The one place you’re not applying your eye cream but should be

It took me a while to start incorporating an eye cream into my skin-care routine. I figured, I’m already moisturizing my face—why doesn’t this count for the area around my eyes?

But then, after countless interviews with skin-care gurus and dermatologists alike, I’ve learned that your eye area is really delicate and should be treated with special attention and extra-nourishing ingredients. As in: Yes, those eye-focused products are legit and you should use them.

Then I learned something that has never crossed my mind in my years of beauty reporting—that your eye cream should also be slathered around your lips.

“The skin around your lips gets wrinkled sooner than the rest of your face, just like that around the eyes.” —Ido Magal

“You talk with your eyes and your mouth,” says Ido Magal, herbalist and founder of natural skin-care brand Lavido. “The skin around your lips gets wrinkled sooner than the rest of your face, just like that around the eyes.”

Um, mind blown. Upon hearing this, I self-consciously tapped that skin around my pout and nodded in shocked consent. “Oh, yeah,” I thought to myself. That’s because the skin in both the eye and lip areas is very thin and needs extra-nourishing ingredients. Not to mention that the area around your mouth tends to have fewer sebaceous glands around the mouth, which make it drier and more prone to fine lines.

This doesn’t mean you have to spend an extra minute doing your beauty regimen—just add your leftover eye cream or serum to the outline of your lips after dabbing your eyes, and voila: a perfectly plump and moisturized pout.

As for underneath your eyes, here are the top dermatologist-recommended eye creams to fight dark circles. You can also try these cold tools to de-uff your under-eye bags.