Anti-Puffiness Care

It's never easy to wake up in the morning and find that you've got bags under your eyes. That's why we're going to take a look at what causes them, and how to treat them, whether through lifestyle habits or skin care.

Bags under the eyes

Bags under the eyes can be improved with skin care if they are due to oedema, i.e. water infiltration into the skin of the lower eyelid. If, on the other hand, bags under the eyes are due to a fatty hernia, it will be very difficult to reduce them with skin care.

Facial care for under-eye puffiness

You can start by using a facial care which has a draining action, and then a cream with a firming action.
For the serum, I think the way you apply it is just as important as the choice of serum. There's a lot of talk about cosmetic products containing caffeine, because we know that caffeine is a vasoconstrictor, but is this active ingredient really effective? Only one real study has looked into the subject and evaluated the effect of applying a caffeine gel versus a gel alone. And the result of this study shows that all people had an improvement in their puffiness thanks to the cold provided by the gel, whether or not it contained caffeine. So one piece of advice I can give you is to keep your eye contour serum cool. As for the caffeine gel, it had an additional improving effect on 23% of the people in the study. A single study is not enough to have a clear-cut opinion, but what we can say is that if you feel that your caffeine serum isn't working, try a serum containing other draining active ingredients.

Last but not least, it's essential to use draining massages when applying your eye serum, taking care not to press too hard on the sensitive skin of the eyelids.

If you'd like to stick with caffeine-containing active ingredients, but this time in a gel texture that will hold in the cold better, Vichy Mineral 89 may be a good option. It mainly contains Vichy volcanic water, caffeine, hyaluronic acid and shea butter.

A cream that this time has a draining action with vitamin K is Kox Eye by ISDIN, which I can recommend if you have problems with vascular circles. And of course, I recommend keeping it in a cool place to enhance its draining action.

As far as retinol is concerned, you can also use a retinol product, and I don't think it's necessarily necessary to buy a cream or serum specifically for the eye contour area, but to use your product two or three times a week. One product that works very well for the eye contour area is the retinol from Paula's choice and avoids having to buy one product for the face and another specifically for the eye contour area.

If you want to get rid of puffiness, you need to combine a healthy lifestyle with appropriate skin care. If you have fatty puffiness and it bothers you on a daily basis, why not consult a specialist?

Greasy hernia

In the case of a fat hernia, the orbital fat has increased in volume or is no longer sufficiently held in place by the ligaments. Often, the first thing you notice is a change in the look of the eyes, with the appearance of a shadow around the rim, which may be due to the presence of an under-eye pocket. This diagram shows the effect of ligament loosening at this level. In this case, cosmetic treatments will have great difficulty in improving the appearance of your eyes, and it may be worth discussing cosmetic surgery or hyaluronic acid injections.
However, there is one medical condition I'd like to tell you about that can lead to an increase in intraorbital fat: dysthyroid orbitopathy. This is an increase in the volume of intra-orbital tissues such as muscles and fat inside the orbital cavity due to thyroid dysfunction. The disease mainly affects women over the age of 40. It progresses in phases of relapses and remissions, and when the increase in fat becomes too great, it creates a veritable exophthalmos, pushing the eyeball out of the orbital cavity. This symptom is due to thyroid disease, and many other symptoms can occur. A simple way to check for thyroid nodules is to palpate the thyroid gland. The thyroid gland is located in the lower part of the neck, on either side of the trachea. If in doubt, consult an endocrinologist.

Edematous bags under the eyes

The other very common cause of under-eye puffiness is edema, and it's very important to treat it early, as it will eventually distend your skin and create permanent skin slackening, with the appearance of permanent puffiness, marked wrinkles and dark circles.
Edema is quite common in this area, as the eyelids have great difficulty draining lymph due to the insertion of deep ligaments. The first is the cerne ligament, followed by its extension, the malar ligament. Occasionally, edema can occur only in the lower eyelid, or only in the malar area, in what are known as malar pockets, and sometimes total edema can occur, including the malar area and even the upper eyelids.

We'll now look at the causes of oedematous pouches and their treatment. The first is excess fluid production, generally due to an allergy. The other is a real problem with lymphatic drainage.
As far as allergies are concerned, they can be due to food allergies or allergens present in the air, and you should try as far as possible to find out which allergen is causing the allergy and if possible stop all contact with that allergen. If your allergy is due to pollen, it's not possible to avoid all contact and you can simply use anti-histamines, which are drugs that combat allergic phenomena. If your symptoms persist and become bothersome, I advise you to consult an allergist to determine which allergen is responsible for your allergy and whether desensitization is possible.
Another source of allergy is cosmetics. To avoid irritation caused by cosmetics, you should always start by applying just one active ingredient at a time, because if you start using several active ingredients at the same time, you won't know which cosmetic has caused the irritation. And if you already have irritated eyelids, the only thing to do is stop using everything and start again, one product at a time.

Apart from allergies, morning puffiness may be due to insufficient lymphatic and venous drainage.

As you know, it's during sleep that your body regenerates itself, and lack of sleep is a very frequent cause of puffiness. Unfortunately, getting more or better sleep isn't always easy, and if you work nights or have young children, there's no miracle solution. But there are other things you can do to reduce your pockets. Among the advice I can give you, of course, is to cut down on alcohol and tobacco as much as possible. A study carried out on over 3,000 women showed that alcohol and tobacco consumption caused accelerated ageing of the face and the appearance of bags under the eyes. In diagram B, you can see the impact of tobacco over the years, and in diagram C, the impact of alcohol. Regular exercise also improves lymphatic drainage.
Another tip is to reduce your salt intake, as salt increases water retention and promotes edema. Eating too much salt, too much sugar and too much protein is one of the main causes of fluid retention, whether in the eyelids or elsewhere.
This can lead to short-term oedema and long-term renal failure. In extreme cases, oedema can reach the lower limbs, and when the lower limb is pressed, the depression remains - the oedema is said to take up the bucket.
To reduce swelling in the morning, you can limit your water intake in the evening and opt for morning hydration.
And last but not least, elevate your head while you sleep to improve lymphatic drainage and reduce puffiness and dark circles.
How can I tell if my bags under the eyes are due to oedema or fat?
A simple way to tell is that puffiness is greater in the morning when you wake up if you have oedema, whereas puffiness caused by a fat hernia is stable from morning to night.

How to apply under-eye cream: Does massage work?

Facial massage is effective for improving lymphatic drainage, so I advise you to massage in the morning and evening if you have oedema around the eye area. If you overdo it by applying a moisturizing cream or serum dedicated to the eye contour area, you may cause your eyelids to swell. Instead, lightly tap your serum or cream with your fingers and massage gently to drain the lymph. Massaging your face and neck as a whole will produce better results.

How do bags change with age?

With age, the skin around the eyes and the rest of the face tends to become thinner, blood circulation is less efficient and eyelids become increasingly puffy. To prevent this from happening, you need to adopt a healthy lifestyle at a relatively early stage, use the right cosmetics, massage with a moisturizing gel or cream, and avoid any allergies or irritations that will tend to swell your eyelids.

What's so special about bags under men's eyes?

Puffiness under the eyes may be due to oedema or a fat hernia. The particularity of the eye contour in men is that the bone is often more prominent and the skin thicker. However, the aggravating factors remain the same: lack of sleep, alcohol, smoking, over-salted food, organic food, etc. Whether you're a man or a woman, you need to take good care of the eye contour area.

How can I quickly reduce bags under the eyes?

Make-up is the quickest and safest way to reduce under-eye puffiness. Skin care with an effective beauty routine is very useful for dark circles with bags of edematous origin.
On the other hand, let's be clear: in the case of fat hernia, it may be useful to discuss hyaluronic acid injections or cosmetic surgery.