This is my absolute favourite season of the year! The evenings are crisp and dark, lit only by the festive seasonal lights, steaming and comforting peppermint lattes and eggnog lattes are available at every coffee shop, the food markets are promoting their juiciest geese and turkeys, the streets are flocked with excited shoppers, and there’s that magical feeling in the air.
To me, this time of year signifies complete and unmitigated abundance! Abundance of friends and family, abundance of rich succulent dishes and effervescent champagne, abundance of gifting and receiving … but most of all, abundance of warmth, happiness and togetherness.
Whether you’re jetting off to an exotic location for Christmas, or whether you’re spending this lovely season at home, with all the exuberance, it can also be quite busy and slightly stressful … to say the least. Choosing the right presents, getting your busy calendar in order, trying to satisfy every single family member (which is never a possibility!), getting the right tree and putting it up in time, etc … as I said, exciting, but where’s my steaming peppermint latte and slippers?
Last week, we had a beautiful lady rush into our store, after having come off of a long flight from New York, and really concerned about her puffy eyes, she exclaimed:
“I have a pre-holiday dinner with my family this evening and look at my eyes!
I need de-puffing and FAST!"
We quickly whisked her off into one of our treatment rooms, provided her with a quick 30-minute eye treatment, and POOF! No more puffiness and an elated customer! This was the first out of many in the past couple of weeks, and I realised that keeping the eye area bright and refreshed at this time of year is proving to be quite a challenge!
So we’re going to discuss how to remedy this eye situation!
The main concerns we generally experience with our eyes are:
- Dehydration: making the eye area appear more wrinkled and uneven, and making us look older than we actually are. Never a good thing!
- Dark Circles: Making the eye area dim and shadowy, and making us appear tired. Again, not the right look!
- Puffiness: Making the eye area appear smaller, and making us look slightly flueish. Non, non!
- Slackness and Laxity: Making the eye area pulled, and making us look somewhat melancholic. Definitely not great!
All of these eye concerns generally spontaneously appear when we’re either overly tired, stressed, travelling or unwell. Which is also generally the times we least want to be affected by these aggravations. However, we’re sometimes plagued by them on a regular basis; either way, we have a solution!
Let’s tackle dehydrated and dry eyes.
The eye area can seem tight, sometimes appear flaky and slightly bumpy. These are ALL signs of dryness and dehydration, but worry not, it’s also the easiest eye concern to treat! This is quite common in the winter as our bodies go from the cold crisp air outside into the dry warm air inside, so our skin finds it difficult to regulate itself naturally. Not to mention the slight increase of stress, late nights and champagne consumption. Firstly, drink more water … no really go and gulp down a glass right now, you’re dehydrated! Secondly, let’s treat it topically.
The Sérum Extraits Tissulaires is a wonderful hydrator for a skin which doesn’t need too much hydration, however, the skin around the eye area is a lot thinner than the skin on the rest of our face, so we can’t apply anything too rich (unless we wish for eyes to resemble that of a toad’s). This makes the Sérum Extraits Tissulaires fantastic to gently hydrate our eye contour area deeply and effectively, without overloading it. Then, to seal the serum in, apply the Crème Contour Des Yeux Biosensible, which is packed with hyaluronic acid and will further soothe, smooth and hydrate your eye area. Follow this routine for at least 4 days, and your tight and irritated eyes will be a thing of the past!
Let’s tackle dark circles.
The eye area can seem darker, sallow and a little withdrawn. But we all know what dark circles look like, and if we have them, we want to do away with them. Dark circles appear mostly when we’re tired, as our blood isn’t pumping around our body at the rate it should do, resulting in a generally duller skin and dark eye circles. So, we want to energise! Wake those eyes up!
The best way to do this is to apply the Sérum Oligo-Protéines Marines, containing malachite and Luminaria Algae which energises and instantly brightens the eye area. Top with the Crème Contour des Yeux VIP02 to extinguish the dark circles and slightly hydrate as well. Ta daahhh!! A bright and wide-eyed look in an instant! If you tend to have this specific concern on a regular basis, it would also help to gently run the cooling and stimulating Cryo Sticks over the eye area to refresh and rouse the blood circulation in the area.
Let’s tackle puffiness.
We’ve all suffered from puffy eyes; late nights, too much bubbly, excessive stress, travelling are all culprits of the puffy eye syndrome. They make us look tired, sometimes sickly and absolutely always make us feel like we need to hibernate. So we want to decrease the inflammation and soothe, soothe, soothe. A little TLC never hurt anyone … and always is the best remedy for the puffy eyes syndrome. First, you actually do need to hibernate a little … put your feet up, pour yourself a lovely hot cup of tea, put your favourite movie on and have an early night. Puffiness equals over tiredness, we all need to take a break sometimes, and don’t feel guilty about it. Now, let's treat it topically!
A quick and efficient way of whisking away those eye bags is to apply the Sérum Placenta to the eye area. And actually, this can be part of your relaxation; after you’ve finished your comforting mug of steaming tea, pause your movie, get a cotton pad, dampen it with ice cold water, wring out the excess. Fold into a half moon and add a few drops of your Sérum Placenta. Apply to the under eye area, sit back, and enjoy the refreshing sensation in the knowledge that your puffiness is dissipating with every word that fetching creature on the screen utters. To add a little oomph, you can always swirl the Cryo Sticks around the eye area as they are fantastic at dispersing inflammation!
Last, but not least, let’s tackle laxity and slackness.
Maturing is a part of life. Yes, we’re talking about droopiness and wrinkles in the eye area. That sleek and smooth eye doesn’t have to be an “I wish!” situation. Laxity in the skin means loss of elasticity, which means loss of elastin … those tiny tiny fibres in the skin which keep it taught and tight! Elastin depletes as we mature, and those elastin fibres that we still own may become less elastic. So let’s replenish them and limber them up!
The most fantastic way to do this is with the Sérum Elastine Pure, which contains pure biological elastin, restocking the depleting one that we already possess. Top with the Crème Contour des Yeux et Lèvres Biofixine to seal it all in and further tense, hydrate and smooth the area. The tremendous bonus about these two products is that they can also be used for other things! The Sérum Elastine Pure can be used on the entire face to iron out any general wrinkles you may have, and the Crème Contour des Yeux et Lèvres Biofixine is not only an eye cream but a lip contour cream too! The skin around the lips is also quite thin, so this cream is stupendously effective at smoothing those fine lines around the lip area as well! (especially beneficial if you tend to fancy a cigarette on occasion!).
Various eye woes?
If you have a combination of concerns, your best option is to pop on our wonderful Patchs Défatigants. These feather thin eye masks will treat all concerns in one go, and are a fantastic choice if these symptoms are transient or ignited by the same trigger.
Now that we’ve gone through all eventualities of eye area concerns, you should feel confident in understanding how to treat your eye area. However, if you are still struggling or still not completely sure, please do pop in and have a consultation with one of our expert consultants, or simply give us a call! We always enjoy welcoming you into our store and offering comforting teas and rich espressos whilst we discuss skin.