Whether it's a permapooch belly or clumps of hair swirling down the shower drain, that tiny bundle in the Pack 'n Play can be blamed for many beauty woes. But dark circles? Not so much—at least, not once you're past those sleepless first months. Exhaustion can exacerbate undereye rings, but if they persist, or if you had them prebaby, there's probably another explanation. "For some women, dark circles are purely hereditary," says Ellen S. Marmur, M.D., an assistant clinical professor of dermatology at New York City's Mount Sinai School of Medicine. For others, they're related to aging, allergies, or sluggish circulation.
Regardless of cause, dark circles tend to appear either as excess pigmentation (the grayish equivalent of a freckle or a birthmark) or as a cluster of blood vessels. The second type is more common, but there's an easy way to tell where you fall: Press your finger on the undereye area and gently pull the skin over your cheekbone. If the skin is no longer dark, your problem is vascular, or blood vessel-related. As you age and the thin undereye skin loses its elasticity, "these circles become more visible," says Miami dermatologist Frederic Brandt. "You naturally lose collagen, and the depression creates a shadow."
Of course, this doesn't mean you have to resign yourself to staring back at a raccoon reflection. Here are four possible solutions—from a split-second swipe of concealer to a long-lasting cosmetic injection. (Now, if only there were a speedy fix for that permapooch....)
Next Page: Strategies for banishing undereye shadows
