Dry skin makes eye wrinkles and dark circles look more prominent, which is why using a hydrating anti-aging eye cream is so important. We’ll guide you toward proven solutions from Paula’s Choice Skincare that visibly soften fine lines, minimize under eye circles and revive an energized look.
Every Paula’s Choice eye cream (and our facial moisturizers) can help reduce the appearance of wrinkles, but if the skin around your eyes is just starting to show signs of aging, it might be time for an eye-focused anti-aging treatment product. Paula's Choice's eye creams, eye gels and eye serums employ 360° formulas packed with hydrators, antioxidants and skin-restoring ingredients, like peptides, to visibly firm, lift and depuff the eye area all while fighting the appearance of fines lines and wrinkles, like crow's feet.
If you're experiencing signs of aging in the eye area seek out the peptide-powered Pro-Collagen Peptide Firming Eye Serum. This clinically-proven formula gets to work immediately, visibly lifting and firming the eye area. Use the eye serum in the morning for a refreshing burst of moisture and depuffing and apply at night to allow it to truly get to work to promote a youthful appearance .
If you’re seeing more advanced signs of aging, including deep eye wrinkles and crow's feet, we recommend reaching for our heaviest-hitting anti-aging eye cream: CLINICAL Ceramide-Enriched Firming Eye Cream. This intensely hydrating, ceramide-based formula boasts four forms of anti-aging vitamin C, plus wrinkle-fighting retinol and targeted peptides that can help your eye area look and act younger.
When choosing an eye cream, you should always opt for a fragrance-free formula that is packaged in airtight, opaque packaging (i.e. not a jar). Fragrance is detrimental to skin and jar packaging reduces the effectiveness of beneficial, but delicate, light- and air-sensitive anti-aging ingredients.
Best Eye Cream for Dark Circles
Dark circles can stem from a variety of causes—some of them are treatable, while others are not (thanks genetics!). Our C5 Super Boost Eye Cream contains 5% vitamin C that can work over time to help reduce the appearance of dark circles related to age, dullness, and sun damage, plus the cosmetic pigment mica for an instant glow.
Essential tip: For daytime use, layer a gentle mineral-based sunscreen over it to help prevent dark circles from getting worse.
Eye Gel for Puffy Eyes
If you have puffy eyes related to fluid retention, the cooling metal applicator of the Pro-Collagen Peptide Firming Eye Serum and RESIST Anti-Aging Eye Gel can help alleviate the build-up via gentle massage. The peptide eye serum tackles lack of firmness and undereye bags with a blend of high-performance peptides that visibly lifts tired eyelids, smooths fine lines and deeply hydrates while also firming and supporting healthy collagen. Our RESIST eye gel is packed with soothing, hydrating ingredients including licorice and replenishing hyaluronic acid, plus targeted peptides that help your eye area look instantly more awake, and anti-aging ingredients that go to work on wrinkles.
Other Articles You May Enjoy
How to Choose the Right Eye Cream for You
Skin concerns don’t stop once they reach the eye area. Much like the skin on the rest of your face, undereye skin can show signs of ageing, accrue dark circles, suffer from puffiness and become prone to dryness.
It’s a scenario many of us have found ourselves in at one point or another—waking up in the morning, looking in the mirror and coming face-to-face with puffy eyes.
While this is quite common, temporary puffiness, especially when experienced in the morning, isn’t to be confused with true undereye bags. Undereye bags have different root causes than puffy eyes, and it takes more work to improve their look.
So, what exactly makes puffiness different from undereye bags? What leads to undereye bags and are there any eye bag solutions? We’ll lay out the reasons undereye bags develop in the first place and share ways to improve their appearance below. Let’s get into it!
What are undereye bags?
Undereye bags are a stubborn, visible bulge beneath one or both eyes. They tend to feel “squishy” when touched and typically protrude next to the surrounding skin. Most people equate undereye bags to occasional puffy eyes, but as mentioned above, they’re not the same.
Temporarily bloated undereyes can occur at any age and are typically caused by allergies, water intake, diet (too much salt or alcohol, for example) or sleeping position (1,2). This type of undereye puffiness can be helped with undereye bag creams, skin care products and lifestyle pivots. As many have experienced, prolonged bouts of crying can also trigger puffy eyes.
In contrast, true undereye bags tend to occur as we age. The culprit? Fat pads beneath the eyes. With age, these supportive pads begin to shift downward, dropping beneath and protruding from the immediate undereye area. The result is permanent puffiness that won’t go away no matter which skin care-based eye bag remedy you try. Board-certified dermatologist Dr. Corey L. Hartman confirms, saying, “Blepharoplasty (a surgical procedure) is the only effective treatment to get rid of true fat pads causing eye bags.”
What causes undereye bags?
When we’re young, the fat pads beneath the eyes—there are three—are held securely in place. What causes undereye bags is a mix of the passage of time, sun damage and gravity. Together, they cause the ligaments that normally anchor undereye fat pads in place to weaken and push outward, similar to a hernia beneath the skin.
This shifting of fat pads usually happens gradually, but some people experience a sudden onset (3). In some cases, the undereye bags become larger, often bulging out over the top of the cheekbones (a type of eye bag known as a festoon or malar bag) before shrinking back to their normal size. This change in size and appearance is due to fluid retention, such as from allergies, sinus issues or bad habits like smoking—but heredity aspects can play a role. This happens because these undereye bags create pockets where fluid can more likely accumulate, exacerbating this condition.
Undereye bags can worsen when exposed to constant pro-ageing UV rays, which causes further sagging and skin thinning - one more reason to protect the eye-area skin with sunscreen and UV protective sunglasses all year long.
How to get rid of undereye bags
When it comes to fat-pad related undereye bags, it’s important to note that no home remedy can fix them.
As we touched on above, these permanent eye bags—also known as malar bags or malar mounds—are caused by the displacement of fat pads beneath the skin, meaning there is no topical way to address them (4). Even though there are topical skin care products that claim to address this issue, only cosmetic surgery and specific laser treatments can help. Cosmetics for this concern may provide a brief tightening effect via constriction of eye-area skin, but this tactic can backfire since it’s irritating over time.
The specific surgical procedure to fix undereye bags is known as blepharoplasty, which effectively removes undereye bags. Blepharoplasty can be performed on both the upper and lower eyelid areas. If your only concern is bags under the eyes, you would have a lower blepharoplasty (5). In this procedure, a surgeon uses one of two primary methods to access the drooping fat pads and supportive tissue; both methods leave only tiny, discrete scars. In this case, the fat pads are removed entirely, resulting in a smoother, less droopy appearance (6).
In some cases, excess fat and skin are removed before the remaining fat pad is secured back into its original place. For younger patients, it’s typically a much simpler process of repositioning and securing the fat pad to keep it from pouching beneath the eye (7). After a brief recovery period, the undereye bags are gone. We repeat: Gone!
There is also growing research that suggests treating malar bags through hyaluronic acid injection might be a viable non-surgical option, though more studies are needed to establish the efficacy of this technique (8). Dr. Hartman says, “Treatment with hyaluronic acid fillers is used to fill any associated volume loss and can mask protrusion of the fat pad. For some patients, this is a temporising measure to prolong blepharoplasty, but for many it is sufficient to prevent surgery altogether.”
In any case, it’s always a good idea to have a sit-down conversation with your board-certified cosmetic surgeon to determine which solution is best for you to help banish eye bags for good!
Learn more about eye care concerns.
Learn more about our editorial mission.
References for this information:
Pharmacophore, January 2024, pages 41-47
SOFW Journal, April 2023, pages 8-12
Aesthetic Surgery Journal, October 2021, pages 1,107-1,119
Journal of Cosmetic Medicine, June 2017, pages 1-7
Seminars in Plastic Surgery, February 2017, pages 46–50
Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, October 2024, pages 4,310-4,313
Aesthetic Surgery Journal, May-June 2015, pages 359–366
Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, April 2020, pages 820-823
Dark undereye circles are one of the most common skin concerns. If you’re struggling with them, you’ve likely wondered “why me?” We know the feeling, and it inspired us to research the main cause of dark circles. As it turns out, many things cause or contribute to dark circles under the eyes—some of them may surprise you!
Puffy eyes are a common problem that most of us experience at one time or another. Tech-related tiredness and eye strain, our hectic modern lifestyles, ageing and factors just plain out of our control can all cause undereye swelling and puffiness.
Dry skin around your eyes not only feels uncomfortable, it can also be especially noticeable. When the skin around your eyes is parched, wrinkles and dark circles become more prominent and crepey skin texture is exaggerated.
In the world of anti-ageing skin care, one of the most prominent – and challenging – concerns is tackling crow’s feet. These aren’t under eye wrinkles – we’re talking about those etched wrinkles that start at the outer corner of the eye area and fan out that got their name because their pattern resembles a crow’s foot.
If you have puffy eyes related to fluid retention, the cooling metal applicator of the Pro-Collagen Peptide Firming Eye Serum and RESIST Anti-Aging Eye Gel can help alleviate the build-up via gentle massage. The peptide eye serum tackles lack of firmness and undereye bags with a blend of high-performance peptides that visibly lifts tired eyelids, smooths fine lines and deeply hydrates while also firming and supporting healthy collagen. Our RESIST eye gel is packed with soothing, hydrating ingredients including licorice and replenishing hyaluronic acid, plus targeted peptides that help your eye area look instantly more awake, and anti-aging ingredients that go to work on wrinkles. 
