Remember that your eyes WILL reveal your age!

“Oh my God, I walked by a mirror this morning and looked at my eyes and thought I so badly needed to sleep because I looked old”
… those are the words Andrew, another gym-goer, said to me during a quick chat a few days ago.

He was horrified by how old he seemed to look because he had not been able to sleep properly. Andrew is most likely in his mid-forties (I never asked, but I’m guessing) and has a body of a demi-Greek God. Regardless of how much of a toned and shapely body Andrew possesses, his eyes told a whole different story when we chatted.

The sad truth is that your eyes are most likely one of the first features that get noticed by other people. So if they look tired, then you’ll tend to look a bit older (and drained out) than you actually are.

Trust me, even as a beauty editor, I sometimes wake up and look at myself in the mirror and think: God I look 15 years older this morning and I urgently need an ice bath to get rid of those bags.

As you age, if you’re not well rested, your eyes will be the first dead giveaway of your nocturnal tossing and turning or your wild party nights.

Now, it’s true that for some people having puffy eyes, bags, dark circles are more genetic than a sign of cutting out on your sleep.

So why does aging shows so vividly around your eyes?

That tired look may sometimes be more than just insufficient sleep, for so many people, eight hours of sleep is still not enough to correct the look of aging around the eyes because the combination of loose skin, weakened muscle and tendons, and bags around the eyes can make you look tired, sad or older than your age.

Now, just like everything else, lifestyle can greatly increase the rate at which aging shows around the eyes: excessive exposure to the sun, alcohol, smoking, poor nutrition, lack of use of sunscreen can accelerate these signs of aging.

There are a number of non-invasive cosmetic treatments that can be use to correct the signs of aging around the eyes, but in some cases, the only effective solution to reducing that constant look of tiredness is to consult a plastic surgeon for a blepharoplasty (eye surgery).

A blepharoplasty can take 5 to 10 years off of your look. The key element is to make sure you have a good discussion with your plastic surgeon to ensure that not too much skin is removed around the eyes because as you age you lose fat tissue all over your face and if the doctor removes too much tissue you might end up with that look of constant surprise — a bit like country super star singer Kenny Rodgers after his blepharoplasty (he has reportedly openly said that he was not that happy with his eyelid surgery).

If you’re not yet ready to consult a plastic surgeon, there are some eye creams and gels that will greatly help keep the skin around your eyes moisturized:

Eye mask to remove puffiness around your eyes

Guerlain’s Orchidée Impériale anti-aging line

Yves St Laurent’s Temps Majeur

Garnier Ultra Lift eye cream: #1 seller in the U.K.

Kinerase: A skin care line with high levels of Kinetin

Reducing dark circles around the eyes

A serum that reduces fine lines and dark circles?

Jurlique Eye Gel

Photo by Pσrcelαΐηgΐrl°