We independently select and review the products we recommend. We may earn a small commission on purchases made through our affiliate links below. Learn more about how we review products and our sources of information.
Even though allergies, alcohol, salt intake, and genetics are common causes for swelling around the eyes, the most relatable reason for puffy eyes is crying yourself to sleep. For me, it’s usually eating salty popcorn, which happens to be my comfort food to stop me from crying. And ironically, it just makes everything worse in the morning. Well, the good thing is you know why your eyes are all puffy. And that changes everything! Because there are simple things you can do to quickly get rid of puffy eyes when you’ve been crying.
Physiologically speaking, your eyes get puffy because of the amount of salt in your tears. Even though the salt concentration is not much at the beginning, it gets saltier and saltier as the tears go through several “salty” pathways until they end up in your eyes.
And your body is working overtime to produce those tears, causing the blood vessels to dilate and swelling around the eyes. What you’re going to do is reduce swelling by constricting the blood vessels and move the accumulated fluid around the eyes.
Constricting, cooling, and moving is the name of the game. It’s a weirdly long name for a game, but it works. Depending on how hard you’ve been crying, puffiness can last as short as half a day or as long as 2 days.
The good thing is that it starts to get better as soon as you wake up in the morning. Below is a step-by-step eyecare to reduce puffiness around the eyes fast.
Squeeze these steps into your morning skincare routine. Then again, you may not feel like doing your skincare routine if you cried yourself to sleep. But trust me, this will lift up your eyes, and your spirits!
How To Get Rid of Puffy Eyes From Crying
Scroll down to find out how to get rid of puffy eyes from crying.
1. Wash your face
We all know how cold helps to reduce swelling by constricting blood vessels. So, start by washing your face with cold water and get a better picture of what you’re dealing with.
2. Apply cold beer press
Nobody keeps a spoon in their fridge in case they cry for a whole night. So, grab a cold beer or a ketchup bottle and gently press it around the eyes.
If you happen to have cold spoons in the fridge, by all means! Gently apply pressure under the eyes using cold spoons. And then apply them under the brows and on the outer corner of your eyes.
3. Make some coffee
Obviously, we should start making better life choices like not crying ourselves to sleep for lame reasons or having healthy vegetables like cucumbers in the fridge. But you do what you have to do.
Coffee will wake you up and help you snap out of it. Drink away and once it’s cold, apply a few drops of it under the eyes. Caffeine constricts blood vessels just like the cold press. Leave it on for 5 minutes and wash it off.
4. Apply your eye cream
This would be a great time to slap on those under-eye patches you’ve been keeping for your next flight. If you don’t have any, go ahead with your eye cream. The way you apply your eye cream or your eye serum is important. Because you’ll be massaging your eye area to stimulate lymph drainage.
You need an eye product so that your hands glide easily on the skin. You can also use a roller for this. Start by applying small dots of your eye cream under the eyes and under your brow bone.
Use your fingers or your roller to massage the under eyes starting from the inner corner towards your temples. Then spread the eye cream on the brow bone starting from the inner corners towards the temples. Finally, massage the area between your eyebrows in an upward motion.
Finish the rest of your skincare routine.
5. Start jumping
Who on earth advises someone, who has been crying all night, to get up and do some exercise? Ignore the tone-deaf suggestions. But know that movement does help with blood circulation and lymph drainage.
Personally, jumping on my bed has worked to get the blood flowing and get the heart pumping. You can try that or you can try standing upside down for a few seconds.
The swelling on the eyelids feels like heavy bags and they make you feel sleepy even if you’ve just woken up. But try to avoid staying in bed or lying down. Puffiness will go away eventually. And the best way to do it is by getting on with your day.
The Best Products To Reduce Puffiness Around The Eyes
Lucky us! There’s a whole world of skincare to help us get rid of puffy eyes from crying. Below are the best depuffing eye products that reduce swelling under the eyes and on the eyelids.
Peter Thomas Roth Cucumber De-Tox Hydra-Gel Eye Patches
Eye patches are instant solutions for puffiness. And these patches are packed with anti-puff goodies like cucumber and caffeine as well as skin soothers like aloe and chamomile.
Leave the patches on for 10 minutes to hydrate, depuff, and energize the eye area. Keep the jar in the fridge for extra cooling benefits.
The Inkey List Caffeine Eye Cream
The best ingredient to look for in your eye cream to reduce puffiness is caffeine as we’ve established its ability to constrict blood vessels. Look for any eye cream that contains caffeine. You can also look for green tea, which is also rich in caffeine.
If your puffiness is persistent and accompanied by dark circles, you can also try vitamin C eye creams. This one is made with caffeine besides neuropeptides. These peptides work to relax the muscles around the eyes for long-term anti-wrinkle benefits.
Milk Makeup Cooling Water
I’m not even kidding, this is the best thing you can use to depuff your eyes fast! Because it brings everything you need together. It’s a balm made with depuffing ingredients, namely caffeine, which helps tighten up the skin around the eyes.
Its round tip makes it ergonomic to roll around the eyes all over. And it has a cooling effect on the skin too. This is one of the fastest-acting eye products I’ve ever used to reduce my puffy eyes from crying. And the results are instantly visible!
Herbivore Jade De-Puffing Face Roller
A Jade roller will make it easier for you to massage the eye area when you’re trying to depuff from crying. And unlike a spoon, you’ll remember to put this in the fridge. A cooling lymph drainage with a Jade roller is way more uplifting than a cold press with a beer can.
Cooluli Mini Beauty Refrigerator
A skincare fridge is a well-deserving splurge to store in and chill your serums, creams, and masks. Keeping your beauty products in the fridge also helps keep them stable for longer. We don’t usually keep our products in the kitchen fridge.
But these cute little portable boxes are a great excuse to keep your products in for good. That way, you can always have the additional cooling and depuffing effects of any of the products you use, especially your eye cream.
Slip Beauty Silk Pillowcase
Concerning puffiness, sleeping a lot is just as bad as sleeping less. The trick is getting a comfortable sleep, which is tricky when you’ve just cried your eyes out. However, avoid sleeping on your face if you’ve been crying. This will make things worse.
The best sleeping position for your skin in general and to reduce puffiness is sleeping on your back by elevating your head. You can try using two pillows to elevate the head and prevent fluid from remaining on the upper part of the body. Also, try silk pillowcases for a more comfortable sleep, and additional benefits like preventing sleep wrinkles.
Tips For Getting Rid of Puffy Eyes
If you have an underlying condition that causes puffy eyes, the things you can do in terms of skincare are limited. However, there are still simple things you can do to ease the process. Below are some tips to avoid puffy and swollen eyes in the morning.
- Quit smoking. Smoking triggers the eyes to water up. In case you haven’t noticed, that’s exactly what we’ve been trying to avoid. Puffy eyes are the least of your problems when you’re a smoker. Try again! You might be successful this time.
- Sort out your allergies. Use proper medication to control your allergies and try to stay away from your known triggers. Allergies cause redness, inflammation, and swelling.
- Consider treatments. If you have severe puffiness under the eyes, the reason can be the under-eye fat pads. That fat is not going to go anywhere no matter how hard you massage the area. In that case, seek professional help and consider blepharoplasty.
- Hydrate. Water intake, ironically, reduces water retention. So, while reducing your salt intake, remember to hydrate to get rid of puffiness all over.
- DIY. There’s a reason why people are still putting tea bags over their eyes. Green tea works. It’s rich in antioxidants and it’s anti-inflammatory. And it works amazingly well to reduce puffiness. So, don’t hold back and apply green tea bags to reduce swelling and puffiness.
So these are some of the things you can do to get rid of puffy eyes from crying. It’ll eventually go away. And so will the thing that made you cry.
Read Next: The Best Retinol Eye Creams
