We Tried 4 Ways to Get Rid of Dark Circles—Here’s What Actually Works

My six-year-old son has been waking up at 5:30 a.m. for several weeks. This is often just after his little brother, who’s 20 months, has finally gone back to sleep since wanting to hang out and party at 3:30 in the morning. And it might be on the heels of my being up till 1 a.m., editing fashion content or, admittedly, binge-watching a show—because that’s my “me time” these days.

This is not to complain about my kids or my life. It’s just to say that I’m often very tired! And I look it. I need to preface this by admitting that I’m pretty low-maintenance when it comes to beauty; I don’t have a derm on speed dial. I don’t exfoliate much. The eye creams in my bathroom cabinet are pretty full. Hell, some days I forget to even moisturize. But mostly I just don’t have the damn time.

So lately I’ve been considering something quick and cosmetic. Something at the derm’s office. Something like Botox or maybe undereye filler. I’ve never really been for or against them; I thought I’d maybe try them someday. Then my husband mentioned casually one day that he had tried Brotox (a version of the wrinkle relaxer marketed to men). I looked closer at his face. His brow furrow crease was gone, and I was jealous.

Which is why I find myself one day in Grand Central Terminal, catching a train to Norwalk, Connecticut, to see my sister-in-law Deanne Mraz Robinson, M.D., of the Connecticut Dermatology Group. (She was also chief resident of dermatology at Yale.) If I’m going for this, I want to be in her hands.

“To help you look more awake, there are a couple of things we can do,” Deanne says as I recline in a comfy chair in her office. “Soften these lines that form on the side of and between your eyes when you smile with a bit of Botox”—which relaxes muscles and smooths out lines—“here, here, and here, and in between the eyebrows.” (Yes, please!) “And blend the lines under them, the tear troughs, with filler.” For me, she picks Belotero Balance, a dermal filler that unfolds wrinkles and plumps thinning skin.

I’m nervous and excited. I have no fear of needles, but I’m worried about looking, well, weird, in that waxy, plastic, Hollywood-red-carpet way. The injections take 10 minutes, and it’ll be two weeks before the filler all settles in. At first my face does feel odd. When I laugh, my face feels a little stuck, which makes me laugh even harder. But in exactly 14 days, the funny sensations end. The crease between my brows barely remains—same with the wrinkles around my eyes when I smile. People are noticing (“You look amaaazing,” says one colleague), but more important, I feel better. I get why people spend all this money (sessions start at $450) and make it a regular thing. And I have no guilt—I am a feminist and I think modern feminism means you have the choice to age how you like. My joy is completely unapologetic. Who knows? Maybe by the time my first visit wears off, I might actually be getting some real sleep.

4. Actual Sleep—Eight Whole Hours of It!