Dark circles under the eyes tend to be hereditary and are caused by engorged blood vessels under the eye and result from a variety of reasons; lack of sleep, illness, fatigue and stress and possibly poor nutrition. The following treatments are homegrown and also commercially available treatments for dark circles.

Green cucumber slices - chill the cucumber slices. Clean all makeup off your face.Lie down and lay chilled cucumber slices over your eye lids and under eye area. Leave the slices in place for at least 15 minutes. Cucumber contains a naturally moisturizing substance. Try mashing a cucumber and applying just the juice to your eye area. The cucumber juice lightens the skin very effectively. This treatment can be done daily to get good results.

Green Gourd - green gourd slices placed over the eye area act in much the same way as cucumber slices.

Ice cubes - wrap ice cubes in a thin hand towel. Place the ice cube pack over the eyes, massage very gently.

Tea bags - placing moist tea bags over the eye area reduces swelling in general.
Diet - increase your intake of iron and vitamins A and B. Iron deficiency is thought to cause dark circles under the eyes. A good source of iron is spinach.

Dark circles may be camouflaged with Dark Eye Serum from GreaatSkin or Philosophy Eye Cream. Applying an under the eye concealer is probably the best way to cover dark circles. Chose a concealer color that exactly matches your skin tone. Apply it all around the eye, not just below the eye. Set the concealer by applying translucent facial powder. Do not apply mascara to your lower lashes, this avoids drawing attention to the problem area.

by Gina Schultz., contributing editor