Eyelid wrinkle causes? And how to help it!

[Anonymous]

Hi!

I’m 25, and I recently started really caring about my skin after I stopped tanning in October 2019. I started using vitamin C serums occasionally around my eye area but in February I wanted to step it up. I tried pure hyaluronic acid which dried my face severely even though I applied it on damp skin so I scratched that. I started some new vitamin C serums and bought Obagi Hydrate Luxe for my eye area.

One day early March, I noticed this weird fold of skin that kind of filled in my natural crease area on only one eye. It stretched from corner to corner. When I look straight with eyes open you can’t see it because my eyebrow area folds over it like normal. I do not have hooded eyes, just regular eyes with a decent amount of lid. But when pull up my brows or look down a little, you can see this wrinkle/fold that fills in my crease. As if the skin folds incorrectly because it’s too puffy. I’ve never had this before! I bought Skin Ceuticals C E serum and after using, this fold went away around March 25. I went to bed with it and woke up without it. Unfortunately it came back a few days later, not as severe, but I still have it right now. I ordered the Biossance marine algae eye cream from Sephora hoping this might help. 

Has anyone had this issue before? I was drinking pedialyte recreationally until my pharmacist said not to (whoops!), and I now know it has a high sodium content which causes puffiness from fluid retention. I was drinking it maybe once a week in February and early March. Once I drank Pedialyte again the wrinkle came back a few days later so I don’t know if there’s any correlation. It’s just weird that it’s happening in one eye. I’ve been upping my water intake, lowering sodium intake,  and trying to use the C serum still (no more obagi cream), and soaking cold washcloths on my eye, and nothing works. I’ve also been taking Claritin in case it’s allergies. Please let me know if someone has experienced this before and if it’s dehydration or fluid retention or something else. I’d like to think it’s not permanent since it happened spontaneously and it has gone away for a brief period. Maybe a good moisturizer can help if the cells are damaged from dehydration or maybe overloading of products. 

[jessdub]

Do you sleep on your side? That side in particular?

[tg1973]

It sounds like it's probably a combination of wrong products plus fluid retention plus allergy season. I've definitely had one eyelid swell up before, though not for an extended period of time. We've had so much pollen this year that I actually felt my throat closing up on the day every dogwood tree in North America flowered. Try taking some Benadryl. I take Claritin every day, too, but it doesn't cover everything, so I always keep generic store brand Benadryl tablets. They're cheap and hopefully you have some lying around. Also drink lots of plain water to flush out the sodium. Unless you're swollen to like three times normal size, don't worry about damaging skin cells, as they shed and are replaced constantly anyway. If it's bad enough to cause stretch marks, call a doctor. Anti-inflammatories like Advil might help, as well as anti-inflammatory foods. You might also want to try getting a saline wash for your eyes, as allergens may be getting lodged up under your lid. If you can't get to a store for any of this, just wash your eyes with water and drink water until you pee clear. I wouldn't worry about products until you've cleared out whatever is causing this and allergy season has passed so you can narrow down the possible causes. You have good products, it would be a shame to waste them if they aren't the problem. Skip products entirely for a bit, or try some aloe if you have any. The wrinkle is almost certainly caused by the swelling and not permanent. If this basic clean yourself out approach doesn't work or it gets worse, seriously call a doctor, this would be easy to take care of over FaceTime or texting pics without going in to an office.

[tg1973]

@Anonymous Sorry, also don't be surprised if the skin peels when the swelling goes down. Apparently that's a normal thing swelling causes. I wonder, did it maybe rain and knock down the pollen count when the swelling went down temporarily? Just a thought. I never had allergies when I was young, so I'm just learning how they work.