How To Correct Dark Circles ?

Every morning we wake up and we see our faces in the mirror. We do this every single day of our lives and somewhere through it all we get to know our faces. For me, I know the cut above my eyebrow, a few leftover scars from chicken pox , the red dot on my nose, the mole on my chin and a couple others. I know these well enough that when I look at the mirror they blur out and my eyes see an overview of my face. And I like the face that looks back at me. I'd like to think I know it well.

But somewhere along all this back and forth with my mirror, the overview just got zoomed out so much I failed to notice a lot more things. We all go through this - we overlook a few things here and there and then one day - Bam ! You realize the face you see in the mirror is very different from what others see.


I hadn't noticed the dark circles until I took a picture of myself for the blog. Dark circles are notorious for making one look stressed out, dull, tired and unhappy. I wasn't feeling any of those things but my dark circles decided to make an appearance getting me the " Are you okay ?'s"

Raise your hand if this sounds familiar to you.

I use concealers regularly and found a few that work well for me. At least they did for the me I was seeing. But it wasn't till I took this after picture that I realized I looked so different. There was a marked brightness. Like my eyes that were hibernating two inches behind my face were suddenly out and bustling with happiness. Like someone had reached in and pulled them out. They were no longer hiding behind a hollow dark space. I looked so different even to my own eyes. Eyes that see me every single day.


The Orange Dark Circle Primer

This is what I had used - The Khuraira Dark Circle primer + Khuraira Age Control Concealer. Since then I have tried the primer with couple of my other favorite concealers and they seem to do this pulling out and shine through thing very well. The real star is here was the bright orange dark circles primer. I understand why they chose to call it a primer - you apply it (sparingly) on your dark circles prepping them for concealer. The more common term for it is a corrector. I have seen a few correctors but none this strong. On using it I also realized why so many readers write to me saying the very popular Bobbi Brown correctors weren't doing much for them. I guess we just need a strong dose of correction.


Why Orange ?

After trying the product I requested for a mini interview with the founder, Khuraira to ask a couple of basic questions - Why orange and what does this do ? She told me it helped by "neutralizing discolorations through the breakdown of the blue caused by broken capillaries. Worn under your concealer, this prevents the darkness from penetrating through". The last few words resonated with me - the one about not letting the darkness seep through. That is what was going wrong for many of us - our concealers just weren't designed to be strong enough to make a barrier of sorts.

Left - dark circle primer applied directly over skin. Right - Smashbox HD Concealer (medium) applied over the dark circle primer

Reasons Behind Dark Circles

This article here from the New York Times speaks about how finding a remedy for dark circles is one of beauty industry's top concern today. The reason for a relative lack of success in this field, I think could be the myriad of reasons that lead to dark circles - everything from hormonal changes, obesity, diabetes, stress, lack of sleep, alcohol can lead to dark circles. But for many of us, it doesn't end there - " Chronic dark circles, dermatologists say, is excess pigmentation in the skin. Dark circles are prevalent on all skin colors and types, but they especially trouble African-Americans, Southeast Asians and Southern Italians " .

Its in (some of ) our genes now ? I guess with that I can just about forget a cure for dark circles. My only option for now, is to slather stuff on to make them invisible. For now I am happy I found this heavy duty corrector for my industrial strength dark circles. With this I now join the league of stars like Alicia Keys, Mary J. Blige, Karina Smirnoff (Dancing with the Stars) and Nicole Scherzinger who at one point or another have depended on this product to get rid of that nasty stuff called dark circles.

Other Choices

Since trying this corrector I did some research and found a few other brands that make orange color correctors - Georgia Armani Master Corrector, NYX Orange Corrector, MAC Pro Studio Finish Skin Corrector , Laura Mercier Under Eye Perfector. These are a few options other than the one from Khuraira that I tried. If you have had a history battling dark circles and havent been satisfied with anything yet - I'd highly recommend finding one of these bright orange correctors and giving them a try. Chances are you'll love what it does !


Argh, all this depressing talk about you know what. Time to go grab some oatmeal raisin cookies.

Oh make that cup cakes with cream cheese frosting. Whoz comin along ?

No. Wait.

Heaven forbid, donuts.

Wait - donuts - obesity - dark circles. Dadgummit. It keeps coming back.

Love,
Indian Girl

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