The area around your eyes is one of the thinnest, most sensitive areas of your body. It’s also among the first to reveal the very first signs of ageing. The skin around your eyes doesn’t have as many oil glands or collagen as the rest of your face and body, because of this, the area around your eyes is more prone to dryness, droopiness, lines, and wrinkles, such as crows feet.
Lifestyle choices and some medication can have a big impact on the condition of your skin. Not drinking enough water, smoking, too much alcohol and not enough sleep, have all been clinically proven to cause premature ageing and dark circles around the eyes. Before considering any physical treatments, your skin needs to be in good enough condition to withstand the treatment. So our first bit of advice would be;

◦ Check your nutritional intake
◦ Check your water intake
◦ Reduce your salt intake
◦ Move more (gets the blood pumping and helps circulation)
◦ Stop smoking
◦ Reduce your alcohol
◦ Make sure your skincare is appropriate for your skin needs.

You need an eye cream that is specifically designed for the eye area. Face serums and moisturisers usually contain a number of specific active ingredients, such as retinoids. Retinoids are not suitable for the skin around the eyes. An eye cream that contains retinol will differ from a typical facial cream with retinol. Because of the risk of irritation, it will be specifically formulated with a lower concentration of retinol and in a more moisturising base. Products with ingredients like hyaluronic acid will provide good hydration with minimum to no risk of irritation. Eye products that are more gel like are good for puffy eyes. Apply straight from the fridge to help minimise puffiness.

There are a number of non-surgical procedures that can be done to help improve around the eye area.

Carboxytherapy
Carboxytherapy can help brighten up dark circles. In some cases, dark circles are caused by poor circulation. By injecting small amounts of carbon dioxide gas just below the surface of the skin, we are tricking the body into increasing blood supply to the area and improving circulation.
The treatment itself, can take as little as 10 minutes and is pain-free. There is some initial swelling, but this subsides quickly. We recommend a course of 2 to 6 treatments one week apart, depending on the severity and how your body reacts to the treatment.

Fibroblast
Fibroblast treatment is used to tighten the skin, reducing lines and wrinkles around the eyes.
This is done using a plasma pen. The pen uses a metal probe to ionize atmospheric gas between its tip and the gasses that naturally emit from the skin. A plasma charge is then formed, creating an electrical arc. This causes the skin to retract and tighten, leaving a small brown dot. The small brown dots that form will then fall off, usually by the end of the first week, although some people do take slightly longer. There is always some swelling for the first 24/48 hours, after this, the swelling will begin to go down. You should begin to notice differences as soon as the swelling subsides. The skin will continue to improve for 12 weeks after the procedure. The process takes an hour to complete and can be repeated in 12 weeks if necessary.

Dermal filler/hyaluronic acid
The area directly below the eyes is known as the tear trough. Some people are naturally quite hollow in this area, others hollow with age. This is mainly due to structural changes to the bone and fat around the eyes and cheeks, causing the deep fat pads to slip downwards. Changes in the skin also contribute to this, the slowing down of collagen production and general skin laxity results in loss of support and sagging. We can use dermal filler to fill this area.
Not all fillers are suitable for this procedure, and currently, there is only one type of filler that is licensed for it. The filler needs to be placed very carefully, in tiny amounts underneath the muscle. This fills the space and changes the way the light reflects on the area, making the eyes appear brighter.
As previously noted, as we age, changes to the bone structure and fat pads, mean that we need to treat mid and lateral cheeks before we treat the tear troughs. This creates the structure and support needed for the best outcome. Tear trough treatment can be done in as little as half an hour and lasts 9 to 12 months.
As always, be sure to use a medically trained practitioner for all your injectable treatments.