You sleep fine, yet people keep asking if you are tired. The skin under your eyes looks dark, hollow, or heavy, no matter how much rest you get. Dark circles are one of the most common concerns patients bring to us. Often, the cause has nothing to do with sleep at all.
Why This Happens
Dark circles are not one problem. Different causes exist, and the cause decides what helps.
Some dark circles come from pigmentation, extra melanin in the skin under the eyes. This shows up as a brownish discolouration and often runs in families or comes from sun exposure.
Other dark circles are not pigment at all. They are shadow. As you age, you lose volume in the under-eye area and upper cheek. The skin there sits closer to bone, and a hollow forms. This hollow catches light differently to the surrounding skin. Your brain reads the shadow as a tired look, even though no extra pigment sits there.
The two problems need different approaches. Skincare and pigmentation treatments target melanin. They do nothing for a hollow, because a hollow is a shape and shadow, not a colour. If you have tried brightening creams or pigment treatments and seen no change, a volume loss shadow is often the reason.
Where This Leads
Where the cause is volume loss, tear trough filler restores lost volume under the eye and softens the hollow behind the shadow. The treatment does not change pigment, and works best where shadow, not brown discolouration, is the main problem.
At Kirei Clinic, Dr Mei and Dr Rosie assess your eye area alongside the rest of your midface. Under-eye hollowing often connects to volume loss in the cheeks, and treating the eye area alone often misses the real cause. Read the full detail on the treatment, including what to expect and how long results last, on our Tear Trough Filler page.
FAQs
Is this lack of sleep or something else?
Poor sleep makes dark circles look worse for a night or two. A tired look present every day rarely comes from sleep alone. Persistent shadow or hollowing under the eyes usually points to volume loss or pigmentation instead.
Does skincare fix this?
Skincare helps with pigmentation and skin texture. Skincare does not fill a hollow. If your dark circles come from lost volume rather than brown discolouration, a cream leaves the area unchanged, because no shape change happens from a cream.
What is the difference between dark circles and tear trough hollows?
Dark circles is the general term people use for any darkness under the eyes. A tear trough hollow is a specific cause, a groove or dip where volume has been lost, creating a shadow rather than true pigmentation. Not every case of dark circles is a tear trough hollow, and telling them apart is the first step to treating the right problem.