In all my 13 years working within the beauty industry, the eye area always comes up on top for the most concerned area on the face when talking ageing…
It’s the first area that starts to show age, as it is so active with expression as well as the skin around the eye is so thin and delicate, causing dehydration and expression lines, especially if your eyes are deep-set – the muscles around the eye lift higher as the eyes are more sunken, the more forward your eyes, the less lines you will have, like the Asian eye – #Lucky!
Then there is that lovely concern we all hate called puffiness…
It can happen under the eye, normally due to lack of sleep or allergies, but can also appear around the eye socket – this usually happens more into the ageing process as the skin gets weaker and cannot support itself anymore, becoming weak and then puffy, with excess fluids around the eye taking over, how exciting – NOT!
Before we even start with makeup tips, there is one thing we all need to stop and think about drainage!
Puffiness is basically excess fluid trapped in the eye area and if left untreated, a build up over time can occur and it is much harder to get rid of.
See for yourself…
Scare you enough? Good!
We need to drain away this excess fluid and it really is so simple, circulation.
When you have a facial, half the time we are so relaxed, or if you are like me – asleep, that we don’t take too much notice of the techniques used, but we know it feels good.
The piano style finger movements, over our eyes is a form of drainage and we can do this at home…
I once upon a time was flying 35 trips a year and often would have a 6am flight most weeks…. This is torture, but I always had compliments on how fresh I looked – my secret weapons? Drainage around the eyes and concealer!
I too woke up puffy, but knowing I would step off a plane to a room full of women wanting to learn makeup tips, I knew what I had to do…
How to drain your eye fluid daily:
In the morning, do not use any thick or rich eye creams, these take longer to absorb into the eye and are not as cooling… I would always use a gel style product, one that was stimulating if possible – eg: contained caffeine etc…
I would then apply dabs around my orbital bone (above cheekbone, lower eye socket) and start dabbing with my ring finger (softer touch as less nerve endings) from my lower eye, inner tear duct area, away and outwards, up into the top eye area and around in a full circle – this helps circulate and reduce fluid from the eye as you are pushing it away from the centre of the face where it can become trapped.
MB PRO TIP: Whatever eye you are working on for drainage, it’s important to start at the lower inner tear duct and always dab outwards into a fill circle around the eye and it truly is amazing by doing that for a minute or two makes the biggest difference to how much more fresh you appear! The dabbing allows product to cool and penetrate easily, while full outwards circle removes and guides fluid way from its trapped centre area.
We are now back in business with a flatter eye area, which is much easier for makeup application…
Applying this eye draining technique daily, even for a minute a day, will avoid build up so later in life you are not left with excessive puffiness.
I can honestly say I never have puffy eyes as I do this technique every time I apply eye cream, so there is no build up to worry about – because you’re worth it!
Makeup tips for lifting the eye by reducing puffiness:
It is important to know that when puffiness has occurred, the only way to get rid of it is by the use of shade tones, meaning darker than your skin tone.
The darker you go the more the puffiness will recede away.
For the top of eye, in your eye socket, the smokey eye works best and important to know the intensity is up to you – anything, even if only slightly deeper than your skin tone is better than leaving it bare or using a light eye shadow.
The use of deeper tones like your bronzer or a brown, grey, taupe etc will help push the puffiness back, so really as we age we need deeper tones, but applied in a soft blended manner.
This look from Mila Kunis and the shape of her eye shadow (applied higher into the eye socket) would be perfect for anyone suffering from puffiness – the depth will push back any puffiness, using light would make it look more puffy and very obvious, especially in photos with a flash.
You choose your intensity, but you must apply a shade tone over the puffy area and this will lift and open the eye immediately.
For the lower eye area, we cannot obviously apply a dark eye shadow over the puffy area, but we can apply a deeper tone concealer – think peach/orange – this will push back your puffiness, eliminate dark shadows and then if you apply a lighter concealer right underneath where the base of the puff sits, in the indented visible line, the tones balance out and appear more flat – everything in makeup is about highlight and shade to create balance.
I find once puffiness is reduced from your eyes, your eyes are lifted immediately and appear youthful and fresh and it is so simple to achieve this daily.
Other ways to lift your eyes:
1. Outer Eye Line Angle
Don’t follow your natural top outer eye line and make sure you place a pencil from the outer nostril and run it diagonally upwards to your outer eye, then up to your brow – this will give you the lifted angle you want to make sure your eye shadow and eye liner both are following this lifted angle when applied.
2. Brow Thickness
If you have a very small space of skin from lash line to brow, arch your brow more when shaping to created a peak and lift… If you have a large space of skin, then you will need a fuller brow to balance this out so the skin does not take over and appear hooded, especially in photos with a flash.
If you have hooded or puffy eyes, do not apply an eyeliner alone, or create a too much of a winged/cat eye….
Applying eyeliner only with no shadow will show off the fact you have a hooded/puffy eye more, shading must be applied with it.
If you create a cat eye shape, you are pulling the eye outwards, but will still have puffiness, try a rounder eye shadow application instead as then you will lift the centre of the eye where the puffiness is present.
4. Lashes
If applying a lot of eye shadow id not your thing, applying a thick coat of mascara or even better applying false lashes will create depth and lift immediately – lashes are quick and no shadow disasters – think Kim Kardashian’s eyes, always lifted as her lashes create depth.
So ladies, who has time for slicing cucumber, placing cold spoons or tea bags for minutes at a time in the morning…
Get to the root of the problem and start the drainage technique today to avoid fluid build up, keeping your eyes fresh and lifted – add some eye shading and you are new woman!