Getting Rid Of Dark Circles

I've just been on a really really long dog walk and now I'm starting to feel sleepy. We walked around a gorgeous lake, which also happened to be where the river bits of Chocolat were filmed (loooove that film). Now I'm back and ready to curl up and blog :)

I've had really bad horrible evil dark circles for ages and ages and I've always hated them, but recently they've actually been getting better (haven't disappeared completely yet though :P). I thought I'd share a few of my favourite tricks.

The biggest thing that has affected my dark circles has been changing my diet. I didn't know for months and months that the reason I was ill all the time (every single day :P) was that I was gluten intolerant. Now that I've cut out gluten a very welcome side effect has been a decrease in the darkness of my under eye circles. Obviously this won't affect most people, but it has been the case for me.

Another thing has been sleeeeeeeep. Not a shocker really. But over exams my sleeping patterns became really erratic and fragmented. I'd get to sleep about 5am, but keep tossing and turning waking up every 20 minutes or so until about 11am when I'd start revising again (this is not a good way to revise btw...). So since coming home and getting to sleep at normal times my bags and circles have lessened, (my skin and energy levels have gone up too :P).

Evening Cat, getting his beauty zzzzzzzzs

This time of year is horrible for allergy sufferers, pollen flies about everywhere bunging up your nose and giving you puffy eyes. I always have an allergy tablet every day in the summer (and whenever I'm around my little fluffy cats) to prevent this. Also, my biggest biggest biggest downfall when it comes to eye circles if rubbing my eyes when they're itchy. I literally can't help myself, and rubbing your eyes breaks all the teeny delicate blood vessels under your eyes, causing really awful dark circles. I can always see the next day when I've been rubbing my eyes.

My mum bought me this eye mask which you put in the fridge to cool your eyes. I love this and it really helps with puffy eyes. Anything cooling is good, not just gel eye masks. I used to use tea bags soaked in cold water (the ingredients of the tea also help de-puff) but I always doze off with one of these masks on, and I always ruin the pillow cases with tea stains :P Other good options are cucumber or tomato slices.

Finally a good night eye cream can be really useful. I got this Beaute Initiale Eye gel as a free sample when I bought my Chanel foundation and I've been loving it. I've been using it for a month and it's just about getting to the end, this one is 3ml, and it's £42 for a 15ml bottle, which should in theory last just over 5 months. I really do like this product, and I can definitely see results, my eyes feel a lot less puffy and my dark circles are reduced after using this for a month. If I could afford the full size version (which I can't right now :P) I would definitely buy it.

I'm off to Kent for a week and a bit tomorrow to see my friends and boyfriend :D I'm so excited > . < I haven't seen some people since I went to uni in September! I will be bringing my laptop along too though, so there will be plenty of posts :P

Sunny xxxxx