There's a particular kind of annoying that goes like this: you slept a full eight hours, you feel absolutely fine, and the first thing somebody says to you is "Are you all right? You look shattered." If that keeps happening, the odds are very good that nothing whatsoever is wrong with you, and the culprit is a small groove sitting just under each eye.
What the tear trough actually is
The tear trough is the groove that runs between your lower eyelid and the top of your cheek. Everybody has one, because it's simply the seam where two parts of the face meet. What changes over the years is how deep it sits, and the reason lies in the cheek rather than the eye.
Think of a well-stuffed cushion. While it's full, the seam around the edge hardly shows, because the stuffing presses right up against it. Take some of that stuffing out and the seam becomes the most obvious thing about the cushion, even though the seam itself never changed.
Your cheek does the same thing. The pad of fat that sits high in the cheek thins and drifts downward as we age, and once that support goes, there is nothing pressing up against the groove above it any more. Your eye hasn't changed at all. What was holding things up underneath it has.
Why a shadow reads as tiredness
Now here's the bit that surprises people, and it's worth knowing before you buy another eye cream.
When you see darkness under your eyes in the mirror, the natural thought is that the skin there has gone darker, so off you go hunting for something to brighten it. Very often, though, that skin is a perfectly ordinary colour, and what you're actually looking at is a shadow cast by the groove. It works exactly like a dip in a lawn on a sunny afternoon: the hollow reads dark while the flat grass beside it looks bright, and the grass isn't a different colour at all. The ground is a different shape.
That's why brightening creams so often disappoint on a genuine tear trough. There's nothing there to brighten. Change the shape and the shadow has nowhere to sit; leave the shape alone and the shadow stays put whatever you put on top of it. And other people read that darkness as tiredness instantly, without ever thinking about it, because a genuinely tired face looks exactly the same way.
How under-eye filler softens the shadow
Dermal fillers are soft gels of hyaluronic acid, which is a substance your skin already makes and steadily loses with age. Placed carefully under the eye, a small amount supports the dip so the surface runs smoothly from lid to cheek once more.
Once the ground is level again, there is nothing left to cast a shadow, and the darkness goes with it. That's all there is to it, and it's why a good result looks so natural: the support your cheek has lost is simply put back, and your face carries on looking like your face.
We use Juvéderm® by Allergan, one of the most established names in the industry, and the amounts used here are small, because the area is small and the aim is to level a groove rather than add fullness. Volume is the only thing a filler does. Relaxing the muscles that crease skin is a different injectable's job, and if those two blur together in your head, our piece on Botox and fillers sorts out which one does what.
Who under-eye filler suits, and who it honestly doesn't
This treatment is at its best when the darkness genuinely comes from a hollow: the skin is still reasonably firm, the groove is clear to see, and the shadow lightens when you tilt your face up toward a window. If that's you, filler is doing precisely the job it was designed for.
There are two situations where the honest answer is something else entirely, and they're both worth knowing about before you book anything.
The first is real puffiness. If what sits under your eye bulges forward rather than sinking back, adding volume beneath it can simply give you a larger version of the same bulge, and that isn't the result you're after. That shape needs bringing down rather than filling in, and it's a different conversation, sometimes a surgical one. Broadway Retreat has its own surgical suite under the same roof, so we can have that conversation properly, and we have no reason to steer you toward the wrong treatment.
The second is skin that has become quite loose. Skin in that condition tends to crease over filler placed underneath it rather than lying smoothly across it, so the smooth result never quite arrives. Tightening comes first there, and our non-surgical eye lift is built for exactly that kind of lower-lid skin.
Plenty of faces show a bit of all three, which is completely normal, and it's the main reason we look properly before we plan anything.
Why this one comes down to the hands holding the syringe
Under-eye filler is one of those treatments where who does it matters more than what's in the syringe, and the reason is straightforward.
The skin under your eye is the thinnest skin anywhere on your body. There's very little between the surface and what lies beneath it, so filler placed too shallowly can show through as a lump or a faint bluish tinge, and too much of it can look puffy in the very spot you wanted to look rested. The area is delicate and crowded, which is why we'd want this one in medical hands wherever you choose to have it done.
Done well, the filler goes in slowly, in small amounts and at precise depths, building conservatively towards the result you agreed at your consultation. Every injectable at Broadway Retreat is delivered by experienced medical professionals in a CQC-registered clinic. And do ask that question anywhere you go: who will actually be holding the syringe, and what are their qualifications? Any clinic worth your face is glad you asked.
What the appointment involves, and how long it lasts
The consultation comes first, always. We look at the area properly, work out what is actually casting your shadow, and tell you plainly what we find and what will genuinely improve it.
If filler is the right answer, the appointment itself is calmer than most people picture: around thirty minutes, the change visible immediately, and clear aftercare talked through before you leave, because the treated area can feel a little sensitive for a day or two.
As for how long it lasts, here's the honest version. Fillers biodegrade naturally, which simply means your body breaks the gel down gradually over time, so the result was never designed to be permanent. How long yours holds depends on the area treated and the product used, so we'll tell you what to expect for your face at your consultation rather than quote you an average that may have nothing to do with you. When it does begin to fade, keeping it is easy: a maintenance appointment holds the result for as long as you want to keep it.
Come and find out what's casting your shadow
If you've been asked whether you're feeling all right one too many times this month, bring that question to us. Arrange your consultation and we'll tell you what's really casting the shadow under your eyes, and whether filler is the answer for it.
And if it isn't, you'll hear that just as plainly, along with what would actually work. Either way you'll finally know why the mirror keeps calling you tired when you aren't.