Four Steps to Banish Dark Circles
Fake a full eight hours sleep with Liberty’s guide to ingredients, tools and techniques to help reduce undereye bags
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Four Steps to Banish Dark Circles
Fake a full eight hours sleep with Liberty’s guide to ingredients, tools and techniques to help reduce undereye bags.
In beauty terms, it’s an age-old dilemma: how to get rid of dark circles, or lessen insomnia induced undereye puffiness. You’ve likely heard the old wives tales: everything from cold teaspoons to teabags touted as a potential saviour, but this is 2024: and the biggest names in beauty now have the science backed solutions that we actually need.
From vitamin C to peptides and clever colour correction. The latest generation of beauty innovations offers targeted ingredients and research backed formulations that could make the dark circle dilemma a thing of the past.
While for many of us, dark circles are genetic, they can still be eased with a little help from a few very special products and ingredients: designed to brighten, depuff and conceal. With that in mind, read on for Liberty’s four top tips to help get rid of dark circles
The Liberty Guide to Reducing Dark Circles
1. Start with a Mask
If puffiness is your problem, look for products that can soothe and energise, like 111 Skin’s Cryo Sub Zero De-Puffing Eye Masks,£80 for 8. These clever hydrogel masks are enriched with seaweed, a peptide complex and hydrolysed collagen and have a delightfully cooling effect on the skin. If you’re not a fan of the eye patch look, try the Express Eye Contour Mask from Sisley, £120. Just as powerful at de-puffing, but in more of a classic creamy formula: gently tap this under eyes with your ring finger working from the inner corner out.
Our tip? Whichever mask you choose, keep it in the fridge for added cooling properties.
111 Skin Cryo Sub Zero De-Puffing Eye Masks, £80 for 8
Sisley Express Eye Contour Mask 30ml, £120
MZ Skin Hydra-Bright Gold Eye Mask 5 Pairs, £80
2. Think Ingredients
Once you’ve indulged in your calming eye mask, it’s time to add a dedicated eye cream. But which to pick? The key is to look for hydrating and brightening ingredients: antioxidants such as vitamin C, as well as peptides, hydrating hyaluronic acid or caffeine.
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If you’re partial to a richer, cream formula, you can’t get much more luxurious than La Mer’s The Eye Balm Intense, £215, which is designed to hydrate and firm. If a lighter gel texture is more your thing, then REN’s Radiance Brightening Dark Circle Cream, £49, is lightweight and impressively luminising, with elderberry extract to help neutralise free radicals (tiny particles that can trigger dark circles and puffiness).
Shop Eye Cream
REN Clean Skincare
Radiance Brightening Dark Circle Eye Cream 15ml
3. Use Your Tools
Remember the cold spoons hack? Turns out, they were on to something. Cooling, ceramic and high tech applicators are all the rage in the eye care world – and with good reason. Not only does the cooling effect help to soothe skin, but when used correctly – in a gentle, sweeping motion under the eyes – they can also help depuff and revive eyes, subtly lifting the eye area over time. We love the ceramic pen applicator on Chantecaille’s Rose de Mai Eye Lift, £134for an effortless fatigue-free finish.
Chantecaille Rose de Mai Eye Lift, £134
Seed to Skin The Eye Rescue Light Time Recovery and Night Time Recovery Duo, £242
Biologique Recherche Crème Contour des Yeux VIP O2 15ml, £110
4. Learn the Art of Colour Correction
In an ideal world, we’d all drink enough water, get eight hours of sleep and religiously apply our eye creams every day. But let’s be honest: that doesn’t happen. That’s where colour correction comes in.
Rather than using your regular, brightening concealer on those dark circles: get smart with the colour wheel. By using shades that neutralise the sleep-induced tones, you can instantly perk up your complexion.
According to the experts at Bobbi Brown, those with bluish-purple under eyes should opt for a “bisque” shade – with subtly orange tones to help counteract the coolness. Those with greenish-brown under eyes should opt for a “peachy” shade to neutralise.
