How to zap eyebags to hell: Skincare recos and concealing techniques
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 1:16PM 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!
Reader Comments (16)
Just in time! Badly need these tips! Ive been using PROJECTVANITY's gift, Clinique All about Eyes (cream) and it works fine! :) (thanks Liz! wee!) It keeps the skin around my eyes moisturized! :) Also the corrector palette from Graftobian, and this technique really hides dark circles.
Thanks Liz!
Thanks for sharing! Last year, I tried Eyliplex-2 based on your recommendation. It really works wonders. Especially the gel type. It combats the puffiness of eyes. But after finishing the container, I shifted to Kiehl's Line-reducing eye-brightening concentrate. It's also a nice product that targets fine lines and dark circles. As for my concealer, I'm now using MAC's studio sculpt. What can I say? Your reviews always gives an impact. So I always ends up buying the stuffs that you recommend. :) And never did I hesitate grabbing them. :)
Hi Liz,
Thanks for the tips and tutorial! I couldn't imagine life without a concealer, since I'm not really a morning person, I tend to have more energy at night so no matter how hard I try, it's always hard to sleep early. But the working girl that I am needs to be at work before 8AM so I normally get 5 hours of sleep, I'm lucky if I get 6. And that's exactly why I love, love, love concealers they make me look more alert and energized. Currently I'm using Revlon's Colorstay and I'm definitely happy with the results I get, plus it's reasonably priced; but trust me the journey to finding this one product was tough.
I found these tips really helpful, thank you! :) Especially since concealer is the number one product I haven't figured out how to use properly--I wear it and can never see the difference. I'm thinking of investing in eye creams and am undecided whether to get Eylipliex-2 or save up for La Mer--I'll keep your product recommendations in mind. :)
PS. Ms Liz, are you smizing? :)
http://inmidnights.wordpress.com
great tips! thank you for sharing!
These are Great n seem very useful. thanks for this Post :)
Thanks for the comments guys!
@inmidnights i had to google what smizing means. haha. i guess so?
Thanks for these tips! Concealers has been my bestfriend for years now. Can't even imagine life without it. Haha oa. ;p pero seriously, i think putting on concealer really makes a huge difference. I'm currently using Skinfood's Salmon concealer as a corrector then putting on a little Cinema Secrets concealer(yellowish) to brighten my eye area then finish it off with Ben Nye's banana visage powder using a sponge. It works for my panda eyes. Question lang, have you tried Revlon Age defying concealer? heard lots of good reviews about it. TIA! :)
I wonder if eye creams are really necessary. I really dont believe in them. Concealer does the trick though :)
You made your eyebags disappear, you're a magician. :) I've been using Revlon's Photo Ready Concealer because of your recommendation and it really does wonders in concealing my eyebags. Thanks for that (and for this too) Ms. Liz! :)
Nice and useful post. I too have puffy eyes. But not that dark.
I am no longer fixing the puffiness as I think it's hopeless (I had it since childhood) but I take care of it so it will not age prematurely.
I thought I was the only one who experiences plateaus on products. I seldom conceal my under-eyes because products leaves them super dry. I'm using body shop vit e for eyes now to get the moisture back.
Hmmm I am tempted to visit the clinique counter and try their airbrush concealer. I've been thinking over and over for a week what concealer to buy. And clinique as we all know is really safe. :)
Great post! I'm in the hunt for the perfect concealer (if I don't win your CS concealer teehee!). I actually posted on your "Ask Liz" portion about this. I wonder which is better, Clinique Airbrush or the Revlon PhotoReady one. I have really dark undereyes, sadly. :(
In terms of eye creams, can you recommend mid-range products for budget gals like me? I would love to use an eye ream but they are so expensive I cringe at the tought of buying one just for testing purposes.
Ooops, I meant Photoready concealer not colorstay :)
Wow that was pretty much helpful! Dark circles have been my problem for years. I don't remember having dark under-eyes in my childhood days, and I don't remember either, when exactly I started to have problems with it. I have dark circles, which I haven't got ridden of yet, and puffy eyebags as well, lucky me huh. I've been searching high and low on what product would work, still haven't found one, from cucumbers, to peas, to eye creams, and concealers. Concealers have been my constant go-to product since, and I can't and never will go out without putting it on, unless of course if there's a Halloween party I have to go to haha.
Thanks Ms. Liz for putting this post up, because I badly needed this. Now, I already know how to make the use of concealers more effective! I might try one or two of the products you mentioned, hoping it'll work. I'm desperate like that :D
wow, you did an amazing thing on your eyes! could you suggest eye creams that are affordable? thanks Liz! :)
Very helpful, Liz! Thanks for this!