Make It Look Easy

What do under eye patches help us hide?

We don’t want to look as tired as we are.

We’re only a few months into 2024 and there have already been multiple articles published about the best under eye patches to help us decrease puffiness, eliminate hyperpigmentation, and smooth fine lines. These pieces don’t ask us to consider why we look so tired anyway. Or, ask why we need this integral piece of the “self-care starter kit,” so often? Instead, they focus on the efficacy of the items themselves. These patches are supposed to help us hide our tired under eyes, so that we may appear youthful and relaxed, traits that are integral to American beauty standards.

Under-eye patches and masks have become symbols of self-care and relaxation. Most beauty and lifestyle creators have a digital footprint of their ultra-relaxing self-care days:

• eye mask applied

• robe tightened

• hair wrapped up in a towel

• glass of wine 

Much of the way influencers approach beauty is as a leisurely activity. The entire premise of Get Unready With Me Videos is to share the slow process of unwinding from one’s day.  But no matter how casually we apply serums topically, the gentle and fragile under eye skin tells our business. According to the Mayo Clinic, “Dark circles under the eyes are usually more noticeable when you're tired…Sometimes, what looks like dark circles may be shadows cast by puffy eyelids or hollows under the eyes that develop with aging.” While tired under eyes may also be caused by genetics or sun exposure, what they relay is the primary concern. Looking tired is not a positive on the beauty standard scale. A tired face says to onlookers that you are not youthful and perky or that you may be stressed by long nights with kids or work (God forbid).

But most of us are tired because of all those things and the fact that the world is literally and figuratively on fire. Concurrent genocides are happening in Gaza and the Congo and the U.S. government is not helping to stop them (or is actively supporting them). There is a national housing crisis being fueled by low wages, and millions of people are working multiple jobs to make ends meet. No wonder our under eyes are puffy, we’re more tired than we look.

Sable Yong writes, “The irony of our Western ideals is that in our obsession with “natural” beauty, artificial means of body maintenance and optimization are sought out and encouraged while also stigmatized for not possessing those ideal traits to begin with.” While we shouldn’t need topical treatments like undereye masks and patches to make us look relaxed in a violent and productivity-focused society, the same systems that engender our need for them, render us less beautiful for needing them. This would be a great place for a Venn diagram.

But it is much easier to treat our under eyes than to try and convince those in power to help make our lives less tiring.