How To Get Rid Of Dark Circles

Hi, my name is Dr. Jenny Wakerly, I am a GP working in the NHS, and I also specialize in dermatology. I also run a company called The Beauty Doctor which specializes in beauty treatments and dermatological advice.

I am here today to talk to you about dark circles under the eyes and how to get rid of them. There are two main causes of dark circles. One is a darker pigmentation under the eye, and that is usually because of an increased amount of pigment cells in the surface of the skin caused by genetics, sun damage, the pill, or pregnancy.

The second most common cause is a very mild version of bruising, whereby there are some very superficial capillaries under the surface of the skin leaking blood, a very very small amount of blood, and that causes a sort of purple look to the under-eye area. You will be glad to know that if it's a genetic cause, that's the easiest to treat. One of the other causes is actually deep set eyes, that make the eye, the area under the eye, look very dark.

Unfortunately, if it's because of deep set eyes, then your best way to get rid of them is to camouflage using makeup. So if you are pale-skinned, or Caucasian-skinned, then the best is to use yellowy tinge to try and counteract the purple tinge. If you are darker skinned, brown or Asian skinned, then the best is to use an orange based makeup.

If you are Afro-Caribbean typed skin, the best is to use a reddish tinge to your makeup before putting your foundation on top. So for pigmentation under the eyes, I found the best way is to use a Vitamin C eye cream. That has the effect of very very gently taking away the pigment in the skin surface area, reducing the activity of the melanin pigment producing cells, and that works very very well with something called an orange peel, which is, it's not even a peel, it's a very weak amino acid.

That is a just a gel which you can either use at home or I will probably advise seeing someone who specializes in this first, so they can do it first and teach you how to do it at home if you feel comfortable. Putting on the vitamin C eye patches helps because when you use the orange peel, that takes off the dead skin layer on top of the skin, and that increases the absorption of the Vitamin C on the eye patch. Then, in between the treatments of the orange peel and the eye patches, you then use the Vitamin C cream.

For dark circles caused by broken or fragile capillaries, I recommend KVit eye cream, or something with Vitamin K in it. That is very helpful for bruises. It helps the bruises heal, and it will reduce the fragility of the capillaries.

You also need to reduce the sun exposure to the eye area to prevent any sun damage which will make the darkening worse as well. I hope this has been helpful in helping to reduce the dark circles under the eyes, and thank you very much for listening. .