Oh god I feel your pain
I have terrible dark circles and despite being fairly decent with my skincare, they're hereditary so don't shift. I think being in the industry makes it harder because people really expect you to get rid of all their skin woes and for yourself to have an issue you can't budge with, it makes me feel like people don't take me as seriously.
I am thinking of switching my skincare range but for now, I conceal with make up. I need to remember that skincare can't shift much due to the cause of the circles, but of course I still stay naively hopeful
I have looked into treatments but of course they say that hereditary dark circles are caused by thin skin and the blood vessels showing through so there's really not much we can do.
The only options I know of is to
- Get fillers to help reduce the 'sunken look'
- Use products with Vitamin K so the skin is thickened and the circles may be less prominent however success rates haven't exactly been all that great
I've also read somewhere that you can get excess blood drained so it's not that prominent but it's certainly not something I've looked into.
Most suggestions I see for concealers are Laura Mercier or Jane Iredale. For myself, these are some of the mistakes I've made in the past
- Using a shade too dark which doesn't match the rest of my face
- Using a shade too light that makes my dark circles look 'ashy'
- Concealing before foundation which makes the concealer just rub off
- Not setting the concealer - again just rubs off
- Using Touch Eclat by YSL, this is a highlighter that is meant to help with signs of fatigue, completely made my dark circles ashy
This is what I try to do now which works better. I have yet to perfect the art, but these tips have really helped me.
- Using the right colour, slightly lighter than your natural skin colouring, a bit of salmon, not too orange, not too yellow. People will give you all sort of random advice, use a few shades lighter! Use purple to counteract sallowness! Use orange! You MUST try out the concealer in natural light.
- Set the concealer with a very light dusting of powder.
- Make sure that your eye cream is absorbed properly and is not too emollient if you have fine lines
- Most important: Blend and use less! I used to place concealer JUST wherever there was dark. This makes them MORE noticeable. Now I do a light base of concealer all over and then go over with more product in specific areas: the inner corner of the eye, straight down in a line and then following the curve of where the darkness blends into the rest of the face. What this does is help create the illusion of even skin, the dark circles blend into the skin rather than are just highlighted. I did an awful drawing on paint trying to demonstrate this but I realized this isn't an email and I can't just upload a picture haha.:o
This is going to sound silly, but in this world where all women are constantly scrutinizing themselves, it's important for ourselves to accept our flaws. Although I wish I didn't have dark circles, I try to spend a lot of time with no make up on, especially grocery trips and errands. There's nothing wrong with looking human.
xx