“Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all? Oh, wait! What’s that I see around my eyes?” ––grabs concealer while looking from left to right. Most ladies between
their 20s and 40s can relate with the first spotting of eye wrinkles and the quest to find out how to “prevent” eye wrinkles ––or at least delay them for a few more years or decades.
For most women, the first signs of aging appear around our eyes sometime in our late 20s. It comes in the form of faint crow’s feet and drooping upper eyelids that make the eyes appear smaller. Frown lines between our eyebrows start to appear in our 30s and as our skin begins to lose volume and elasticity, and these lines become more pronounced.
The skin around the eyes is particularly delicate and requires extra attention and care to prevent premature wrinkling, dark circles, and irritations. The good news is that eye wrinkles can actually be delayed from forming too early. I mean, I don’t know anyone who wants wrinkles adding years to their actual age, and even if you’re more advanced in age, there are ways to care for the skin around your eyes to delay the early onset of wrinkles, reduce the appearance of wrinkles and maintain your skin’s youthful glow.
Here’s how to care for the skin around your eyes to prevent eye wrinkles
#1. Cleanse your face
There’s no great skin without a great skincare routine. It’s intentional! Always wash your face at least twice daily, and exfoliate regularly to get rid of dead skin build-up which contributes to early wrinkling. As you cleanse and exfoliate, pay extra attention to the skin around your eyes to clear oils or clogged pores. Be gentle with your skin to maintain its structure and bounce.
#2. Moisturize
It doesn’t matter how many times you hear this, don’t take moisturizing for granted. The skin around your eyes is thin and lacks gland oils hence the need to consistently moisturize it in order to limit wrinkles and age lines. Look at your skin like a fruit. Without moisture, it shrivels and that’s what brings about premature age lines and wrinkles.
If your regular face cream isn’t doing it, opt for an eye cream that complements the skin around your eyes. When applying eye cream, dab on. Don’t rub vigorously to avoid irritation or causing extra under-eye puffiness.
#3. Use sunscreen
It’s still not popular enough in Black culture, but use sunscreen whether or not you’re headed out under the sun. For starters, constant exposure to UV rays and even screen light could be detrimental to the skin around your eyes. Thus making sunscreen a must-apply daily.
#4. Get enough rest
There are so many reasons why the skin around your eyes isn’t glowing as it should even after countless beauty products. Perhaps all you need might just be to rest more, eat healthier, and drink more water. So easy yet so difficult to do. This might be hard as we go on adulting but we can’t keep treating our health as less of a priority. Obtain the bag but stay healthy. That’s a win-win.
#5. Consider Microneedling or facial acupuncture
If your wrinkles have become a permanent fix due to years of skincare abandonment, microneedling or facial acupuncture could help restore its elasticity.
Done through a hand-held device that creates controlled skin injury, microneedling involves injectable and topical treatments that aim to counteract the visual effects of aging. Due to the intentional injury and bleeding, platelets leave the blood vessels and become exposed to the surrounding tissue. According to Dr. Prager, a London-based aesthetics doctor, “this causes a reaction in which the platelets excrete hormones and growth factors which cause the stimulation of fibroblasts and other collagen-producing cells to start increasing their production. This, in turn, results in more elastic and rejuvenated skin.”
A simpler alternative to microneedling is beauty acupuncture. According to Dr. John Tsagaris, a renowned doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine, “beauty acupuncture works by remodeling the skin, encouraging more collagen and elastin production, creating firmer and more resilient skin around the eyes.” It’s not painful, and there’s no downtime. “It also improves microcirculation that helps with puffiness and discoloration issues, ”
You can actually do gentle microneedling at home by yourself. In recent years, celebrities and influencers have been known to use a microneedle roller as part of their beauty regimen.
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