Quick Fixes for Puffy Eyes

Get morning help for a sleepless night with natural remedies for reducing dark, puffy, under-eye circles.

By Ilona French

Picture this: It’s early in the morning, you’re alarm is blaring, and you would give away your right arm for just another half hour of slumber. But you can’t go back to sleep because you have to be someplace important. The problem is you really didn’t get enough sleep. And when you finally do drag your lifeless body out of bed and catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror, you realize you’re eyes resemble puffed pastry, after it has plumped in the oven—and after you take a shower to freshen up, you are positive the under-eye puffiness won’t go away without help.

Whether you were dancing until the wee hours of the morning, cramming for a midterm, or tending to a newborn, lack of sleep can have a serious effect on the sensitive eye area. What’s more, stress plays a key role in the way your eyes look. “Stress ages eyes by robbing us of deep, slow-wave sleep—the super restorative kind that’s essential to the youth and health of our whole body,” says Amy Wechsler, MD, from New York, New York-based Dr. Amy Wechsler Dermatology. “In short, getting too little shuteye sets off a series of skin problems—inflammation, leaky capillaries, and poor waste removal. Fluids that should be carted away while you sleep never get picked up. In your face, the excess liquid has to go somewhere, so it pools in the delicate tissue under the eyes.” The result is dark, puffy, under-eye circles.

A dab of makeup concealer is a snappy solution for harsh under-eye circles, but you must reduce puffiness first.

Make Puffiness Go Poof

Who has time to apply anti-puff products and wait days for them to take effect? Not you. You need to fix the problem quickly. To help reduce the appearance of under-eye puffiness, Dr. Wechsler suggests trying any of the following four natural remedies, using things you probably already have at home:

Be as Cool as a Cucumber. We’ve all heard how good cucumbers are for the skin. Many spas offer hydrating treatments made of crushed cucumbers and countless products line the beauty supply shelves touting cucumber as an ingredient. And for good reason—cucumbers contain vitamin C and caffeic acid, two antioxidants that, when applied to the skin, help fend off wrinkles, sun damage, and more. Vitamin C helps build collagen and elastin, those protein fibers that give skin its youthful plumpness. Caffeic acid inhibits cancer cells and protects skin cells exposed to UV radiation.

To use the benefits of cucumbers to reduce eye puffiness, slightly puree half a cucumber and 2–3 tablespoons of plain yogurt in the blender. The mixture should be thick, not drippy. Pat the concoction all over your face and neck. Leave on for approximately 15 minutes, rinse, and take pleasure in how good your skin feels.

Also, refrigerated, round-sliced cucumbers fit neatly over eye sockets, where they act as mini icepacks and relieve puffy lids. Cucumbers are 90% water, which helps them stay chilly even on hot spots. The cold minimizes the swelling by constricting the blood and lymph vessels that bring fluid to the eye area.

Quench Skin with Milk. Milk (whole, not skim) naturally soothes irritated, puffy eyes. Other ingredients in milk that calm swollen skin include protein, amino acids, lactic acid, and vitamins A and D.

Take advantage of these benefits by making a milk bath. Pour milk into a bowl of ice so it gets really cold, saturate a clean washcloth, and apply to eyes for up to 15 minutes. Soak and reapply when the cloth loses its cool.

Mind Your Peas and Qs. While any bag of frozen food will suffice, frozen baby peas fit perfectly into the nooks and crannies around the eyes. Put a soft cloth around the plastic package to protect skin from the frigid surface. Apply for 5–15 minutes while the cold shrinks the swelling.

Spoon Before Noon. A spoon offers the ideal shape and temperature conductor needed to revive puffy eyes and a tired body. Dunk a spoon into a glass of ice water until it’s really cold, approximately 30 seconds. Nestle the curved back of the spoon into the hollow of your eye, gently rolling it around, for another 30 seconds; then rechill it and do the other eye. Repeat if necessary. The cold will bring the puffy swelling down in a flash.

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