Eye wrinkles get the lion’s share of the attention because they tend to be some of the first to pop up. This is because our skin around the eyes is also incredibly thin; our skin already thins as we age (due to a loss of collagen), so the area under our eyes is usually the first to sag. In fact, according to board-certified dermatologist and founder of MMSkincare Ellen Marmur, M.D., our entire eye socket sinks in as we age: “The bones thin, the fat shifts, and the blood vessels wither, providing less vibrant skin and more wrinkles,” she tells mbg. Your eyes also emote quite a bit throughout the day (not to mention throughout your lifetime), making it a vulnerable spot for fine lines. According to Marmur, there are over 10 muscles around our eyes squinting, smiling, and expressing, and constantly contracting those muscles can create wrinkles. It’s another reason the area tends to be one of the first places to show fine lines and crow’s feet as we age—think of them as signs you’ve had your fair share of belly laughs throughout your life. Finally, because the epidermis is so thin, the skin under our eyes is a lot more sensitive to sun damage, pollution, and oxidative stress. In terms of hydration, you may want to invest in a trusty eye cream to hydrate and tighten the area or slap on an under-eye mask if you’re feeling especially dry—some formulas even have microneedling properties to provide deeper penetration and stimulate collagen production. If you don’t want to shill out extra money for an eye product? Totally fine—just make sure you are applying your standard moisturizer to the area. To keep the area bright and reduce puffiness, Lamees Hamdan, M.D., a Dubai-based general practitioner with a dermatology background and founder and CEO of Shiffa, recommends a jade rolling ritual for preventing future wrinkles: “When your eye area gets puffy, it pushes the blood vessels under your eyes closer to the surface, making dark circles worse.” Dark circles are an important tell for the under-eye area, as a shadowy pigmentation is also a sign the tissue around the eyes is thin and lacks collagen. Again, you want to keep the pressure light here—trying to forcefully jade roll your fine lines away may do more harm than good. (Check out our step-by-step facial massage tutorial here.) Hamdan agrees: “You’ll need ingredients that help increase elasticity and firmness, take away puffiness, and are rich in antioxidants and moisturizing fatty acids that nourish this area.” Her favorite go-to’s are green tea, hyaluronic acid, as well as some light base oils (think jojoba oil, grapeseed oil, and black cumin seed oil). And given that under-eye wrinkles and crow’s feet tend to be finer, more shallow lines, you’ll likely see a noticeable difference pretty quickly. “You can use collagen to reverse minor things, like crow’s feet around the eyes but not once the skin’s gotten too leathery and damaged,” explains functional medicine doctor Robert Rountree, M.D., in an mbg podcast.
