Late night study sessions, a drink or a few too many, smoking, heredity, poor diet, not getting enough sleep—at some point or another we all get hit with a 1-2 punch from at least one of these, and we are left with dark circles under our eyes.
Dark circles definitely fall under one of the most asked about beauty dilemmas. Beyond getting your 8-10 hrs of sleep, eating a healthy diet with lots of fruits and veggies, drinking enough water, and quitting smoking, there are a few things you can do to say goodbye to dark under eye circles:
1. Green Tea
Green Tea is high in antioxidants, and is often recommended as a drink for this reason. But did you know you can also steep two green tea bags in a half cup of boiling water until cool then apply to your eyes for 15 minutes, or take the cooled half cup and dip cotton balls in and let soak on your eyes to help get rid of your dark circles? Guess what the bonus results are? Wrinkle reduction! Oh yeah! Now you are swinging right back with a 1-2 punch of your own!
2. Mint and Ice
Bear with me on this one. It is really simple. So simple it seems like it shouldn’t be as effective as it is. Crush up some fresh mint leaves into a paste and pat under eyes. Then take a small soft cloth and wrap a few ice cubes in it so that you will at least have one or more cubes on each eye and place over eyes. Keep this over your eyes until the ice melts then gently wipe off the mint paste. Over time your dark circles will evaporate and you will have zero puffiness.
3. Rose Water
The elixir of the ages. This beauty remedy has been around since before the time of Cleopatra, and with good reason! It works! Take two cotton balls and soak in pure rose water then gently wipe under eyes. It will immediately reduce puffiness, and over time minimize dark circles. Bonus—you will smell heavenly.
4. Potato and Cucumber
Peel the potato and cucumber and grate them separately. Take equal quantities of both and mix well. Apply on the area around the eyes and leave on for 20-25 minutes then rinse with cold water. Take a little coconut oil on the tips of your fingers and massage on the dark circles in circular motion, first clockwise and then anticlockwise, and leave this on overnight. Do this every day for a minimum of two weeks to start noticing a difference. Once you achieve the desired results, you can apply this every alternate day.
Why should I do this you ask? What are a potato, cucumber, and coconut oil going to do for me? Potato is a good bleaching agent and is useful for skin that has turned dark or pigmented, and cucumber is a cooling agent and improves the appearance of the under-eye area. The ever-fabulous coconut oil keeps the delicate area around the eyes moisturized and eliminates dark circles, wrinkles, and blemishes.
Although you may see some immediate results with these four power-packed tips, as with anything you will need some patience. Stick with these rock ‘em sock ‘em beauty punches and you will see definite results. You can kiss those dark circles good bye!
