How to zap eyebags to hell: Skincare recos and concealing techniques
Many factors cause eye bags. For some it is just plain aging and genetics, in which cases it will be improbable to remove the eye bags short of surgery. For others, it's a stressed and unhealthy lifestyle. Eyebags caused by lifestyle factors can at least have hope in being corrected!
Now, the best beauty "secret" is a healthy lifestyle - there's really no going around it. So if you look haggard beyond your time, perhaps it would be wise to cut down on drinking, smoking, salty and fatty food, and maybe throw in a bit of exercise once or twice a week. And please, sleep!
So! With that out of the way, I'll be sharing some beauty products and concealing techniques you can use in hiding your eye bags. I don't have particularly dark eye bags, but my under eyes look puffy and shadowy because of their bulging shape. Yes, that's just how it is.
And here, my friends, are the things I do to lessen the appearance of my eye bags!
Before
After!
Skincare
Never rub. Ever. Don't rub or touch your eye area because the skin around it can easily be pulled out of place. Resist the urge and keep your hands away from your eyes or else you can develop fine lines before their time.
Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize. It pays to invest in a good eye cream because it at least improves the skin's elasticity, if not its overall colour. I love Eyliplex-2 for a quick fix since I see results in two weeks, but it plateaus so I rotate my eye creams. I also love the Estee Lauder Idealist Cooling Eye Illuminator because it has an instant brightening effect due to its fine shimmers.
The La Mer The Eye Balm Intense is probably the best eye cream I have ever tried but yes - the price will make one weep. If you can afford it though, I saw go for it. Really great product.
Wear SPF around your eyes after your eye cream. It helps bounce off the UV and UVA rays, preventing your dark eye bags from getting even darker.
Zap bags with makeup
There are a lot of ways to hide eye bags with makeup. One way is to mix your normal blemish concealer with some highlighter to get an illuminating concealer (or you can just buy an actual illuminating concealer like the Clinique Airbrush Concealer or YSL Touche Eclat). Another way is to use a color corrector. Some beauty gurus would recommend a pinkish salmon, others a yellow one, but IMHO they both do the job well as long as you get a good shade match and product quality.
Here are some excellent under eye concealers I've tried:
Clinique Airbrush Concealer - liquid concealer that has a thin, won't-budge texture and illuminating properties. I love this to bits.
Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer Kit - Yellow-based, creamy concealer that has a more opaque coverage than Clinique Airbrush. It comes with a setting powder so the concealer won't slide around in humid weather.
MAC Studio Sculpt Concealer - Great blemish concealer, but also works well for eye bags due to its creamy texture. Just make sure to set it properly as it creases after a few hours.
Cinema Secrets Foundation Palette #2 - Has a great yellow shade for concealing, but it also has a pinkish beige called #603-21 that is super effective in hiding my bags. It's opaque, although quite dry so you have to work at blending it!
Weapon of choice
I love using my fingers for applying concealer on my eye bags, but for really dry concealers like Cinema Secrets, it's best to use a brush - flat, rounded edge, synthetic hair. You get a more precise, cleaner application with such brushes.
Charm Essentials Pretty in Pink Vegan Makeup Brushes
For setting your under eye makeup, use a big fluffy brush loaded with translucent loose powder.
How to conceal your eye bags
It's super easy, really. :) Just make sure you get the right shade (get something at most a shade lighter than your skintone to avoid reverse racoon eyes!), blend everything seamlessly, and set if needed. I don't always set it with powder because it might look caky and the formula of the concealer I use is reliable anyway. However, if you have a really oily/sweaty eye area, it's best to apply powder on top of the concealer.
Step 1: Apply the concealer in feathery strokes around your eye area.
Step 2: Blend with your fingers, a sponge, or a brush (gently of course). Your pick! I like using fingers that I warmed up a little (to melt the concealer and make it go on smoother).
Step 4 (optional): Add some powder, cream, or liquid highlighter to really brighten up the area. Light will reflect from that surface so the darkness is not as noticeable. ;) You don't need to do this, however, if you already have an excellent concealer.
Step 5: Set with powder. I just use foundation or any loose powder. Make sure it's only a thin layer because nothing looks as fake as cakey under eyes!
And there you go. :) If you have more questions or tips, do share them here! I'll try to answer as best as I can.
Hope this helps!
