What causes dark circles under your eyes?

Hey Everyone,

Just wondering, can anybody tell me if there are other causes besides sleep deprivation (oh and getting smacked) for those dark circles under your eyes? Can vitamins and minerals be of some help with it? Thanks! :smiley:

Alergies. Lack of sleep. Genetics (this is the biggest one).

Diet can be helpful - if you’re anaemic you can develop dark circles - get your iron checked by your Dr. In fact, while you’re at it, get a complete physical to make sure you’re healthy.

Then, assuming you are, and assuming you get enough sleep, don’t go on nightly benders, and aren’t in the throw of a hard core alergy attack, there are topical products that will help.

Vichy Thermal S Yeux is a good one. It will also help with puffyness.

What’s the proximate, not ultimate cause–accumulated dead blood cells, or something?

anemia will do it
Eat more red meat!

Nope - thin skin - it lets the blood vessels show through. If everyone had thin eye skin will little or no eye fat, everyone would have dark circles, regardless of health.

(Assuming you’re not anaemic or have some other cause.)

Forget the why of it and give us the names of some good concealers!

I get them during and after exercising. Quite the attractive look, dripping with sweat with dark haunted looking circles under the eyes…

Hoo K - well, it depends how artful you are with your cosmetics.

The best thing for purple undereye bags is a yellow concealer - the two colours will cancel each other out. The a beige concealer, about 1/2 shade lighter than your skin tone (no lighter - you’ll wind up with white bags instead of dark ones) dabbed on top will do the trick.

You have to be artful here - you can’t just slap it on and go - it will look like you got punched in the eye (imagine - purple eye bag mixed with yellow concealer - 3 day old bruise).

For a quick fix, I would suggest the aforementioned Vichy Thermal S Yeux - freshen your face (with water, or a facial spritz) and then dab a bit on. By the time you’ve changed into your street shoes the bags will have dimished. Ditto if you get an alergic reaction.

FYI - if you put this stuff on top of makeup, it will still work, but you’ll probably have to fart around with the eye makeup a tad.

As far as brands, well, I’m in Canada so I suggest Quo for the coverup - it’s fairly inexpensive and nice quality. MAC also has similar products.

Might wanna do a search on this, it’s an oft-asked question…