Rise & Shine!

The alarm goes off, it's 8am, bleary eyed you look in the mirror and yep, you look as tired as you feel. Sound familiar? It's rare that I will wake up and by some miracle I've slept solidly through the night and look refreshed. Dark eyes are my downfall, and there aren't many products on the market that really do as they say when it comes to hiding this little problem. There are hundreds of creams that claim to brighten your eyes and I've tried a lot. But the winning product in my mind is from Origins. My favourite is Dr Andrew Weil - Mega-Bright Dark Circle Minimizer. For me this has been the most effective. The creamy texture to this also adds hydration (which especially at night time I find more satisfying than a serum). I mainly use this product at night, and in the day I like to use the Origins GinZing eye cream. It definitely restores radiance to your eyes, I think mainly because of the reflective qualities. It is slightly pearly in appearance and very light so it works well with applying underneath your makeup for the day ahead!

Aside from lotions and potions, you can hide all sorts of problems with makeup tricks. I've not found better than the YSL Touch Eclat. I use the original shade, and blend from the corner of my eye (avoiding the delicate skin area underneath the eye) and bring it right around the eye socket and blend. It's pinky tones reflect light and doesn't dry up on your skin. As well as this, I use Benefit's Eye Bright Pencil. This can be blended into the inner and outer corner of your eyes for that wide awake look. I also lightly use this underneath my eyebrows (Benefit do have one specifically for eyebrows, but I tend to double up and use this one for both). You don't need a lot because it is quite white/pink, but blended in gives a nice glowy bright eyed look.

I find less is more in this instance, and using a simple regime to brighten your eyes is better than piling on the products. Avoid putting foundation underneath your eyes! More often that not, foundation will dry around the eye area and draw more attention to dark circles...it's all about the trick of the light - go for anything reflective!