Puffy eyes are SO not fun. We all get them sometime... So what causes our eyes to look like puffed up, swollen fish bellies?

Many things can, really. Some of the more common causes include:

• Crying the night before
• Rubbing your eyes and irritating them
• Sleeping on your side or stomach (which causes fluids to accumulate in the eyes; sometimes only one eye if you sleep on your side. This results in a funny look!
• Eating salty or preservative-laden food, like hot dogs, pepperoni, lunch meat, etc.
• Infection

And the list goes on.

To help tame down that self-esteem deflating puffiness, try placing something cool on your eyes for about 10 to 30 minutes. A soft gel eye pack would work... or you could try an ice cube wrapped in a wash cloth. Any cool, safe item will help the fluids to "back off", giving you lovely, more normal eyes.

YAY!

To help cover those eyes up if you are in a hurry and just can't get them to shrink down, I recommend applying a darker eye shadow to the upper puffy part of your eye. Remember that darker colors make an area recede, while lighter colors make an area stand out or appear to come forward. Since you want the puffiness to appear to sink back and look smaller, choose a darker shade for your upper eye lid, like gray, charcoal, muted green, or brown.

Apply evenly and blend until smooth. Stay away from colors that might make you look like you have a black eye, such as black, blue, purples, plums or reds. Those shades can be gorgeous normally, but when your eyes are swollen, they won't look great on you. You don't want everyone to think you've been in a knock-down drag out! (Even if you have!! :) )

If your concern is baggy eyes, see our page for that.

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