March 26, 2015

How to Reduce Puffy Eyes Because the Struggle is Real

puffy eyes

How to reduce puffy eyes? Well, I’m here to disappoint you! There is no quick, easy way to get rid of puffy eyes no matter what Cosmo is telling you! Today my eye puff is extra bad due to lack of sleep. And no, I swear I wasn’t up all night WOWing and slamming back Mountain Dew Code Red (I’d be in the hospital if that was the case). Actually I was eating bags of Cheetos and playing Five Nights at Freddy’s 3.

Damn I wish it went down like that! But actually I laid in bed starting at my bedroom ceiling until like 4:15 AM and proceeded to finally fall asleep only to be woken up at 5 by my alarm.

Joy.

Needless to say I looked in the mirror and realized I’d scare small children and animals if I left the house without doing some damage control.

So here’s the tricks of the trade to rid yourself of puffy eyes or at the very least become presentable to the world!

Generally puffy or swollen eyes are caused by fluid retention when you’re a bit older but crying, stress, allergies, and too much gaming (believe me, I know this well) can cause eyes to become puffy.

I’ve always been prone to some puffiness when I was younger due to lack of sleep but I’ve found with age that it’s fairly common to wake up with puffy eyes even if I did get a proper night’s rest. Honestly, if your puffiness is causes by aging there’s not a lot you can do about it in my experience aside from getting your hands on GOOD concealer!

Which leads me to my first recommendation….

Concealer!

Get yourself something pigmented, something that blends easily, something that brightens, and something that doesn’t accentuate puffiness or make it look worst. I really like Em The Great Cover Up Concealer as it’s creamy, hydrating, and it doesn’t crease into finer lines plus it brightens up my entire eye area while concealing puffiness and/or darkness.

Em The Great Cover Up Concealer

But before concealer, first thing in the morning, before you even take a shower, try running the cold water in your bathroom sink for a few minutes. Place a wash cloth under the running water for a few minutes and ring it out. Now pat it gently under your eyes and finally just hold it over each eye for a few minutes. The water in my bathroom sink is like ICE water! It runs really cold! If you don’t have cold water from the sink try freezing a bottle of water and before going to bed at night take it out and place it on your bathroom sink. In the morning, you can use it to wet a wash cloth. This really helps depuff my eyes a fair bit and works better than the spoon in the freezer trick.

If you’re a fond fan of Korean beauty you might have some eye packs and masks hanging around. I have several I keep on hand to use in the AM. They provide moisture and some will subtly decrease the look of puffiness.

Beauty Story Platinum Gold Leaf Anti-Aging Eye Mask 3

Kose Clear Turn Q10 Eye Mask

Beauty Story Platinum Bird's Nest Jelly Eye Mask 6

I also like to fill little ziploc snack bags with water and freeze them. These are the perfect size for placing under my eyes. If it’s a late night and lack of sleep that’s causing my puffiness the ice really helps to depuff eyes quickly.

snack bags

If all else fails? Remember that’s why the makeup gods created pigmented concealer and brightening powders! It Cosmetics Bye Bye Undereye Concealer has yet to fail me! It literally covers ALL puffiness and makes me look like I’ve had 14 hours of sleep when I’m only working on one. Add it a little Besame Brightening Powder on top and I can get back to my plans to take over the world.

It Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye Concealer 1

Besame Brightening Vanilla Face Powder7

And if that doesn’t help?

Cool memes do….

hey girl

How do you fight your puffy eyes?

Do share your tips and tricks!

About the Muse

Isabella MuseIsabella is just an average everyday geeky girl who doesn’t blend her eyeshadow correctly, wears too much blush, and hopes she never finds her holy grail products because she likes the thrill of the chase so much. Her mission is to bring you super honest reviews on makeup, skincare, fragrance and all things beauty. She’s in no way an expert on the topic and she sure as hell isn’t a super model. But she’s passionate about makeup and is seeking like-minded individuals that like pina coladas, getting caught in the rain, and ones that enjoy spending hundreds of dollars at Sephora without feeling buyer’s remorse. If you’re that person feel free to reach out and leave a comment or follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Bloglovin‘.

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Comments

  • Dayna

    For me, it was getting to the bottom of the cause in the first place. And the culprit for me was…salt. If I have a salty dinner I wake up with puffy eyes. Cut the salt at night and it has made a big difference! I’m also a huge fan of cucumber slices on the eyes. They don’t do anything special other than cooling, but they smell better than a cold wet rag.

    • Isabella Muse

      i feel that way about teabags and cold spoons, they don’t really work that well for me at all. I prefer a cold, very soft wash cloth! 😀 not so much salt for me, I’m just kinda prone to puff and when I don’t sleep it’s about 100 times worst!

      • Dayna

        What a pain. I’m lucky I don’t suffer from allergies. Though it does make me sad that I have to cut out late night nacho feasts. I was waking up looking like I got in a fight.

  • Camille Marie

    This is going to sound odd, but I read in some kitchen sink book a trick of the trade that really does work! Dip cotton squares in a small amount of cold milk. Slap those bad boys on your eyes for about 5 minutes and BAM bags are gone!

    • Angel

      The milk thing is new to me. I’m def going to give it a try. I’ve tried it all and nothing works. I suffer from allergies but I’m also genetically prone to puffy eyes. When I look at my dad, I see my future and internal cry.

      Sometimes my allergy meds help. And if I’ve eaten a salty dinner, the next morning i pound water and take a diuretic. It helps if its merely a salt issue, but not for general puffs. Sigh. Puffy eyes are the bane of my existence. I swear I’m going to succumb to the knife someday to take them away.

  • d3athbyglitter

    OMG EPIC MEME, HEHEHEHE. XD My skin is psychotically sensitive and I’ve been having terrible eye puffing / irritation due to an environmental issue (long-ish story). We’re moving. But here’s something that has worked AMAZINGLY for me:

    There is a mask made by Swissco filled with little soft beads that can be made freezing cold via freezer, really cold via refrigerator, and warm to very warm via microwave. It’s NOT the mask with the eye holes in it. It’s the one that completely covers the eyes (I have the blue one):

    http://www.swisscollc.com/Spa_Collection-Small_Eye_Mask_with_Gel_Beads

    TheraPearl also makes masks and pads filled with little soft beads that work the same way. I also have a the TheraPearl Sports Pack which looks like a little pillow of soft blue beads. It’s big enough to cover the eye area, brows, and a bit beyond. I really love it for the extra coverage and the little beads mold easily to my face when I lie down! I got it at Walmart but there is a TheraPearl site too.

    Next… Get a box of sterile gauze pads from the first aid aisle in the 4″ x 4″ size. You can use one pad for each eye or unfold the gauze square once and it should be big enough to cover both eyes.

    Lay the gauze over the freezing/cold/warm/very-warm mask and dampen it with water. Kick back and apply over the eyes. Leave on until the mask gets to room temp or you feel like you’ve had enough. Remove. MAGIC HAPPENS. Seriously.

    I don’t know what I’d do without these things. I can’t use washcloths or anything non-sterile bc like I said, my skin is CRAZY sensitive. The gauze pads can be tossed in the recycles. The eye mask/Sports Pack is plastic so it can be wiped clean and dried.

    The trick is knowing what’s causing your eye problems and using the right temperature. For me, somewhere between warm-very warm has been helping IMMENSELY with some truly terrible inflammation. The combo of the dampened, soft sterile gauze & bead mask/pad have helped me soooooo much I just had to share!

    HTH & thanks for all the tips you shared! 😀

    • Isabella Muse

      hahahaha 😀 everyone loves Hey Girl Ryan 😀 THANK YOU! trying your tricks also grabbbing up that eye mask 😀 thanks dear!

  • Sarah

    The only time my eyes get puffy is after I’ve been crying and it’s not that noticeable. I’m usually too upset to care, but I do like to use those cooling eye patches afterwards because they do feel nice and help make me feel better and relieve the achy-ness after I’ve been crying.
    Sometimes my mother points out that I look puffy, but I don’t really see it.

  • Ryou

    How I get rid of my puffy eyes: Usually I make a futile attempt to stop crying so much, then try not to cry some more because my eyelids are sore as a result of crying. It’s a vicious cycle, I tell you!

    Other than that, I don’t. I have puffy/prominent eyes as a result of genetics and at this point in life I don’t think they’re a problem anymore. I mean, hey, I got them from my mommy. 😉

  • Karen

    Hi Muse –

    Put a little ELF facial whip illuminator (Lilac shade- other shades may work but have stayed w. the Lilac as it works for me) directly on the under eye bag. Follow with Covergirl depuffing concealor. Next, put Olay 7 effects pen on the bag only.
    Finish with Clinique All About Eyes on the bag – you can even mix your final concealer with the All About Eyes.

    Complicated I know but I do it morning and night and find it brings the puffiness down right away – my friends always comment on the fact that I do not have under eye bags – shared this with them and they have had good results too. Like the idea of women helping women.

    I too have very sensitive eyes and this routine is not at all problematic for me. I am 57 so the bags were significant before this formula was refined. Good luck.

  • Rachel

    Going to try the milk thing. For me, the problem is sleeping on my side, with too much face towards the pillow. I’ve always been prone to puff. Now that I’m not a spring chicken its worse so i’ve been trying to learn to sleep on my back. I do the cold cloth thing too,and Clarisonic’s Opal seems to help on the minor puffy days