The Culprit: Most likely, it’s fluid retention. When you eat salty foods or drink a lot of alcohol, your body can draw extra fluids into its tissues and hold them in. The fluids can pool under your eyes, causing puffiness.

Treatment Strategies: Apply a cold compress to your eyes for 10 minutes. “The cold brings swelling down,” says James R. Lyons, a plastic surgeon in Westport, Connecticut. Good choices include chilled teaspoons, a sliced cucumber, or cold, wet tea bags. Follow with a firming eye cream that contains caffeine. This ingredient is a vasoconstrictor, so it helps expel fluid from cells in the skin and depuffs quickly, says Audrey Kunin, a dermatologist in Kansas City, Missouri, and the founder of Dermadoctor.com.

Makeup Strategies: Define your brows with a brow pencil, then use a taupe or brown liner with a touch of eye-brightening shimmer along the upper lashes. Smudge the liner with a cotton swab to soften it. Add two coats of mascara to the top lashes, then apply a single light coat to the bottom lashes. Whatever you do, don’t apply concealer directly on top of puffy bags. “If you do, you’ll make the puffiness stand out even more,” says makeup artist Matin.

RS Picks

Clinique All About Eyes Rich, $27.50
To Buy: www.clinique.com.

Clarins Advanced Extra-Firming Eye Contour Serum, $55
To Buy: www.clarins.com.

Sephora Bicolor Liner in Coffee Cream, $6
To Buy: www.sephora.com.