The best essential oils for dark circles are: eucalyptus, lemon, rose and sandalwood. Any of the three is powerful in reducing the darkness of the area and in reducing any spots in the skin. As said in earlier posts, these oils should be mixed with a carrier oil. The best carrier oil for dark circles is almond oil.
Almond oil contains 3 essential nutrients that help reduce dark circle: vitamin K, palmitic acid, and retinol. Vitamin K improves blood clotting which reduces the presence of dark circles and skin discoloration around the eyes. Palmitic oil and retinol are natural moisturisers which smooth the periorbital skin, making the area look a lot livelier. Overall, the application of almond oil to an area helps to improve blood circulation.
Pure rose essential oil is very expensive and quite hard to get. I will address the reasons behind this in future posts. Lemon is a natural bleacher however all the citric oils are photo sensitive so you should be sure you will not be taking any sun in the next eight to ten hours after using a citric oil. Therefore I prefer to use lemon oil for cooking, drinking and diffusing and I don’t really apply it in the skin. Eucalyptus and sandalwood are fairly common.
Eye Skin Recipe for 30mL
100% almond oil
4 drops sandalwood
2 drops eucalyptus
This is one of the many possibilities. You can use sandalwood alone or eucalyptus alone. You can adjust the quantity of the drops to better suit your eye area sensitivity. This is a good mix that will guarantee you an alleviation on the darkness of the eye area in just a few days.
Other home recipes to reduce dark circles are:
Chamomile tea: apply cold compresses of chamomile tea in the dark circles will help relieve its purple shade, due to the soothing and anti-inflammatory properties of chamomile. You should prepare two bags of tea and make it quite strong so the bags will be saturated. You let them cool and then you put them in the freezer for a while to make them quite cold. The compresses should be in your eyes for about 10 minutes and you should be lying down but with your head upper than your body. Another option is to use green tea, since it is rich in anti-oxidants and it will have the same relief effect. The process is the same, but in this case you should leave it on for about 15 minutes. After you are done you should wash the eye area with cold water and smoothly dry it with a towel.
Is is also possible to do this treatment with mint leaves. The recipe is:
Smash a few mint leaves until they turn into a paste and then join the juice of half a lemon. You apply the mix in the dark circles for about 15 minutes and then you wash the area with cold water. This mix should be applied twice a day and it will help relieve the symptons because the lemon is a natural bleacher and the mint will soothe the skin. Once again: be careful with the sun in the following hours if you choose this recipe, because of the juice of the lemon.
Another natural recipe is: milk and papaya. Papaya is one of the richest foods and one of the main anti-aging agent. A simple recipe is to blend half a papaya with 100mL of milk (nonfat in case of oily skin). The mix should be directly applied in the dark circles for about 15 minutes. This treatment can be done once a week. Milk has lactic acid which hydrates, renews and brightens the skin and papaya will help improve its elasticity.
Another home recipe (this one used by my grandmother) is to apply cucumber in the eyes. However cucumber’s effects take much longer to be noticed, which makes this a slow treatment.
One last trick to minimize dark circles is to smoothly wash the area with cold water, because the cold will promote the vasoconstriction and it will improve the darkness under the eyes. So, remember, never use hot water in dark circles, it will have the opposite effect.
These are a few of the options that can be used for dark circles. I hope you try them soon. You will notice the difference!
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