5 Science-Backed Ways To Get Rid Of Crow's Feet That Really Work

“Where did that come from?!”

You thought you were too young for this. But the mirror doesn’t lie. That’s a line. Just there. Around your eyes.

Those dreaded crow’s feet snuck their way onto your face seemingly overnight. How did this happen?

What Are Crow’s Feet?

Wrinkles around your eyes that look like… you guessed it, crow’s feet. They also go by the name “smile lines”. All those happy times laughing with your friends and smiling with your loved ones leave a mark on your face. 

Happy times with loved ones are precious. But everything else that gives you crow’s feet isn’t. Sun exposure, smoking, a diet high in sugar and processed foods and low in vegetable and fruits, and too much alcohol all contribute to make those crow’s feet creep on your face way too soon.

Here’s what you can do to fight them and get rid of those pesky crow’s feet:

How To Get Rid Of Crow’s Feet

1. Hydrate

Dehydrated skin = wrinkled skin. When your skin doesn’t have enough moisture, it looks like a wrinkled prune. Even the subtlest of crow’s feet can look 10 times worse and deeper than it is.

Luckily, this is easy to fix. Give your skin its daily hydration dose. Hyaluronic acid will do the trick. It’s a moisture magnet that attracts up to 1000 times its weight in water. All that moisture plumps up your skin, making your crow’s feet look way smaller.

You can find Hyaluronic acid in our Complete Eye Cream. It also features a bunch of peptides like Matrixyl to boost collagen for firmer skin.

2. Exfoliate, Exfoliate, Exfoliate

Exfoliation doesn’t just fade away dark spots and rough patches. It smoothes away wrinkles too. Every time you remove those pesky dead cells off your face, your crow’s feet look a little smaller. The catch? The eye area is delicate. If you exfoliate too much, you risk irritating it pretty badly.

So what’s a woman on an anti-crow’s feet mission to do? Use a cleanser with glycolic acid, which can be found in our Glycolic Acid Resurfacing Facial Cleanser. It’s the gentlest way to get rid of dead cells in the eye area without side effects.

3. Look For Products With Retinol

Retinol is the real deal. Research has proven that this form of Vitamin A can really reduce wrinkles. It does this in three ways: it fights the free radicals that give you wrinkles, speeds up cellular turnover i.e. the skin’s natural exfoliating process and it boosts the production of collagen.

Retinol works. But, if you’ve never used it before, it can dry out and irritate your skin (especially when it’s super delicate - and the skin around your eyes is super delicate). The trick is to look for products with microencapsulated retinol, like Babyface's Night Renewal Cream. This technology allows retinol to be delivered into your skin over a small period of time instead than all at once, greatly reducing the risk of irritation.

PRO TIP: If you still find it too harsh, cut back usage to twice a week and build up frequence gradually.

4. Use Sunscreen

Gosh, this should actually be #1 because prevention is better than cure. If I could recommend only 1 beauty tip to every 18 year old it would be to wear sunscreen every single day starting now. It's the closest thing there is to a fountain of youth for your skin.

You’ve got the sun to blame for up to 90% of premature aging, including crow’s feet. Here’s how it works: UV rays destroy the collagen and elastin that keep your skin firm and elastic. Without them, your skin starts to sag and wrinkles form. But the sun also plays another aging trick on your eyes: its glare is so strong, it makes you squint a lot during those hot summer days. Repeating the same facial movements over and over again inevitably leaves a trail behind.

The good news? You can easily beat the sun at its own game. Never ever leave the house without sunscreen. Choose one with zinc oxide, like our SPF 40 Age-Defying Mineral Sunscreen. Zinc Oxide is much gentler than chemical UV filters so it won’t give you a rash or irritate your skin. If it’s a bright summer day, don’t forget your sunglasses, too!

5. Squint Less

This is a tricky one. Making the same movements again and again gives you wrinkles but you can’t go around like an emotionless robot. Smile. Laugh. Let everyone see the joy on your face. Never hide that.

But you can still reduce eye strain. Wear sunglasses on a sunny day. The right prescription glasses on every other day. Quit smoking so you won’t squint when the smoke gets in your eyes (smoking also causes lip lines, but that's another story for another blog post). Only squinting out of joy is allowed.

Keep smiling - banish the wrinkles.