What Are Dark Under Eye Circles, How Can You Treat Them?

One of the areas disliked most by visitors to Aurora Clinics is the area under their eyes: dark circles here can appear even more ageing than wrinkles or grey hair. One of the common misconceptions is that under-eye dark circles, bags and puffiness are the same thing.

In fact, they vary in looks and are generally caused by different factors. Under-eye bags are due to an excess of skin when the delicate under-eye area loses elasticity as a natural side-effect of ageing. Hereditary conditions can worsen this i.e. if your parents had particularly pronounced under-eye bags.

Although certain creams and serums can help tighten this area, unfortunately, little can be done long-term to drastically improve under-eye bags except resorting to blepharoplasty surgery. Under-eye puffiness is typically linked to fluid retention (often hormonal or connected to the weather and stress, but equally diet and allergies may play a part). Puffy under-eyes, therefore, respond best by addressing the cause of the swelling and either relieving it with natural remedies or fixing it with the necessary changes to lifestyle.

They are tricky to disguise with make-up (which often just accentuates the area) and are really just masking the problem. The rest of this article focuses on the most common complaint we hear of; the dreaded “dark circles”.