You don’t necessarily need a full eight hours of sleep, but you might. It really depends on your activity level, age, and your own body chemistry.
You should aim to get somewhere between seven to nine hours as a general rule. You’ll need more or less, but as long as you’re getting what your body needs, you’ll see fewer bags.
You develop bags under your eyes from lack of sleep because your blood vessels dilate when you don’t get enough restorative rest. When this happens, blood pools under your eyes causing puffiness.
If you sleep on your stomach, you’ll also increase the chances of waking up to puffy eyes. Fluid will naturally collect in your eye area from sleeping face down.
Age
Aging has its perks (you no longer need to donate your plasma to pay rent), but one of them is not bags under the eyes. As you get older, the tissues under your eyes begin to stretch and weaken, making it easier for blood and fluid to collect in those pockets.
As the tissue around your eyes weakens, it can cause fat that is normally held immediately under your eye socket to drift down into those pockets, creating puffiness. Once these pockets appear, it’s essential you’re using a daily eye cream to help tighten and restore the skin area.
Salt
Sodium makes you retain water, and if you eat a particularly salty meal before bed (or, you know, at 2:00 a.m.) you’re going to wake up with puffy eyes. While this normally goes away on its own in a matter of hours, it can still be annoying and make your entire face look swollen.
Most of us eat more salt than we think. If you think salt is the trigger for you, cut back. You’ll likely find you wake up less puffy (and maybe shed a few extra pounds).
Allergies
What comes before Festival Season? Pollen Season! If you have allergies, you’re going to spend a few months with puffy eyes unless you stay indoors or do something proactive to mitigate the under-eye damage, like using an eye cream. We recommend the latter. If allergies are really bothering you, go see a doc, man.
5 Best Eye Creams for Bags and Puffiness
You’ve got them and you need them gone. We get it. When you begin looking for an eye cream to help de-puff and get rid of bags, you should focus on ingredients that are proven baggage unpacking heroes.
Here are our top five favorites.
1. Caffeine
Your puffy eyes need caffeine just like your sluggish body in the mornings. Caffeine applied topically helps to reduce the appearance of bags under the eyes. It helps to firm, tighten, and deflate your eye area in a matter of minutes.
Caffeine is also a powerful antioxidant (which means it helps you fight off free radicals from the sun, cigarette smoke, pollution, and a host of other external stressors). If the skin around your eyes is feeling irritated, caffeine helps soothe it so it’s more relaxed.
2. The Mighty Pine
There’s nothing more rugged than heading into nature, ax in hand, to fell a tree. We’re sure that would make you feel accomplished, but if you really just need to tame your under-eye bags you could just use pine tree extract and avoid potentially ruining your favorite flannel.
Pycnogenol is an extract that comes from the French maritime pine tree. It helps neutralize oxidative stress (read: protect your cells against damage) and helps deflate puffy eyes.
As a bonus, pycnogenol also helps erase dark circles, so if you wake up with the double whammy (puff and dark circles) this ingredient can fix it fast.
3. Niacinamide
It’s just a vitamin, bro. Niacinamide is a form of vitamin B3, which helps by visibly diminishing and erasing the appearance of fine lines (aka crow’s feet) and wrinkles. It’s also expert at evening out skin tone, so it’s great for dark circles under your eyes.
Niacinamide is a great wingman ingredient in any eye cream, because of its anti-aging properties. Even if you don’t think you need anti-aging products, you do. It’s never too early to start. Your future profile pictures will thank you.
4. Witch Hazel
One of the best “old school” remedies for depuffing the eye area is witch hazel. Witch hazel is a plant-based extract that has astringent-like properties. Astringents help shrink and tighten, which is why they’re often used on the skin, to shrink and tighten pores.
When applied underneath the eyes, witch hazel helps to shrink and tighten loose skin which can make the under-eye area look less puffy.
5. Eucalyptus Oil
One of the reasons your eyes may look rough is because they are. In other words, the skin around your eyes is dry and dehydrated. It can make fine lines and wrinkles more prominent and can cause your skin to be flaky and peel. Not a great combination if you’re also dealing with under-eye swelling.
Eucalyptus oil is a gentle yet powerful moisturizer because it helps the skin hydrate itself. Eucalyptus oil increases your skin’s ceramide levels. Ceramides are fatty lipids found in the uppermost layer of your skin. These lipids help your skin retain water and keep it hydrated.
By increasing your skin’s ability to hydrate properly, you’ll notice fewer fine lines and wrinkles and an overall better appearance in the skin surrounding your eyes.
Where to Buy
You could buy a couple of different eye creams to get the ingredients you want, or you could get them all in one awesome product. Disco’s Repairing Eye Stick contains all the best puff-fighting ingredients, plus a few others to help enhance the look of your entire eye area.
Our eye stick rolls on easily and instantly reduces the puffiness you’re experiencing while helping add moisture and hydration to your eyes and keep fine lines and wrinkles from forming.
You can use it in the morning, evening, and stash it in your pocket during the day as needed.
The best way to get the most benefit from our eye stick is to use it along with a good skincare routine. Don’t have one? You’ve gotta catch up. Taking care of your skin is definitely on-trend, and Disco’s got everything you need to get started and begin a skincare routine that helps keep you looking as good as possible
Let’s Disco
You could shop for skincare elsewhere, but you’ll probably end up with skincare that has been formulated for women. Disco’s skincare was developed for men’s skin, which is naturally tougher and thicker than women’s skin (mostly because of its ability to grow facial hair).
Disco’s skincare is designed to help your skin keep its perfect pH balance. Our ingredients are specifically selected to keep your skin in a healthy range with vegan, all-natural ingredients that won’t harm or irritate your skin.
Give your bags the boot and load up on Disco’s restorative eye repairing stick. Seriously, go order it right now, your eyes look like a hungover raccoon.
Sources:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/bags-under-eyes/symptoms-causes/syc-20369927
