I remember going to the grocery store with my mom when I was, maybe, 8 years old, looking longingly at the magazines that lined the cash register, when I noticed a phrase on one of the covers that said “How to Get Rid of Those Pesky Eye Bags.” Wait a second, I thought. The darkness under my eyes has a name?
Since that day, I’ve been aware of the sunkenness under my eyes, a trait I’ve inherited from my late grandmother. I’ve made half-ass attempts to cover them up with concealer, but after at least a decade of discontent, it’s something I’ve simply come to accept about myself. That is, until recently, when I started to become rather sensitive to things that wouldn’t have ordinarily impacted me; extra salty dinners and long-haul flights gave those bags some unexpected puffiness.
I’m no stranger to the under-eye patch; I’ve seen plenty of girls wearing them on their morning dog walks. And I’ve had fun toying around with them myself, mostly for “self care” and less about the actual benefits. But now that things are getting serious under my eyes, it’s time I do too. I’ve put these shiny little semicircles to the test, seeing if they’ll de-puff (and ideally brighten, smoothen, etc.) my genetically suboptimal under-eyes.
