You know things aren’t going too well when you wake up with those dark rings under your eyes.

“Isn’t sleep supposed to help these go away?” you ask yourself in the mirror. Unfortunately, there are a few other reasons “eye bags” and “dark circles” appear, and you can thank the skin under the eyes being “especially thin and vulnerable,” explains the Renewal Institute.

Also, both conditions are the side effects of getting older Yay.

Here’s a little more on the two conditions:

Eye bags:

This happens when the skin starts to sag, and fat around the area around the eye can relocate into the area below your eyes. This area can also look ‘baggy’ thanks to accumulated fluid.

Potential causes include:
– Fluid retention
– Hormone levels
– A lack of sleep
– Allergies or dermatitis
– Genetics, under-eye bags can run in families

Dark circles:

The tear trough is located alongside the eyes, but as we get older, we lose fat under the surface of the skin. This loss of volume makes the tear trough appear even more hollow. That, in essence, means that the dark circle is something of an optical illusion. The dark shadow is simply the result of how light reflects off the surface of facial contours.

Other common causes include:
– Allergies
– Eczema Contact dermatitis
– Fatigue
– Hay fever
– Heredity — dark under-eye circles, can run in families
– Pigmentation irregularities — these are a particular concern for people of colour, especially blacks and Asians

So what can you do to stop this? Before doing anything, it would be best to talk to a skin professional at Skin Renewal for professional advice on what’s ailing you.

From there, solutions include peri-orbital creams, dermal fillers or non-surgical blepharoplasty to restore the windows to your soul.

There’s nothing like getting older, hey.