Cracking under eye tips please

August 20, 2024 10:14 PM

I turned forty! It’s exactly like being 39 except in the past week the creases in my under eyes have begun to crack and are red and sensitive. Nothing is quite helping. What do you use for this? Copious skin info and things I’ve tried under the cut.

My skin is normally:
- pretty great! Apparently I do not look my age at all.
- it’s dry though, I tend to flake and have the occasional clogged pore on my nostrils, chin, and forehead
- very very pale, but not overly prone to redness
- I do have a history of eczema and family history of psoriasis, with occasional mild flare ups maybe once a year in random spots, mostly on my limbs but a few years ago it was on my eyelids. It went away with careful topical steroid use, moisturizers, stress reduction, and time.
- I don’t have terrible eye bags or a lot of darkness, and I’ve never felt a need to cosmetically address the area.
- I seem to respond well to argon oil and jojoba oil, they are the friendliest to my skin and hair.

I don’t really have a skincare routine. I don’t shower very often and I rarely get sweaty and gross in my day to day. A few times a week I will use a mild facial cleanser for dry skin, either in the shower or at the sink, always at night. It’s either a regular foaming cleanser like the cerave one, or an oil based cleanser that I rinse off with warm water. I rarely wear makeup but when I do I always wash it off, usually with the oil cleanser or a balm. I usually put on a heavier face moisturizer at night, like the clinique moisture surge one or a variety of other unscented things intended for dry skin, and always do so after I’ve washed my face. During the day I’ll put on a less greasy moisturizer and an spf if I’m going outside. I have eye creams and toners etc but I don’t ever really remember to use them.

The cracks under my eyes are not acting like the eczema I’ve experienced before. They do flake but only a little, and only when I wake up, not throughout the day. They don’t itch, they are just sensitive when I blink, emote a lot, or get moisture/gunk in them. The area around the thin cracks is not red or inflamed. It’s just the little fold in the pouch of skin under both my eyes is raw and cracked. I don’t have deep wrinkles there, or really wrinkles at all, yet.

I have tried: Kiel’s avocado eye mask goop overnight, a sample of clinique eye cream overnight and during the day, not putting hot water on my face, stepping up the spf under my eyes, only ever lightly touching the area (this is very hard, I am a notorious eye-rubber), a sample of Estée Lauder advanced overnight repair serum for a few nights in a row, plain unscented lip balm (Dr bronners brand) during the day, plain Vaseline before bed.

The best seems to be the plain lip balm and Vaseline combo, but I would really prefer not to be so greasy there, it slides all over my face and gets yucky and smudges my glasses something awful. The cracks are not fully healed and I can tell that as soon as I stop they will come right back.

Is there a product/combo/technique/trick I can start doing most nights to prevent this from happening all the time? Something that actually sinks into my skin and doesn’t need to be washed off in the morning would be best. Is there something I can do to promote healing in this very small and sensitive area?

I am otherwise sleeping and eating well, have no recent lifestyle changes, and I know you are not my doctor or my dermatologist.

posted by Mizu to Health & Fitness (21 answers total)

What are your eyeglass frames made of? (You're getting the best results when there's a physical barrier of balm or Vaseline between your skin and the frames.)
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:59 PM on August 20

If you think it could be due to hyper localized dry skin, I looove Biocare Labs Naturally Clear Skin moisturizer for that sort of thing. If I put it on at night when my skin is dry or cracked or peeling due to overdoing drying acne treatments or sunburn or general winter suffering it feels so much better the next day. It generally just calms my skin down when it’s pissed off - I assume it’s the vitamin E in it that makes it super soothing but I haven’t found other vitamin E lotions with a similar effect. The only drawback is that it smells very strongly of botanical fragrance- I would use it every day if it wasn’t so noticeably scented.
posted by crime online at 11:06 PM on August 20

Best answer: Use Vaseline at night and a gentle all purpose moisturiser like cerave for day. SPF may be aggravating your skin so I’d not add extra in that area but layer the moisturiser under it. I’d not use any of the other stuff you mentioned until your skin is healed. You should clean your face every night with a gentle cleanser to remove the spf.
posted by koahiatamadl at 11:06 PM on August 20

Response by poster: I’m currently sporting sparkly purple wire frames with nose pads. My under eyes are not in contact with my glasses at all, it’s just that I have silly long eyelashes and I can’t degrease them when applying goo underneath them without removing the goo and aggravating the skin there, so my lower lashes grease up the lenses.

I’m not wearing spf at all most of the time because I am the human version of an indoor only cat.
posted by Mizu at 11:16 PM on August 20 [1 favorite]

The Vaseline is preventing moisture from leaving the area by acting as a barrier, which is why it works the best. Usually as a last ditch effort with redness and flakiness on my face (I have both seborrheic dermatitis and eczema) I use a zinc pyrithione soap bar to cleanse my face for a few days. I used to use dandruff shampoo but the soap bar is cheaper and works better, in my experience.

Try to stick to cool or lukewarm water, pat dry rather than rub, and moisturize right away. Overnight use vaseline to keep the moisture in and during the day, after gently removing the Vaseline, you can try one of the non-petrolatum moisturizers like Cerave's eye repair cream. (The idea being to wear the greasy stuff at night during sleep and the non greasy stuff during the day while wearing glasses.)
posted by MagnificentVacuum at 11:33 PM on August 20

Best answer: I am going to suggest my present favorite healing balm which is Avene cicafalate barrier cream. It went under a slightly different names in France and Australia. It works great. I've used it for a pretty gross fungal and mosaic wart topical issue and for treating a variety of skin irritations, and eczema flare ups.
posted by jadepearl at 11:33 PM on August 20 [1 favorite]

Honestly it sounds like it might be dermatologist time, especially if you can't get anything OTC to work. It does sound like inflammation of some kind.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 11:39 PM on August 20 [14 favorites]

20min direct sunlight a day (but not much more than that)
posted by Jacqueline at 11:52 PM on August 20 [1 favorite]

Honestly it sounds like it might be dermatologist time

I agree with this very strongly. Your poor face is cracking and it's a new symptom :( it makes my skin hurt to read this. I hope you get some relief.

Something you can try (please patch test first) while waiting for your appointment is diaper rash cream. I know that sounds nuts but it's the best skincare thing I've added to my routine this year. The high zinc concentration does magical, healing things overnight and every time I put it on I wake up with an amazing skin day. It's so soooothing.
posted by phunniemee at 5:44 AM on August 21 [8 favorites]

Dermatologist time. This could be fungal, bacterial, or have some other underlying cause.
posted by Mournful Bagel Song at 5:50 AM on August 21 [6 favorites]

How is your intake of dietary fat, particularly omega-3s?

You could try a daily (quality) omega-3 supplement. Whole Foods typically has some good ones that are sustainably produced. Fish oil is best but flax oil will also do in a pinch. I use good ol' cod liver oil these days.
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 6:29 AM on August 21

definitely see a dermatologist, but as far as OTC remedies go, i'll second diaper rash cream, and also recommend colloidal oatmeal. when i had persistent contact dermatitis and dry, cracked skin on my face earlier this year (new for me at 39!), a combination zinc/colloidal oatmeal lotion was the only thing that helped.
posted by guybrush_threepwood at 8:08 AM on August 21 [1 favorite]

Maybe try Ocusoft eyelid wipes? Yes they're meant for the eyelids specifically, but obviously the wipes will involve your under-eye area too. They have generally fixed mild issues for me with the skin around my eyes in terms of flakiness, dryness, itch, etc. Definitely still see a dermatologist though.
posted by yasaman at 8:18 AM on August 21

Yeah this sounds like a "call a Dr" situation, just due to the location alone. If it wasn't right near the eye I'd consider it ok to wait and see if things resolve on their own, but if you've got a minor fungal or bacterial infection you definitely don't want that migrating into the eye itself, not worth the risk. I'd avoid other OTC treatments (zinc, hydrocortizone) for the same reason.

Your vaseline & unflavored lip balm combo should be pretty safe in the meantime. In my experience vaseline applied at bedtime that is still really sticky and gloopy in the morning means I've used too much. For such a small area especially, just touching the surface of the vaseline lightly with the pad of a finger should be enough. Other products that are similar are the Cerave, Cetaphil and Aquaphor healing ointments; these combine petrolatum with other ingredients (hyaluronic acid, shea butter, lanolin, respectively) to provide a different on-skin feeling that you may prefer.
posted by radiogreentea at 10:16 AM on August 21 [2 favorites]

On the off chance that this is eczema: I get eczema on my upper and lower eyelids and unless I have a particularly bad outbreak, I usually find that over-the-counter eczema creams like the Aveeno one do the trick. When I did have a particularly bad outbreak, I saw a dermatologist and got prescribed Elidel.
posted by capricorn at 2:07 PM on August 21

Also wash your pillowcases a couple times.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 10:18 PM on August 21 [2 favorites]

My present hobbyhorse is "might it be the beginnings of perimenopause??" So perhaps get your follicular whatsit hör one checked if that's feasible. Scritchiness in your 40s could be that.
posted by Iteki at 11:59 PM on August 21 [1 favorite]

Mod note: One deleted. Please just answer the actual question (about a skin care issue!) rather than wildly extrapolate and imagine all sorts of personal attitudinal biases and shortcomings to scold about! If this is your impulse, please just avoid Ask Metafilter entirely.
posted by taz (staff) at 10:44 PM on August 24

Response by poster: might it be the beginnings of perimenopause

Iteki, this is also a hobbyhorse of mine! Alas, my menstrual cycle kicked in exactly when expected (today). But it could still be perimenopause! My next obgyn checkup I’m going to ask about hormone levels and other fun things, 40 means maybe my doctor might take me seriously. Maybe. But I join you in commenting “maybe it’s perimenopause?” on a wide variety of AskMes. :)
posted by Mizu at 11:39 PM on August 24

Response by poster: Wanted to wait a couple days to see how things go for an update. Good news! I was evidently just being impatient, because regular application of the plain lip balm to the area seems to have allowed it to heal up just fine. Chalk one up to avocado oil, jojoba oil, and beeswax. Also, before you get worried, it was a new lip balm and I’ll only ever use it for keeping this part of my skin protected.

A further note: please believe me when I say I would not be asking Metafilter about an issue like this if it were serious enough for medical attention. Perhaps I was a little intense in my description? There was no blood, no weeping, no pain, no open wound. Simply tiny folds of skin that were raw. It doesn’t and did not itch, and I could only ever feel it when I exaggeratedly moved the skin there or I got something on it that would irritate any kind of chapped skin. The area didn’t move or grow or change apart from extremely slow healing. It’s just annoying, not horrific. No need to spill over your empathy cup.
posted by Mizu at 12:15 AM on August 25 [1 favorite]

My period is pretty much ticking along too, but looking back I can see that some issues that I am treating for now were emerging from 4-6 years ago, one of which being itchy areas, including ear canals, eyelids, nostrils.
posted by Iteki at 1:50 AM on August 25