How to tackle thinning skin around your eyes

Here we tackle one of your most commonly cited eye complaints – thinning skin – covering everything from quick make-up fixes to surgery…

The make-up: Top make-up artist Caroline Barnes suggests carrying an eye cream with you during the day, ‘to pat over your makeup after application and throughout the day to maintain hydration.’ Would any cream do? In theory, yes, but eye creams work especially well for this as they tend to feel lighter. Correctors/ concealers will help, of course (see dark circles), and to freshen eyes further, use the old-school trick of lining the waterline of your eyes with a soft off-white Kohl pencil, such as Charlotte Tilbury’s Iconic Liquid Eye Liner Pencil in Eye Cheat, BUY NOW £19.

The products: Respected chemist and founder of beauty brand Lixir Colette Haydon says, ‘I believe there is no such thing as a cream which is good for one part of your skin and not the other.’ In other words, use your usual anti-ageing/hydrating skincare all around your eyes and you’ll be doing all you can – we have yet to test a cream that thickens the skin, but we live in hope.

The treatment: Resurfacing. Thinning skin affects the whole eye area and will exacerbate dark circles, crepiness and bags. The best way to tackle it at the moment is via some form of heat resurfacing, which is safe to use around the eyes (no bright laser lights), and relatively straight forward.

The theory goes that the heat inflicts controlled damage to the dermis, prompting it to heal. Cue lots of lovely new collagen and elastic cells and (hopefully) plumper, tighter skin. Tixel, which has been described as a ‘waffle iron for crow’s feet’, delivers a ‘controlled burn’ using nothing more or less fancy than a very high temperature delivered via metal rods. (Our tester had it done with Dr Tapan Patel and felt her lines were softened and eyelids tighter.)

Or you can try radio frequency, which again is a means of delivering heat into the skin. We rate a version called Scarlet, which combines radio frequency with needling and is available at Dr Sebagh’s clinic. Or book in with advanced facialist Teresa Tarmey who can prescribe a bespoke combination of radio frequency and fractionated radio frequency (the latter is similar to Scarlet, with a combination of heat and needles). ‘I particularly noticed the difference with the combined radio frequency and needling treatments,’ says Red’s beauty director Annabel Meggeson. ‘And I like the fact you can use them all around the eye, including the lid. They’re not too painful and the downtime is minimal, so they’re accessible as treatments go, too. You need to be committed to repeat treatments to really see a benefit, though.’

Via: Red