It may take weeks or even months to see any noticeable changes. However, she adds, with topical treatments especially, it’s essential to manage your expectations. If under-eye pigmentation is something that bothers you, there are some options, including brightening agents (like hydroquinone, azelaic acid, or glycolic acid), topical retinoids, and fillers, Dr. Nada Ebuluk, M.D., director of the Skin of Color Center and Pigmentary Disorders Clinic at USC, tells SELF.

“We don’t have a magic wand that can totally make them vanish,” Dr. Often the cause is multifactorial, meaning that my chronic sleep issues likely exacerbate the appearance of the genetic pigmentation under my eyes.Īnd it turns out that “fixing” dark under eyes isn’t really even possible-especially if you have an underlying genetic predisposition.

Rubbing your eyes, fatigue, as well as the natural thinning of the skin and fat under the eyes that occurs with aging can all play a role, Dr. Of course, genetics isn’t the only factor that contributes to dark under-eyes. Sure, I probably wasn’t getting enough sleep, but my under-eye circles stemmed from factors rooted in me much deeper than fatigue. It was a moment of deeply comforting validation, but I realized soon after that the skin-care aisle at the drugstore-and, of course, Eurocentric beauty standards perpetuated by popular culture and the beauty industry-had been gaslighting me for a decade. Ogunleye, which she uses in her own practice: When I gently stretched the skin under my eyes, my circles remained the same brownish-grey hue, confirming that they are likely due to what she calls “genetically induced pigmentation.” (If you do the same test and your circles immediately get lighter, that suggests the cause of any darkness is due to the thinning of the skin under your eyes rather than genetic pigmentation).

I tested this possibility using a method also recommended by Dr. “It’s more common in darker skinned populations because the pigment tends to be more prominent.”

“It’s a fairly common complaint,” Temitayo Ogunleye, M.D., an assistant professor of clinical dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania, tells SELF.

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