Skin Care For Your Eyes & Lips

You can often tell a lot about a person simply by looking into their eyes, which is perhaps why the eyes are often referred to as “the windows to the soul”. It is not only your eyes however, that speak volumes about you, as the skin around your eyes can also communicate its own message.

People who have bags under their eyes for example, tend to be perceived as being tired. Whilst those who have lots of wrinkles in the corners of their eyes, are often perceived as having lived a hard life. Ideally, the skin around the eyes should appear smooth, soft and wrinkle free.

But in order to obtain or maintain such an appearance, it takes a special skin care ritual that differs from the one normally practiced on the face.

Understanding The Skin Around Your Eyes

All of the skin that sits in the hollow of your eye socket is classed as being eye skin. This includes all the skin underneath the eyebrows, on the sides of the eyes, underneath your eyes and the skin that extends across the uppermost bridge of your nose.

An important point to remember when dealing with the eye area, is that your eye skin is a lot thinner than the skin on the rest of your face.

The only exception to this is the skin on the outsides of your eyes, near your temples, as this skin is more similar to the skin on your face. It is still however, prone to early wrinkles and expression lines which are sometimes referred to as crow’s feet.

Unfortunately, wrinkles around the corners of your eyes can never be fully prevented, because due to the location of the skin, it will eventually develop some fine lines. But you can prevent those lines from turning into deep wrinkles by having a good skin care routine.

Why You Need To Use Eye Cream

The trouble with using the same moisturizer for your eye area as you do for your face, is that face moisturizers are too thick for the delicate skin that surrounds your eyes. A common side effect of using a standard face cream around the eyes is milia, which are small whiteheads that develop on the skin surrounding the eyes.

Face creams can also get into your eyes and cause irritation. This occurs because once the cream has been absorbed into the skin, it tends to migrate into other areas. You will know when this happens because your eyes will feel watery and your vision will temporarily get worse or become blurry.

Treating Milia

If you have developed milia after using a face cream around your eye area, one of the best ways to get rid of the small whiteheads are with a salicylic acid exfoliant.

Unfortunately however, this only works for soft milia that haven’t fully hardened. The trouble is, unless you are deliberately looking for milia, the ones you do find will probably already have hardened.

At this point, your best option is to have them removed by a dermatologist or cosmetic surgeon.

Using An Eye Cream

Skin care for the eye area should involve the use of a product which has been specifically formulated for use around the eyes, such as an eye cream.

Eye creams are much lighter than regular face moisturizers so as not to irritate the eyes, yet are still moisturizing enough to keep the skin moist. An ideal eye cream is one that firms, is fragrance free, energizes, moisturizes and is quickly absorbed into the skin.

For added benefit, look for eye creams containing vitamins/antioxidants such as vitamin C, vitamin E and green tea, and/or contain peptides such as Argireline (Acetyl Hexapetide-3), Hyloxyl (Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7) or Matrixy (Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-3).

Most eye creams come in a very small bottle or jar. They should however, last you a long time because you don’t need to use much as you are only using it around the eyes.

How To Apply

To apply an eye cream, start by placing a small amount above and beneath the eye (the orbital bone) in a gentle tapping motion with your ring finger. Start at the outer edge and tap the cream towards the inner eye, being careful not to get the cream in your lashes.

Eye cream will migrate somewhat once it has been applied to the skin, so be sure to apply the cream a good distance away from the skin that sits at the very top and bottom of each eye. This is important because if cream gets into the tear ducts along your lash line, it can block important eye excretions and cause dry eyes or boils.

You should apply eye cream as part of your regular skin care routine in the morning and at night.

Retin A

Whilst Retin A can be very effective at removing fine lines and wrinkles, you should avoid using it on the skin in the hollow of your eye socket because it is much too sensitive to be treated with Retin A. If you do, it could irritate your eyes and even damage them.

It is ok however, to use Retin A eye cream on the outside corners of your eyes, on the crow’s-feet.

Caring For Your Eyes

The skin that surrounds your eyes is very often a reflection of your current lifestyle. Below are some of the most common symptoms of an unhealthy lifestyle to look out for and a description of what they mean.

Dark Circles

The area under your eye accumulates bodily waste products. To clear this out, you need to get your lymphatic system moving.

This can be done by regular aerobic exercise, yoga, dry brushing your body or performing a lymph drainage facial. You can expect to see results in about two to three months.

Some people however, may experience dark circles as a result of hormonal changes or because they are genetically predisposed to developing them. So be aware that you may not always be able to get the type of results that you are hoping for.

Eye Bags

Baggy eyes are a common symptom of a lack of sleep and/or sleeping with your head in a position that is level with your body. As a preventative measure, sleep with your head in an elevated position (such as on two pillows) to prevent water and waste from pooling underneath the eyes.

Bags underneath the eyes can also signal health problems, such as allergies. Most of the time, these are allergies to yeast, dairy, alcohol or wheat products. So if you can never seem to get rid of the bags under your eyes, no matter what you do, then it might be a good idea to get yourself tested for common allergies.

For temporary relief from bags underneath the eyes, place a used tea bag or a slice of potato under the eyes and lie down for 10-15 minutes.

Fine Lines/Wrinkles

Fine lines around the eyes are characteristic of a person who doesn’t drink much water and doesn’t moisturize their face. If this applies to you, then increasing your intake of fresh water and moisturizing your face should be the first thing that you try.

If drinking water and moisturizing your face doesn’t result in any noticeable improvement, then you may need to use a firming lotion to help minimize the appearance of your fine lines or wrinkles.

You may also want to consider doing facial exercises to strengthen the muscles around the eyes, as this will help to firm the skin and reduce the appearance of wrinkles.

Crow’s Feet

Crow’s feet begin as expression lines that occur when you laugh or squint your eyes. To help prevent the appearance of crow’s-feet, eye exercises are recommended as is regular skin exfoliation and moisturization.

If you have very deep wrinkles around the corners of your eyes, you may want to consider the use of a Retin A eye cream. Alternatively, a chemical peel, such as a TCA peel, or laser skin resurfacing, can be used in more advanced cases where there are deep wrinkles present.

Skin Care For Your Lips

The lips are often seen as a sign of youthfulness and sex appeal. A great example of this can be found with Angelina Jolie.

Angelina Jolie’s large fulsome lips signal health, vitality, and of course, sex appeal. As a result, her lips are partly responsible for her now being regarded as one of the most beautiful women in the world.

Although not everyone has the lips of Angelina Jolie, it is possible to improve the lusciousness of your lips even before you begin to apply makeup.

This is something that is certainly worth taking the time to educate yourself about, because as we age, the lips naturally become thinner, lose their fullness and start to fade in color.

So let’s have a look at some of the ways to improve the appearance of your lips to make them look fuller and more succulent regardless of your age.

Exfoliate

One of the best ways to exfoliate your lips is to apply a chemical exfoliant to the area of skin that surrounds your lips.

This is the area where fine lines and wrinkles start to develop as you age, and something which will occur much more quickly if you smoke. For women who apply lipstick and have a wrinkled mouth, they may even notice lipstick bleeding into these lines causing them to look ungroomed and sloppy.

By exfoliating the area of skin that surrounds your mouth, you can help to reduce the appearance of these wrinkles whilst also rebuilding the underlying collagen that supports the skin.

To exfoliate your lips, you can use a regular facial scrub to gently remove dead cells from the surface of your skin. This will also stimulate blood flow, thereby giving your lips a more youthful and vibrant looking appearance.

Moisturize

One of the most obvious signs of dehydration is dry and cracked lips, because the lips require a lot of moisture to remain plump and retain their fullness. So if you don’t drink very much water throughout the day, or do not moisturize your lips, then they are likely to dry out quickly.

But be careful if you drink bottled water to keep yourself hydrated, because as these news reports show, people who drink a lot of bottled water tend to get wrinkles around the mouth (smoker’s lips)  much sooner than those who don’t drink bottled water.

Licking your lips is one way to temporarily moisten them. However, this should be avoided because in the long run, it will only dry them out and leave you with chapped lips.

To moisten your lips, start the day by applying your regular face cream, and then throughout the day, periodically apply lip gloss, lip balm or a lip cream. These will often contain natural humectants which serve to lock moisture into the skin, thereby helping them to remain plump and crack free throughout the day.

If you spend a lot of time outside, then you may need a heavier type of lip cream that is thicker and more waxy to prevent your lips from drying out. Ideally, this should also include a sunscreen with UVA and UVB protection to prevent the formation of wrinkles associated with photosensitive aging.

Thinking Your Way To Luscious Lips

Apart from the skincare guidelines given above, the type of thoughts that you have and your general attitude towards life, plays an extremely important role in determining how your lips look.

For example, if you spend most of the day thinking negative thoughts or worrying about things, then you are likely to have slightly downturned lip corners which then makes you look unhappy. You are also likely to develop tense and thin lips, which can then accelerate the formation of wrinkles around the mouth.

Having a positive mindset or mood however, has the opposite effect. When you are happy, the lips naturally relax. This helps to give them a fuller appearance and reduces the rate at which mouth wrinkles develop.

So try to keep yourself positive and stress free throughout the day, and avoid tensing your lips unnecessarily.