DIY Eye Masks and Eye Care

Soothing and treating your eyes with DIY eye masks is one of the easiest things to do using all natural at home ingredients and materials. I get a lot of questions from readers about eye care and natural treatments. Here are some simple tips and recipes:

Puffiness: Under eye puffins can be caused by a variety of reasons: diet, allergies, or extra fluid in your system. To treat morning puffiness follow these simple steps: Splash your face with very cold water. With a very light touch tap gently around your eyes to encourage fluids to move away from the eye area. Place a cold compress such as cucumber slices, tea bags, witch hazel pads or potato slices under your eyes and relax for 10-15 minutes.

Crow's feet and Wrinkles: Prevention is the name of the game in avoiding premature wrinkling around the eye area. Buy a good pair of sunglasses and wear them; they are your best beauty tools. Don't smoke; there are dozens of reasons not to, so add wrinkle prevention to the list. Also, avoid unnecessary stretching of the skin. Do not rub your eyes and use gentle eye makeup remover each evening.

Dark Circles: The skin under the eyes is so thing that in some people the blood passing through the tiny veins near the surface shows through, giving the area a bluish or grayish cast or dark circles. Heredity, fatigue and illness can all make under eye circles more pronounced. Sleep and cosmetic camouflage are your two best treatments for dark circles. Make sure you get at least 8 hours of sleep each night. Taking a warm bath in the evening is a great way to unwind and help your body relax so you are ready for a good night's rest.

DIY Eye Mask

Eye masks are super popular right now and they are so simple to create. Basically you want to use an absorbent material such as natural cotton, silk or natural paper cut into a semi-circle shape that will fit under your eyes. Soaking the material in a soothing and hydrating solution helps calm, treat and hydrate your under eye area. Here is a simple recipe you can create at home but feel free to make it your own and for even more cooling action keep your eye masks in the refrigerator.

2 natural eye masks cut out of fabric or paper (I use coffee filters)

1 tablespoon aloe vera gel

1 tablespoon fresh cucumber juice

1 tablespoon rosewater

In a small dish mix together all of the ingredients. Add your eye masks and let soak for 1-2 minutes. You can also store them in the refrigerator for a few days. I sometimes makes several for this reason. (They can also be frozen for longer shelf life.) To use: Wash your face and place an eye mask under each eye. Lie down and rest your eyes for 10-15 minutes.

Yield: 1 ounce, 2 eye masks

Other soothing ingredients to try:

Witch hazel

Green Tea

Chamomile Tea

Parsley Juice

Lavender Tea

You are beautiful!

xoxo Janice