How To Get Rid Of Under Eye Bags/Veins!

Hello! :)

One of the things I struggle with the most about my face is the fact that I have hereditary under eye veins/bags pretty much permanently. I have under eye bags, but then also the skin around my eye area is also quite delicate, thin and translucent, allowing all of my veins to show through (I tend to blame this on me being born too early…though I'm not sure I can give this as my excuse).

It’s always bugged me since I was a kid. Children can be pretty insensitive and there were always people saying “Why do you have veiny eyes?” :P I decided to do this post to hopefully give people some ideas about how to reduce under eye veins or bags!

 

 

These are my eyes on a "good" day, sometimes they are much more noticeable, though hopefully you can see the veins showing through, a bit of blue and darkness on the inner corner and also some puffiness. When a photo is concentrated like that may not look so bad but my eyes are very noticeable when you see my whole face.

UPDATE: I would just like to apologise in advance for the rather strange html things that keep appearing on this post...I've tried fixing it loads of times but it doesn't make any difference. The only thing I can think to do is type it all again but seeing as it already took me ages to type it the first time I don't really want to do that...so I'm sorry and I hope it doesn't disturb your reading too much! :)

 

Drink lots of water. This seems like an easy one, but it really makes a difference to your skin, hair and also your under eye area. I started drinking more water recently and not only noticed a huge difference in the brightness of my skin I also noticed less darkness on my under eye and less puffiness too. Most people seem to say that you should drink 8 glasses of water a day, but I generally drink out of water bottles so it’s hard to keep track of how many “glasses” that is. I think it varies from person to person too…I find that I forget to drink quite a lot (and then as a result I get a load of headaches) but now after trying hard to learn to drink more I now drink around 4/5 bottles in total. I drink a lot of tea too which also counts towards your daily fluid intake so it doesn’t just have to be water that counts.

 

Get plenty of sleep. Again, this seems stupid, but I’ve noticed that sometimes just an extra hour or even half an hour makes a lot of difference. My eyes are a lot less puffy by the morning and there is a lot less darkness underneath. The amount of sleep you need also varies between people at different ages and stages in their life, so you can adapt the amount you sleep to what you need and what is practical. Obviously most people won’t be able to get 12 hours sleep each night but generally I notice my under eye bags getting a lot worse if i get less than 7 ½ hours’ sleep.

Fix nasal congestion. I’ve noticed this really increases the severity of my  under eye puffiness so if your nose is blocked it really makes a difference. If it is because of allergies you can take something like Piriton or other allergy tablets. You can also get medication to help with congestion if you have a cold or flu.

Reduce salt intake. This isn’t something I’ve made a huge effort to fix really but after doing some research I’ve found out that it can cause circulation problems if you have too much salt and this causes the blood vessels to dilate, increasing the appearance of under eye circles and veins. Apparently also salt can cause water retention which will then cause puffiness under the eyes.

Some causes of under eye circles and veins are simply hereditary, and so sometimes there is only so much you can do to reduce them. In that case...there are some ways you can help hide them or disguise them…however I will start a separate paragraph for this!

I recently did a blog post on the *best high coverageconcealers*, so I’d suggest that you read that if you want to find out more about some good high coverage concealers.

For the best under eye concealer, you want one that is ideally just a shade or two lighter than your skin tone to highlight the area, however if its too light it will draw attention to the problem even more by making you look pasty. A concealer that is too dark for your skin tone will also not help, as it will increase the appearance of under eye shadows.

A primer is really essential if you want he under eye concealer to last all day and hopefully not crease as much. The best one I’ve come across is the Too Faced Primed And Poreless primer, as it makes the concealer last so much longer.

You also need a lightweight, brightening under eye powder to keep the concealer lasting but not creasing; ideally this needs to be a very fine powder to reduce the chance of concealer caking up. One that I have really liked is the ELF HD Under Eye Powder as it sets the concealer well but is a very pale pink colour that is very brightening. Mattifying the under eye area also helps as any shininess will draw a load of attention to the area.

Now onto concealers….the best one I’ve found and have been using for a while now  is the Hard Candy Glamoflage Concealer. It is VERY high coverage (it can cover tattoos if you layer it on) and although it is quite thick and can be drying, as long as you blend it out and make sure you under eye area is moisturised it is fine. If you want something lighter I’d recommend the MAC Select Cover Up Concealer which is a very lightweight liquid that has very good coverage. Also if your under eye circles are blue toned, a good trick is to use a salmon/orange toned concealer (maybe like the Benefit Erase Paste which also works quite well as its very creamy) it really helps to counteract the blue tones.

Well that’s about it! I hope this was useful to any other people similar to me who are struggling with under eye veins and bags! Thanks for reading!

Libby x