Will an eye cream get rid of my dark circles?

Not if they are structural. An eye cream hydrates thin skin and softens the crepe that makes a shadow look deeper, and a brightening one can fade pigment over months. Neither fills a hollow, because a hollow is bone and fat rather than skin. Anyone promising otherwise is selling.

How do I tell whether mine is pigment or a hollow?

Stretch the skin gently sideways — as a cue, not as a diagnosis. Pigment tends to stay put, because it is a stain in the skin. If it lightens it is one of the other two, and this test does not tell you which — it separates pigment from the rest and no more. To go further, tilt your face up under a lamp: a hollow's shadow moves and can be filled with light because it is cast, and the blue of thin skin does not, because there is nothing casting it.

Does concealer make it worse?

Too much does. Thick concealer sits in the fine lines under the eye and turns a soft shadow into a grey patch that looks older, not more rested. Thin, only on the dark part, and skip the powder unless it actually shifts during the day.

Does drinking more water help?

Only if you were short of it. Dehydrated skin does sit closer to the vessels underneath and read darker, so it is worth fixing — but it is a small lever, and it is not the reason the shadow is there.

The answer

Why do I look tired even when I have slept?

Looking tired is mostly an under-eye shadow, and a shadow has three possible causes: a hollow, thin skin showing the blue underneath, or pigment. Sleep changes none of them directly. Hydration and sun protection change the second and third slowly; concealer and a little colour elsewhere on the face change how all three read in a minute. The one that is structural does not move for a cream, and this page is not going to tell you otherwise.

What answers it

Kiehl'sAvocado Eye TreatmentThick enough to sit on the thinnest skin on the face without travelling into the eye. It hydrates the crepe that makes a shadow look deeper, and it stops concealer creasing into it — the second job matters more here than the first.Buy on Amazon
TarteShape Tape concealerThe reason concealer often fails under the eye is that it was matched to foundation. Under the eye it wants to be about a shade lighter than your own skin, so check the shade on the listing against your face rather than against your foundation — and put it only where the shadow is, in a thin layer, because thickness is what turns a shadow into a grey patch.Buy on Amazon
NARSPowder blush in OrgasmThe unglamorous answer, and the one that works fastest. A face reads as tired partly because it is flat — colour high on the cheek gives the eye somewhere else to go. It changes nothing about the shadow and changes the whole impression.Buy on Amazon
LaneigeWater Sleeping MaskFor the night before something. Skin that is short of water sits closer to the vessels underneath, which reads as darker. This holds water there overnight, which is why it is the night-before step rather than the morning-of one.Buy on Amazon
La Roche-PosayAnthelios Melt-In Milk SPF 60Pigment is the one cause of the three that gets worse with light, and it is the one you can genuinely prevent. Nothing on this page matters as much over ten years as wearing this.Buy on Amazon

Prices live on Amazon, where they change hourly — so we never quote one. Every product here is a brand we would name out loud.

What people actually see when they say you look tired

It has been studied rather than guessed at. When people were asked to identify tired faces, the cues they picked out were droopy eyelids, red eyes, dark circles and pale skin — the face's shadows and its colour, not its energy. That is worth knowing because it tells you what is being read: a shadow says tired, and a shadow is a physical thing with a physical cause. You are not being seen through. You are being lit badly.

The three shadows, and which one you probably have

Pull the skin under one eye gently sideways. If the darkness stays, pigment is likely part of it — a stain in the skin, which fades slowly with sun protection and brightening ingredients and never overnight. If it lightens, it is thin skin showing the blood vessels beneath, which hydration helps a little, or a hollow between the cheek and the eye socket casting a shadow, which nothing topical reaches. This is a cosmetic cue rather than a diagnosis: dark circles also come from eczema and allergy, from rubbing, from ageing, and from things a mirror cannot show you. Most people have some mix of the three, and the mix decides what is worth buying.

The bit nobody selling you a cream will say

A hollow is bone and fat, not skin, and no eye cream moves it. The clinics at the top of this search know that, which is why their answer arrives attached to a procedure. Ours is that you can treat the pigment, hydrate the thinness, and put the light back with makeup — and that if what is left is structural, that is anatomy, and it is on most faces, and it is not a problem you failed to solve.

When it is not a cosmetic question

If a dark circle is new, or sits under one eye and not the other, or comes with swelling, that is worth taking to a doctor rather than to a shelf. The same is true if the skin there is itchy or scaly, which is usually eczema or an allergy rather than a shadow. Nothing on this page is aimed at any of that, and buying concealer for it only delays the answer.

Why sleep helps less than everyone promises

A bad night makes skin drier and paler, which deepens all three shadows, so eight hours does help. But it helps at the margin. If the shadow is still there after a fortnight of sleeping well, more sleep is not the missing input, and continuing to treat it as a sleep problem is how people end up feeling guilty about their face.

The five-minute version, in order

Hydrate the under-eye and let it settle for a minute. Concealer one shade lighter than the face, only on the shadow, thin, patted rather than dragged. Nothing powdered over it unless it moves — powder is what makes an under-eye look crepey. Then colour on the cheek, higher than feels natural. Sunscreen underneath all of it, every day, because that is the part working on next year rather than this morning.

Questions

Will an eye cream get rid of my dark circles?: Not if they are structural. An eye cream hydrates thin skin and softens the crepe that makes a shadow look deeper, and a brightening one can fade pigment over months. Neither fills a hollow, because a hollow is bone and fat rather than skin. Anyone promising otherwise is selling.
How do I tell whether mine is pigment or a hollow?: Stretch the skin gently sideways — as a cue, not as a diagnosis. Pigment tends to stay put, because it is a stain in the skin. If it lightens it is one of the other two, and this test does not tell you which — it separates pigment from the rest and no more. To go further, tilt your face up under a lamp: a hollow's shadow moves and can be filled with light because it is cast, and the blue of thin skin does not, because there is nothing casting it.
Does concealer make it worse?: Too much does. Thick concealer sits in the fine lines under the eye and turns a soft shadow into a grey patch that looks older, not more rested. Thin, only on the dark part, and skip the powder unless it actually shifts during the day.
Does drinking more water help?: Only if you were short of it. Dehydrated skin does sit closer to the vessels underneath and read darker, so it is worth fixing — but it is a small lever, and it is not the reason the shadow is there.

Your turn

What should we dress next?

An occasion you cannot find anything for, or a product you want us to look at properly.