Our eyes are pretty sensitive, so it’s no wonder if you’ve had a late night or a bad sleep they puff up and darken around the socket, making you look tired and worse for wear. Facialist Ashleigh Scott, who specialises in non-invasive bespoke facials, says our eyes convey how we feel. “We tend to hold a lot of tension around the eye area if we’re tired or stressed”, she says. So if you want an instant eyelift, read on for Scott’s easy how-to: no surgery required!

Exercises

Scott recommends doing a series of exercises to wake up your eyes. “Lift your eyebrows up towards your forehead and close the eyelids. You will feel a sort of tension,” she says. “This motion will gradually improve muscle tone and help to keep them lifted.” If you try to do this a couple of times a day, you’ll train your eyelids to stay taut.

Eye masks: We’ve all heard how a slice of cucumber on each eye will refresh and hydrate them, making it a great quick fix… however, they don’t really have a long-term effect. Instead, try used tea bags. “Tea bags contain caffeine, which is great for reducing puffiness and dark circles,” Scott says. For best results, brew the teabags and then put them in the fridge to cool. Lie back and place a teabag on each eye – making sure you cover the dark circles – and press down.

Pressure points

Pressing down on the many pressure points that run around the eye is a great way to instantly relieve tension. Scott recommends doing a pressure point massage as it will “relieve the tension immediately and automatically result in the eye looking more lifted and relaxed”. Here’s how to do it yourself:

1 Feel around your eyes – there is a bone that runs right the way around.

2 Use your ring finger and press right the way around the eye along the orbital bone. Make sure you go under the brow too. Press quite deeply; you’ll feel the tension releasing.

3 Press for a couple of seconds at each point before moving on to the next.

Tip: You can also do this pressure point massage while using your eye creams.

Cover-ups

Once you’ve tried the mask, exercises and the pressure point massage, the only option left is to use a bit of makeup. Dr Hauschka international makeup artist Karim Sattar says his top makeup tips for eyes that look wide-awake is to use an eyelash curler – for that doe-eyed look – and also white eyeliner. “White eyeliner, like Dr Hauschka Kajal Eyeliner Duo Pencil [$39], on the inner rim is another way to make your eyes look wider,” he says. “It makes your eyes look more awake, more fresh and more youthful.” If white is too stark for you, try a flesh coloured shade, which will look more natural. Of course, if you’re just trying to cover those dark circles then a concealer is your best bet.