What exactly are dark circles?

Tiredness and lack of sleep

If you are tired for a long time and are completely sleep-deprived, the skin under your eyes turns pretty pale and blood at this area becomes more visible and looks darker.

Age

In general, the skin under the eye is thin as well as delicate. With ageing, the skin of this area tends to turn even thinner, making the blood vessels protuberant that result in giving dark circles.

Heredity

Genetics and heredity can also be strong reasons behind the dark circles you have. This is one of the most unfortunate reasons of having them, which not only dominates the under-eye area but spoil your pretty looks as well.

Anaemia

Check for your iron count. Deficit in it can lead to darkened under eye area. Low iron level is the most common form of anaemia. It results in poor oxygenation in the body tissues due to low supply of oxygenated blood. The solution lies in a balanced diet, which is enriched with green leafy vegetable, dairy products and all types of fruits.

Allergies

Surprising, yet true! Any condition that triggers itching in eyes may cause dark circles. The reason is that because of itching, you scratch that area. It holds true especially in case of children.

Overexposure to the sun

Due to overexposure to sun, skin surface develops pigmentation and create dark circles under the eye. Being exposed to the sun for long produces a high amount of melanin around eyes than regular, thus causing that unwanted dark colour. When excess melanin is being made in the epidermis (outer layer of skin), it looks brown, and when there is more than usual melanin in the dermis (inner layer), it appears blue or blue-grey.