How to get rid of eye bags

For a quick fix, cold is your friend. Hold a cold flannel, chilled spoons or cooling hydrogel patches under your eyes for five to twenty minutes; this can make morning puffiness look visibly smaller within the hour. Sleeping with your head slightly raised and cutting back on late salty food and alcohol helps the next morning too. None of these are permanent — they reduce the look of puffiness for a while.

The five usual causes are fluid pooling overnight, tiredness and lifestyle (short sleep, salt, alcohol, screens), ageing (the tissue holding the fat around the eye loosens and the skin thins), genetics (inherited fat pads or bone structure) and allergies such as hay fever. Many people have a mix. Our free 2-minute eye bag test helps you work out which one is likely to be your main cause.

Often, yes. If you have had noticeable bags since your teens or twenties and a parent or sibling has them too, you have probably inherited the shape of your fat pads, bone structure or skin. Genetic bags are very common and harmless. They do not disappear with more sleep or creams, although good skincare can make the skin on top look smoother and fresher.

Sleep is only one factor. If your bags show even after a good night, the cause is more likely genetic or age-related, or fluid from salty food, alcohol or sleeping flat. Allergies can also cause puffiness regardless of sleep. Look at when they are worst: bags that look the same all day usually point to structure rather than tiredness.

When you lie flat for hours, fluid can collect in the thin, loose skin under your eyes. Once you are upright and moving, it slowly drains away, which is why puffiness is often worst on waking and better by lunchtime. A late salty meal, alcohol or crying the night before makes it more noticeable. Try an extra pillow and a cold compress.

Salt makes your body hold on to water, and some of that fluid can gather in the delicate skin around the eyes, especially overnight. A salty takeaway or crisps late in the evening is a classic cause of puffy eyes the next morning. Keeping salty food earlier in the day, drinking enough water and limiting alcohol all help keep morning puffiness down.

Yes. Hay fever and other allergies release histamine, which can make the eyelids swell and feel itchy and watery. Rubbing makes it worse and can leave dark “allergic shiners”. If your puffiness comes with itching in spring or summer, or around pets or dust, speak to a pharmacist about antihistamines or allergy eye drops before trying any beauty product.

Eye creams can help the look of eye bags, but only to a point. Ingredients like caffeine, peptides and hydrating agents can make skin look smoother, firmer and less puffy for a while. They cannot remove fat that has moved forward or change your bone structure, so they work best for fluid-related puffiness and tired-looking skin, and give subtler results for genetic or age-related bags.

Puffiness from a late night, a salty meal, a cold or hay fever usually settles on its own within hours or days once the trigger passes. Bags caused by ageing or genetics are structural, so they tend to stay and may slowly become more noticeable. Swelling that is new, one-sided or getting worse should be checked by a GP or optician.

Usually not. Cosmetic eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty) to improve appearance is not normally funded by the NHS. It may be considered if drooping upper eyelids affect your vision. Most people in the UK pay privately, typically several thousand pounds. Choose a surgeon on the GMC specialist register and a clinic registered with the Care Quality Commission, and ask about risks and recovery.