How To Treat and Relieve Dry Skin Around The Eyes
Dry skin around the eyes can be particularly bothersome as it can highlight signs of aging such as crow’s feet, wrinkles and fine lines. If you are noticing tight, flaky skin on your eyelids or underneath your eyes, keep on reading to find out why this is happening, how you can treat it and how you can prevent it from coming back!
The skin around the eyes is the most delicate part of our face
The skin around our eyes is the thinnest skin on our entire body. With only 0.5 mm thickness, it is at least 8x thinner than the rest of the skin on our face. This fragile area retains less moisture than anywhere else, making it more prone to dryness. It is for these reasons that the first signs of aging tend to show up in the eye area before anywhere else!
Symptoms of dry skin around the eyes
Aside from the uncomfortable dryness, other symptoms may include redness, irritation, itchiness, roughness, flaking, soreness, and in the worst cases, swelling.
These side effects can be harmful to your vision so it is very important to take the right measures to make sure that no further damage occurs.
Read on to find out how you can relieve dry, flaky skin around the eyes and prevent it from coming back!
What causes dry skin around the eyes?
The dryness of the skin around the eyes can be caused by a number of factors. Below are some of the most common causes.
Season and weather
The environment you are exposed to on a daily basis can have a huge impact on your skin.
Rapid changes in humidity and temperature force skin to adjust to its environment accordingly. This can eventually take its toll on the delicate skin around our eyes. It can disrupt the outer layer of the skin barrier which leads to the loss of hydration and makes the eye area more susceptible to inflammation and irritation.
Dry skin is more common during winter
This is especially true in colder weather. Low temperatures often mean low humidity which strips moisture from the exposed skin. This is why many people may find that their skin is dry, rough, red, tight, cracked or even flaky throughout the winter months.
Aging
Dryness is among one of the first signs of aging in the eye area because this area contains such low levels of collagen. Collagen is a protein that is responsible for keeping the structure of our skin. Since the skin around our eyes is so thin, collagen degradation happens at a more rapid rate, resulting in older, drier skin that is more vulnerable to crow’s feet, fine lines and wrinkles.
As we age, our skin also becomes less capable of producing natural body oils. This means moisture easily evaporates off of our skin making it more prone to dryness.
Genes
We all have different skin types and our DNA basically determines which skin type we have. Some people have oily skin, some have dry skin and some have a combination of both, which may be why the skin around the eyes is drier than the rest of the face.
It’s important to know which skin type you have in order to better understand your skin’s needs and how to take care of it.
Use of hot water
Using hot water to wash your face is one of the most common reasons that the skin around the eyes becomes dry and irritated. Hot water removes the skin of much-needed oils, leaving it dry and vulnerable to the environment.
Skin irritants
Harsh chemicals found in your skincare, haircare or cosmetic products can irritate the delicate skin around your eyes and result in dry, red, irritated and flaky skin. Synthetic fragrances, metals and other toxic ingredients found in your products may also be causing dryness around the eye area.
Beware of products with added fragrance
Under federal law, “fragrances” are classified as trade secrets. This means that companies do not have to disclose what chemicals are in the engineered scents that they are using in their products. This prevents consumers from knowing the full list of ingredients in their products. Often, the formula for these “fragrances” includes chemicals that are allergens and hormone disruptors that can lead to health problems.
How to treat dry skin around the eyes?
Whatever the cause of the dry skin around your eyes is, you need to be proactive and take care of the delicate skin in order to restore and maintain a healthy, vibrant complexion.
Here are four easy steps you can follow to treat and relieve dryness around your eye area:
1. Avoid harsh products and chemicals
First off, you need to evaluate the beauty products that you are currently using. The shampoo that runs down your face during a shower might contain harsh chemicals that are irritating to the delicate skin around your eyes. Or, perhaps it is the makeup remover that you are using that is actually overly drying out your skin.
Even the tiniest amount of toxic chemicals can have a huge impact on your skin health. At YEOUTH we have made sure that none of our products contain toxic ingredients. We guarantee that every single one of our products is safe and will benefit your skin health.
Be aware of the ingredients in your products and choose wisely!
2. Use a gentle cleanser
A lot of soaps are too harsh for the delicate skin around the eyes so make sure you do not use products that contain alcohol and fragrance to wash your face.
Instead, use a gentle facial cleanser that will keep your skin’s natural moisture balance. A mild and fragrance-free cleanser that contains moisturizing ingredients like the YEOUTH Vitamin C Facial Cleanser is gentle for all skin types and will not stress your skin out.
Enriched with nourishing ingredients like Aloe, Green Tea and Ginseng, this facial cleanser actively repairs the skin, restores your skin’s glow and protects it from everyday stress.
3. Moisturize with an eye cream
To combat the dryness around your eyes, you need to seal in moisture and protect the skin from the environment with a hydrating moisturizer.
However, keep in mind that your regular face creams and body lotions will not cut it for the delicate skin near the eyes. All-over-moisturizers tend to have a thicker consistency that is not absorbed properly by the delicate skin near your eyes. This area requires specially formulated creams.
Eye creams are formulated for the special needs of the eye area
Use an eye cream to moisturize your eye area. Eye creams are formulated with potent concentrations of ingredients that are not just safe, but specifically developed for the gentle skin near the eye.
What ingredients should you look for in an eye cream?
To treat skin dryness in the eye area, hyaluronic acid in an eye cream is a must. This remarkable compound holds in moisture which not only hydrates but also evens out and plumps wrinkles through multilevel skin hydration. It also helps stimulate skin cells to repair skin tissue for visibly smoother and plumper skin.
If you regularly use makeup during the day, we recommend using an eye gel in your skincare routine as a base. The light and silky texture of YEOUTH Radiance Eye Gel is wonderful in the morning to help hydrate your skin and diminish eye puffiness, and it also wears well under makeup.
Radiance Eye Gel with Hyaluronic Acid and Tripeptide ( $24.95 )
Formulated with hyaluronic acid and tripeptide, this fragrance-free soothing eye gel helps boost skin moisture and protect your skin from cold weather and other skin irritants that you may encounter throughout the day.
At nighttime, a rich and nourishing eye cream like YEOUTH Retinol 2.5% Eye Cream is highly recommended. This anti-aging eye cream targets signs of aging such as dryness, crow’s feet, puffiness and pigmentation around the eyes.
Your skin regenerates and repairs itself as you sleep. Support it with a deeply nourishing and restorative eye cream like this one to keep it hydrated and youthful-looking.
Retinol Eye Cream with Hyaluronic acid, Green Tea, and Caffeine (
$18.95 )
4. Sun protection
The destructive UV rays of the sun can cause a variety of problems on our skin. It is particularly harmful to our sensitive eye area because it is so delicate. Signs of damage like dryness, fine lines, and wrinkles become more pronounced in this area. For this reason, signs of aging in the eye area become more intensified with prolonged sun exposure. When going out during the day, always wear sunscreen with at least an SPF rating of 20 or higher and get polarized UV protected sunglasses to protect the eye area.
How to prevent dry skin around the eyes?
Like most symptoms, prevention is better than a cure. Follow these tips to prevent yourself from experiencing dry skin under the eyes.
- Add moisture to your environment. Places with low humidity can dry out your skin. Consider installing a humidifier inside your home, particularly in your bedroom for when you sleep, to help add back moisture to the air and alleviate your skin dryness.
- Use lukewarm water. Hot water from showers or face washing is not recommended and aggravates dry skin. Using water that is lukewarm - not too cold, yet not too hot - is the most ideal for cleansing. It is gentle enough to still preserve your skin’s hydrating oils, while also being just the right temperature to activate the ingredients in your cleanser.
- Avoid touching your eyes. Your hands touch a lot of things that can irritate the skin around your eyes. Try not to rub or scratch the delicate skin to avoid eye infections that may lead to chronic dryness, itchiness, and irritation.
- Protect your eyes from the environment. Take extra measures when going out by wearing sunglasses, wide-brimmed hats or visors to keep your skin shielded and protected from the harmful UV rays of the sun.
- Always remove your eye makeup. If you apply makeup around your eyes, remember to properly remove it every night before bed. If not necessary, try to use less makeup around the eyes to avoid irritating your skin.
- Stay hydrated. Drink eight glasses of water daily. Drinking water helps maintain the moisture balance in your body and can help prevent skin dryness.
- Eat healthy. Fruits and vegetables that have high water content can help to hydrate your skin. Fatty fish that contains omega-3 or omega-6 fatty acids can also help keep your skin supple and moisturized.
Takeaway
There is no need to panic if you have dry skin around your eyes. There are a number of reasons as to why this occurs and fortunately, in most cases, it can be treated at home and prevented in the future. Be more in tune to your skin’s needs so you can be proactive and take the right steps to achieve healthy, smooth and youthful-looking skin.