Beauty Tips for Ministers

Dark Circles

March 30, 2008 on 8:00 pm | In Eyes |

Hello my weary Sunday-working pastor pals,

Someone wrote to PeaceBang today asking about how to cover up dark circles under the ole eyes, so before she skips off to write her newsletter column and watch Part IV of “John Adams” on HBO, PeaceBang will try to offer some helpful advice.

First, she’ll share what she thinks is pretty unhelpful advice on the subject, which she found by a blogger named “NY Make-Up Artist.” Not to malign New York Make-Up Artist’s skills or sage wisdom, but PeaceBang thinks that the following regimen

# Powder the area under your eyes with very fine translucent powder to set the corrective concealer, and then go over the area one more time with your regular, everyday concealer (the one that matches the rest of your happy, non-discolored skin).

P.S. If you have no idea why you constantly have dark circles under your eyes – if you have no reason to believe that your recurring dark circles are hereditary or caused by allergies, for example – you might want to see a dermatologist, who can determine whether your dark circles are caused by poor circulation.

Here’s PeaceBang again, who agrees with the author above in one detail: to cover dark circles, it really is worth the time and effort to find the right formulation for your skin and the particular hue of your circles. When PeaceBang gets the Walter Mondale bags on important occasions, she follows this routine:

1. For puffiness, ice and lots of water. Witch hazel on pads over the eyes for five to ten minutes (if there’s time). Application of a firming eye cream kept in the fridge.

2. When eyes are dry and hydrated with a day cream of some sort (that’s had time to fully absorb into the skin, and nothing too oily), GENTLY apply a foundation with a very light touch (tap with edge of finger) to undereye area AND EYELID (don’t forget to blend into corner of eye/bridge of nose) as you apply to the rest of your face (or just to blotchy areas, as PB prefers to do, which means sides of nose, chin and forehead).

3. If skin still looks noticeably dark, use make-up brush to apply a very light coat of light-reflecting cover-up to circles under eyes. Choose a shade just one shade lighter than your skin color; nothing too obvious. Tinted products can work very well, as the article above details. Again, blend well into bridge of nose and surrounding area. You do NOT want to look as though you have clowny circles around your eyes.

4. With a small, fluffy brush, set the area with a translucent powder. Better yet, set the area with a light-reflecting powder. There are many on the market right now but PeaceBang has been using Revlon Skinlights for a thousand years (the same container, in fact, which is ridiculously huge: did they think I was going to douse my entire body in the stuff? I decant it into a smaller container and it’s still fine after all these years).

5. On dark circle days, avoid lots of eye make-up. Curl your lashes, load on the mascara, smudge some eyeliner on the top lid only, and use a bright lip color and sweep a pop of blush on to wake up your face.

6. Gentlemen, there is no reason on God’s green earth that those of you who have hereditary or fatigue-related dark circles can’t use a subtle product to make them less noticeable. You will look ten years younger and rested, and if that doesn’t matter to you, your eyes will be more expressive and less shadowed in the pulpit.

7. I travel with this wonderful product by Mac, which doubles as a foundation AND cover-up! It’s supremely blendable and comes in so many shades, you’re bound to find one that works for you.

8. If the dark circles are a new thing for you, consider dietary and hormonal changes. Dark circles under the eyes can be related to other health issues, so don’t hesitate to ask your doc about it. For some reason I remember hearing that dark circles can be caused by nasal congestion (NETI POT!) and also by vitamin deficiencies. Someone once told me to eat lots of leafy green veggies if I got dark circles, but I can’t swear by that.

Finally, can you believe someone has a blog that’s exclusively about this subject??? I couldn’t believe it, either, but here it is!