Lifestyle Choices

How, physically, you handle your eyes has a lot to do with how long the skin around them looks young and how clear and bright they are themselves. Eyes don’t need to be favored to stay beautiful and healthy, but they don’t need abuse, either. Yet they are faced with it most of the time, in the form of air pollution, smoke, misapplied makeup, and mismanaged makeup removal. The skin surrounding your eyes is thinner and finer than anywhere else on your face. It is also only sparsely supplied with oil glands and therefore highly prone to expression lines. This is where a good eye cream can help. They come in several varieties. Some (usually the more expensive) are designed not only to protect the skin in the area from dehydration but also to plump it up for several hours to minimize the lines there. They are particularly good for women over forty with dry skin, but the plumping action is highly transient: You have to keep using them once you start or your eyes quickly revert to the way they looked before. Others, particularly the herbal gels, are soothing and cooling. Very slightly astringent, this sort of eye cream will help calm swollen lids. Still others are made simply to prevent dehydration and are good for skin of all ages and even the most sensitive skins. If you don’t want to spend money on eye cream, a rich oil such as avocado, hazelnut, or apricot dabbed on, in the barest traces, around the eye area will do just as good a job, used mornings before applying makeup and evenings before bed—provided you are not after the tightening effect.

When you put on your oil or eye cream matters. It is important never to use too much of it or you can end up with swollen, irritated eyes, particularly if you are using the plumping-up variety. Apply it gently with your third finger (there is less pressure that way) tapping lightly all around the eye. Never rub or pull the skin. How you apply mascara and how you remove it matters too. Most women open their eyes wide and look directly into the mirror, wrinkling up their forehead in the process. The best way is to hold your mirror at chin level and look down into it; then you don’t etch wrinkles into your forehead. This may not seem very important, but when you think that you apply mascara, say twice a day, probably every day of your adult life, the habitual creasing of the forehead becomes a significant force in creating wrinkles there. You will get better coverage, too.

Think twice before you opt for waterproof mascara. It is difficult to remove, so you need a special strong remover to do it and you can end up rubbing and irritating the eye area every time you take off your makeup. Unless you go walking in the rain or swimming with your makeup on, it is better to choose a conventional variety. To take it off, use a non-oily eye-makeup remover if your eyes are sensitive (most are), and saturate a pad of absorbent cotton with it. Then put the pad over the closed eye and hold it there for ten seconds to dissolve the makeup so you can easily stroke it away.

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