[Guy] Need help with under-eye

Hi,

I am a guy who suffers from insane dark circles, which come along with my dark Indian skin. It just looks horrible personally and when I smile it looks even worse because it all clutters up like purple and such... 

I was wondering, which type of concealer (or anything) I could use. Can these be used on a daily basis?

Hi! Yes, concealers are going to be your best bet, and they can definitely be worn on a daily basis. I normally would suggest an eye cream to help you minimize your dark circles as well, but I'm not sure how effective it would be, considering your dark circles are based on your skin tone, and not on lack of sleep or constant rubbing. You can certainly help the situation by avoiding eye contact as much as possible though. Every time you rub the delicate skin around your eyes, tiny capillaries burst and essentially, bleed and create a bruise under the eye, which is what we see as a dark circle. Yours are definitely genetic, so while you won't be able to completely take them away, you can certainly take care to not make them worse. When you apply concealer, or a brightening eye cream, for instance, very gently tap it onto the skin using your ring finger. This is the finger on your hand with the least amount of strength, and so will put the least amount of pressure on the skin. When you remove your concealer each night (never sleep with it on), use a cotton pad/cotton round/cotton ball, never a towel, which is way too rough on the delicate eye area.

For your dark circles, I would suggest a concealer with a decent amount of pigment in it, like Dermablend Quick Fix Concealer or their Smoorh Liquid Camo Concealer. Dermablend is a brand that adds a lot more pigment to their products than most brands, so it will cover a lot more, while still looking natural. Their main advertisement shows them using their body foundation on a man entirely covered in tattoos, and you can't even tell he has any once they're done. 

Now, how you apply it is going to matter as well. For the most natural look, I would use a beauty sponge, like the Beauty Blender, and hold it under the water, squeezing it a few times so it soaks up water, then ring it out as much as possible, so that you're left with a damp sponge. After you apply your concealer with your ring finger, (and a little goes a long way! Remember, you can always add more, but if you use too much, you'll have to start all over) use the damp sponge to lightly dab at the concealer until it's blended out. Then, I would use a translucent powder to set the concealer. This will make sure it lasts all day, and doesn't crease when you smile. Use a powder brush and a light hand with the powder. You don't need much. I would suggest something like RCMA No Color Powder, which you can purchase on Amazon, in a big container for cheap. It really is an amazing powder too.

Remove your makeup each night with either makeup removing wipes (Neutrogena is a great brand and have several different types, depending on your type of skin), or a facial cleanser that dissolves makeup. And remember to always pat dry, don't rub. 

Hopefully this helps! Please don't hesitate to ask any more questions that you might have! /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

100% agree. This is a great post @afwifehudson... Just like your other ones!  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

@ Thank you so much! That means a lot coming from you!! /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

Hello there,

To help with the dark circles you could try advance night repair cream by estee lauder. It is ment to help with dark circles, fine lines, puffiness and wrinkles. For some reason this seems to help brighten the skin around the eye area. You could mix this in with concealer if you choose to wear it. I use this once or twice a day and found this to be a very effective product☺ hope this is of help to you

I have a different opinion.

In the first photo you look nice but the second photo is too dark and doesnt make you look nice. So. If I consider from the first photo...you dont need concealer.

I think the only thing you can do is to use turmeric as you are from india and lighten these "circles" with turmeric mask. If you have oily skin add water. If you have dry add honey.

I wouldnt try makeup for your case.

Add just be more confident.

At last...if you want something extra try a natural based eye cream,and put it after the mask (rinse the mask,dry the skin with a cloth and then put the cream or something else like aloe vera gel under the eyes.not too close to the eye,but around it in a 8 shape)

Good luck.

Thanks to all of you wonderful people for help.

These are genetic, everyone from my mother's side has these dark circles, it really sucks /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> 

I'm going to try the tumeric mask and see the changes. Meanwhile,

I am really considering this Dermablend Quick Fix Concealer quick fix concealer, but I wasn't able to match up any of the shades with my skin color.  Mind giving me a hand? One of the browns was close, but didn't completely match.

Thanks!

Makeup will look funny if you havent the skills. Unfortunately this will be the case at first. Then you will become good at this. Although i feel you dont need makeup. But in terms of application a concealer on its own it will look funny because you wont have the rest of the face makeup. It will look strange alone.i dont know if you want to put foundation too,to blend the concealer in your skin in order not to look concealer-circle.

Seek help from your mother or sister if you have ,just to belnd it and apply it appropriately.

If you blend in the concealer fully, and manage to get the right shade for your skin, then you can certainly wear concealer by itself. I do it all the time when I don't want to wear a lot of makeup. The trick is getting a shade that matches the skin tone on the rest of your face. A lot of girls buy concealer that is one shade lighter than their skin tone, for a brightening effect, and then blend it with their foundation to look seamless and contoured. You are not going to that length. Test out a concealer on your jawline to match it to your face, and then use it on your under eye to make your face all one color. The key to this is simply to blend it. Using a sponge will give you a natural finish bc a sponge is porous, like the skin, and thus, it will mimic the skin, unlike a brush. If you feel the concealer is standing out under your eyes, then you can add a bit to the center of your forehead, bridge of the nose, and a bit on the chin, to balance it out. Just make sure to set the concealer anywhere you put it, with powder, so it doesn't run, especially in the heat, as you will sweat and it will run.

As far as shade matching goes, it's going to be tough to match you to the correct shade via photo. Different computers have different lighting settings, so what I see isn't going to be as accurate as someone in person. The only thing I can suggest is to ask a beauty store employee to assist you, or make an educated guess using the "find my shade" feature on the Dermablend website. If it's the wrong shade for you, definitely return it, as they have an excellent return policy. 

Of course, I am a big fan of skin care being the basis and first response to any skin issue. And I encourage you to try any mask, brightening eye cream or other skin care suggestion you come across, but just know that you will not see an immediate difference. If it can even be done, which with a genetic skin condition, will be difficult, it will take time before you see a difference. But stick with it! It may be a few months, but it definitely won't work if you only use it for a week. For now, I hope the concealer helps!

afwifehudson said:

If you blend in the concealer fully, and manage to get the right shade for your skin, then you can certainly wear concealer by itself. I do it all the time when I don't want to wear a lot of makeup. The trick is getting a shade that matches the skin tone on the rest of your face. A lot of girls buy concealer that is one shade lighter than their skin tone, for a brightening effect, and then blend it with their foundation to look seamless and contoured. You are not going to that length. Test out a concealer on your jawline to match it to your face, and then use it on your under eye to make your face all one color. The key to this is simply to blend it. Using a sponge will give you a natural finish bc a sponge is porous, like the skin, and thus, it will mimic the skin, unlike a brush. If you feel the concealer is standing out under your eyes, then you can add a bit to the center of your forehead, bridge of the nose, and a bit on the chin, to balance it out. Just make sure to set the concealer anywhere you put it, with powder, so it doesn't run, especially in the heat, as you will sweat and it will run.

As far as shade matching goes, it's going to be tough to match you to the correct shade via photo. Different computers have different lighting settings, so what I see isn't going to be as accurate as someone in person. The only thing I can suggest is to ask a beauty store employee to assist you, or make an educated guess using the "find my shade" feature on the Dermablend website. If it's the wrong shade for you, definitely return it, as they have an excellent return policy. 

Of course, I am a big fan of skin care being the basis and first response to any skin issue. And I encourage you to try any mask, brightening eye cream or other skin care suggestion you come across, but just know that you will not see an immediate difference. If it can even be done, which with a genetic skin condition, will be difficult, it will take time before you see a difference. But stick with it! It may be a few months, but it definitely won't work if you only use it for a week. For now, I hope the concealer helps!

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Hey! I'd like to thank you for writing all this up for me, I really appreciate it!! I hope you don't mind me having a few questions:

I've tried these vitamin-C solutions before, but it just doesn't work. I think the dark circles might have worsened from fat loss too (lost 60ish lbs -- face literally contracted haha) but mostly genetic (since my mother's side has it). Despite that, as the makeup/everything-beauty master you are  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> I'll definitely take your suggestion and try some eye creams once I find some (any suggestions?) 

Another question (just in case) I don't know how my skin will react with the concealers (many people have said it makes your skin wrinkly or simply bad overtime) should I be using some type of skin creams to keep the skin healthy overall? 

Thanks a lot again, really really really appreciate it!  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

@@IndianGuy1 I would always use an eye cream, just because it's good for your skin. I have lots of men ask me for skin care advice, and I always tell them (and anyone else) that moisture is the first defense against aging and wrinkles. Adding moisture to the skin makes it supple and boosts elasticity. That way, when we make facial expressions, and then relax, instead of our skin staying in that position that we wrinkled it into to smile or frown, it's elastic enough to bounce back to it's original smoothness. Everyone. Needs. Moisture. Even if you have the oiliest skin of life, the sebum (oil) that your skin is putting out is not enough to keep your face moisturized. Plus, when our face produces it's natural oils, it usually mixes with sweat, or bacteria from anything we eat, drink or medication we take that comes out of our pores right along with it. So, obviously we don't want that sitting on our skin. We wash it off and replace it with an oil-free moisturizer, balancing our skin's PH.

Concealers aren't as bad as you think. They are only going to be worn for 8-12 hrs a day usually, on top of eye cream, and are removed each night, followed by more eye cream. I know 8-12 hours might sound like a lot, but that's usually not taking into consideration that there will be days you won't wear it, like when you're not leaving the house. Even with how much you're wearing it though, as long as you're not rubbing it on really hard -which will damage the skin around your eyes- then it's not going to have any long term side effects. 

Now, with that being said, there are definitely some concealers that have some extra ingredients that are good for your under eyes! One of my personal favorites is TheBalm's Time Balm Concealerm which has some anti-aging ingredients, and is very thin, but full coverage as hell lol. And it comes in a full shade range:



There are a lot of other concealers that have anti-aging benefits to them, like It Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye Anti-Aging Concealer which has amazing reviews and is also full coverage (meaning it will give you the best coverage of your dark circles possible, as opposed to a sheer or medium coverage). The only problem with that one is that it only comes in 4 shades I believe. I'm not aware of any concealers that will brighten your under eye over time. I'd leave that one to your eye cream.

So, for your eye cream, you need something with ingredients like caffeine, retinol, green tea polyphenol, arnica and vitamin K. Those are the ingredients that will have the strongest and best long term effects for you. Since yours is a genetic issue, along with a possible iron deficiency (which you may also have with your weight loss. Congrats btw!!!) I would probably suggest something of a pharmaceutical grade. Topix Pharmaceuticals makes an eye cream called Replenix Intensive Eye Lightening Serum. It's a bit on the pricey side, but dermatologists recommend this to their patients with hyper pigmentation like yours. I have a friend that is a master esthetician, and she recommends this a lot too. It's a bit on the pricey side at $65 roughly, but any eye treatment worth it's salt is going to probably run you about that. It's also not a cream, but a serum, which is more concentrated and will have more long term effects. You apply it the same way you would an eye cream, by patting it on very gently with your ring finger, morning and night. Wait until it completely dries before applying concealer. You can buy it on Amazon btw! /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

You can definitely do your own research using the ingredients I listed above, and try to find something less expensive. I also like to use a caffiene based organic eye cream every morning, and it wakes me right up and de-puffs my eyes almost instantly! It's called ​100% Pure Coffee Bean Caffeinated Eye Cream ($21). That one won't be strong enough to erase your dark circles on it's own, but it's main ingredient is caffeine, which will help, and it's awakening powers are legendary haha. Usually, people use a serum, which is targeted toward a specific problem that they want to take care of long term, like dark circles or chronic dehydration, and then use a cream on top for moisture. That's totally optional for you, of course.  

You are very welcome!! Don't hesitate to ask me any question ever, and feel free to message me any time as well! I am a beauty consultant, so this is what I do and I absolutely love it!! /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

@@IndianGuy1 I would also have your doctor run a blood panel for any vitamin deficiencies! You may need an iron supplement. Sometimes, when we lose weight, the result (although fabulous looking and healthy!) is a body lacking in certain vital nutrients. We are what we eat! Healthy eating always helps with healthy skin, but sometimes we need a little extra help. I myself take a few supplements so I make sure my body has everything it needs! /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

There are many creams which you can use to get rid off, some how I really agree with afwifehudson.

The tightening and moisture retention power of Witch Hazel could be beneficial.