We all want to keep looking our best for as long as we can. The definition we use for “best” does need to shift as we age, though. All the little changes and bits of damage to our bodies over time tend to cause changes that we can’t make go away. This might make things seem a bit hopeless, but we do all have to deal with the reality of things eventually. We literally cannot delay things forever. That doesn’t mean we can’t do anything to help minimize and reduce the appearance of some of the signs of aging, though. A common issue is the small wrinkles that can develop around our eyes. These seem to start as early as our 30s and simply become more pronounced as we age. The under eye wrinkles turn up there because the skin folds regularly as we go about each day and that damages the collagen in the area. Knowing why we have the problem is what ultimately lets us fight back against, though. Let’s go over a few tips for doing just that.

Retinol is your Friend
There’s a lot to be said for knowing when to use the right product. This is particularly true when it come to fighting back the signs of aging. Most of the nighttime anti-aging creams you can find use some form of retinol in them. Retinol is a derivative of vitamin A that is particularly useful when it comes to helping to preserve the health of your skin. In fact, vitamin A and its derivatives are only matched by vitamins C and E in most cases when it comes to skin health. Products with retinol in them essentially help boost your skin’s ability to create more collagen to replace what is lost from wear and tear. You do need to be mindful about using these products though. Retinol-based products are best used at night as they tend to make the skin sensitive to the sun for a few hours after applying them. They can also dry out the skin they’re placed on if you don’t care for the skin properly.

Moisturize
Keeping your skin properly moisturized is always important. Dry skin tends to be far more susceptible to damage as it is less resilient to damage. That’s why we all moisturize regularly even if we have oily skin. Our skin needs the right kind of boost to keep its natural barriers intact. The skin around your eyes particularly needs this kind of boost specifically because it is far thinner than the rest of your skin. Remember that your face, as a general rule, has thinner skin overall. The area around your eyes is to your face what the rest of your face is to your body when it comes to skin thickness. Any failure to properly care for the area will be magnified compared to the rest of your skin. Sadly, care options aren’t equally magnified. This makes keeping the area properly moisturized highly important so that slightly drier skin than normal doesn’t result in more collagen damage than normal.

Protect The Area
Sun damage is one of the major causes of all fine lines and wrinkles. There’s no real way to get around this. The sun dries out your skin and on top of it the UV rays introduce free radicals to the skin that further damage collagen. As a result, protecting your skin from the sun properly is always a major concern. Remember how we highlighted that the area around your eyes is particularly sensitive to damage? You’re going to want to make sure the moisturizer you’re using includes an SPF so that your protect the area reliably. You’ll also want to invest in a good pair of sunglasses and perhaps a hat. The idea is to keep the area protected from at least direct exposure to the sun with the sunglasses. A hat is a good extra step to keep your eyes in shade whenever possible, but isn’t necessarily required.

The small eye wrinkles that appear first are easy enough to minimize and contain with good skincare. Moisturizing and applying a retinol-based product can keep them at bay for a long time. You can start with such a routine later and help them look better though, but the results won’t be as good as if you’d been taking care of your skin all along. Remember that prevention and dedication are at the heart of good skincare. You can’t entirely stop changes, but staying ahead of them will keep your skin looking beautiful longer.