The skin around your eyes is some of the thinnest on your body, which means it lacks the ability to produce collagen as effectively as other areas of skin on your body. It's why wrinkles around your eyes are some of the first to appear. Whether the result of expression lines or simply sagging skin, eye wrinkles can make you look older than you really are. The first line of defense is prevention, after which the right creams and skin care can help keep eye wrinkles at bay.
Step 1
Wear sunscreen whenever you're exposed to the sun. Debra Price, M.D., clinical assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Miami School of Medicine says that the sun can damage the thin skin around the eyes, making it more prone to wrinkling. Wearing sunglasses can also help to relieve some of the recurring squinting motion that can cause wrinkles around the eyes. If you're a smoker, quit. The smoke causes you to squint and puts you at risk for deep expression lines.
Step 2
Apply a good-quality, emollient moisturizer around the eyes every day, suggests Columbia University Health Services. Proper hydration can help the skin around the eyes stay plump and young-looking. Take care when applying the cream around eyes to avoid the actual eye, as the ingredients can be very irritating.
Step 3
Invest in a cream made especially for the thin skin around the eyes that contains retinoids. "Glamour" magazine recommends retinoids, which help to speed cell turnover, diminish fine lines around the eyes and can even help to stimulate collagen production to get rid of persistent crow's-feet around the eyes. Most retinoids can be purchased in over-the-counter wrinkle cream, while others may need to be prescribed by your dermatologist.
Step 4
Exfoliate your skin using a cleanser or scrub that contains glycolic acid. While traditional abrasive scrubs are too strong for the delicate skin around the eyes, glycolic acid is an alpha hydroxy or fruit acid, which can help dissolve away dead skin cells that cause the skin around the eyes to look dull. Exfoliation helps to reveal younger-looking, new skin to keep your eyes looking fresh.
Step 5
Schedule an appointment with your dermatologist to talk about injectable fillers, which serve to plump up deep lines around the eyes, or Botox, which immobilizes the muscles responsible for expression lines around the eyes, suggests the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. While both procedures should always be done by a doctor, they are both outpatient procedures that only take a few minutes and a few hours to a day or so of recovery time. The results from either procedure last from three to six months.
Things You'll Need
- Sunglasses
- Sunscreen
- Moisturizer
- Retinoid cream
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