How important is it to look after the skin around the eye area?

How important is it to look after the skin around the eye area? Very important, after all, this is the place where the signs of ageing first appear.

Thankfully, there are some great products on the market, but we took some advice from the Debrief about how taking time out to look after the area around our eyes should be number one priority – even if there are no fine lines there yet.

Why is it so important that we care for our under-eye area, even if we don’t have fine lines yet?

The skin around your eyes is on average around 0.5 mm thick, compared to an average of about 2mm thick on the rest of your body. This skin’s thinness means it’s very delicate, and is vulnerable to the effects of UV exposure, harsh chemicals, dehydration, allergies and sleep deprivation. Taking special care of the under eye skin helps to prevent accelerated aging and skin damage.

What’s the best way to prevent accelerated skin damage?

The best way is to drink plenty of water, get plenty of ‘beauty sleep’ and nourish your body well. You also need to protect your eyes from UV radiation by using sun protector and sunglasses, and by using an eye cream specifically designed to nourish and repair the delicate under eye area.

My under-eye area is always really puffy, even when it’s not morning. What’s the best way to combat this?

Puffy eyes can be due to a lot of factors, like fluid retention, irritation, a change in hormone levels, lack of sleep and changes in your diet. A great DIY remedy for puffy eyes is to use cold cucumber slices on the eyes for 15 minutes, followed by a great nourishing eye cream. The cold helps to reduce inflammation in the tissue, and the cucumber can provide a calming effect and reduce the swelling. You can also use eye creams to help gentle lymphatic drainage to the area by massaging gentle above and below the eyes from the centre out. This helps to encourage excess fluid to be redistributed from the eye out.