What Are Crow's Feet Wrinkles?

Wrinkles and fine lines will inevitably appear as you age and your skin starts to lose collagen and elastin. For some people, that can be as early as your mid-20s, showing up in familiar spots: smile lines around the mouth, creases along the neck, and more lines that accentuate facial expressions in the skin around the eyes.

Of all these early signs, one stands out as the most prominent: the lines that fan out from the corner of your eyes. If you’ve ever wondered what are crow’s feet wrinkles, we’ll go over the basics below, along with their causes, treatments, and the best products for softening their appearance.

What Is Crow's Feet?

Crow’s feet are the fine lines and wrinkles that radiate from the outer corners of your eyes. Most men first notice crow’s feet when smiling or laughing, but over time, the lines start to linger after the expression fades.

Slight or mild crow’s feet when smiling are a normal part of an expressive face, so the goal isn’t to erase every line. Rather, most of us look to keep the skin healthy and those lines shallow for as long as possible.

What Causes Crow's Feet?

There are two answers to what causes crow’s feet: repeated muscle movement and your skin’s natural loss of collagen as you age.

Every smile, squint, and laugh contracts and folds the skin. Younger skin springs right back, but aging skin holds the crease. This is due to a lack of collagen and elastin — two compounds majorly responsible in keeping your skin elastic and firm.

Aging and repeated muscle movements are the main drivers behind the appearance of crow’s feet, but other factors can speed up the process:

• Sun exposure: UV rays can greatly accelerate visible aging, as it slowly breaks down and erodes collagen and elastin.
• Smoking: Tobacco has several negative side effects on the skin. Among them are restricted blood flow to the dermis and damage to collagen.
• Dehydration: Dry skin makes fine lines look deeper and makes it more susceptible to external stressors.
• Genetics: Your family history influences when lines appear and how deep they get

Of course, you can’t change your genes and skin quality, but you can control most other factors on this list. Every habit you adjust now protects the collagen you already have and helps promote its creation as you get older.

Are Crow's Feet Different from Other Wrinkles?

Yes, crow’s feet in the skin around the eyes differ from other wrinkles in location, skin thickness, and the way they form.

• Dermatologists classify them as “dynamic wrinkles,” meaning that they are caused by repeated facial movement.
• Crow’s feet have nothing to do with the eyes themselves, but rather with the thin skin that’s around them and the underlying facial muscles
• Being one of the most delicate skin areas on your body, it tends to show aging earlier.

In essence, they are expression lines in some of the thinnest skin on your face. They are the result of years and years of constant movement that eventually affects your skin quality and skin texture. Other dynamic wrinkles include forehead lines, frown lines, bunny lines, and smile lines.

The other type of wrinkles are “static wrinkles,” which may or may not be caused by repeated movement. The main difference is that static wrinkles are permanently etched into the skin and are equally visible when your face is completely at rest.

How to Fix Crow's Feet

The answer to how to fix crow’s feet is a three-part plan: daily protection, consistent skincare, and professional treatment. The first two are the most immediate, while the third is probably only an option if the lines are already too deep.

• Protection stops new damage before it even starts by reduing oxidative stress, improving skin quality, and smoothing skin texture
• This includes using sunscreen and sunglasses, as well as several lifestyle habits and decisions.
• You don’t need to adopt every single one, but adjusting a few things in your day-to-day can already make a massive difference.

Skincare, on the other hand, helps strengthen your skin’s natural defenses while promoting a more plump and youthful appearance. Even a basic three-step routine, such as our Daily Advanced Face Care Routine, can significantly improve how your face looks without taking too much of your time.

Professional intervention mainly involves either chemical peels, Botox injections, and/or topical retinol. However, these are mostly aimed at people whose crow’s feet are already deep and well-defined.

Lifestyle Habits

There is a long list of lifestyle habits and factors that play a role in the appearance and persistence of crow’s feet. Each one protects the collagen that keeps skin smooth:

• Wearing SPF 30 or higher every day, even on cloudy days.
• Putting on UV-blocking sunglasses to shield your skin.
• Quitting smoking and limiting alcohol intake.
• Sleeping seven to nine hours to allow your skin to repair itself overnight.
• Drinking enough water and eating antioxidant-rich foods.
• Exercising to improve your overall health.

Nobody needs to overhaul everything at once, though. Pick a few of these habits, stick to them, and add more as they become routine.

Preventative Skincare Routine

Every good skincare routine revolves around three crucial pillars: cleanse, moisturize, and protect. 

• Cleansing removes sweat and buildup without stripping your skin.
• It gets rid of external stressors, as well as excess oils that may get through your skin’s barrier.
• Our Purifying Charcoal Face Wash uses activated charcoal to cleanse your skin and keep your pores clean.

Moisturizing is the next step, hydrating the skin and reconstructing its defense barriers. Some products, like our Daily Essential Face Moisturizer, also include anti-aging ingredients for a clearer and firmer skin texture.

Finally, your skin needs a solid layer of protection against UV rays. Brickell’s Element Defense Moisturizer With SPF 45 is a lightweight, non-greasy formula that provides broad-spectrum protection against the sun. This, in turns, protects you from both sunburns and premature skin aging.

Can You Reverse Crow's Feet Wrinkles?

You can soften crow’s feet and slow new ones, but deep, set-in lines rarely vanish completely without professional help. It’s important to keep this in mind in order to have realistic expectations about what skincare ingredients and lifestyle changes can do for you.

• Fine crow's feet eyes often improve within a few weeks of skincare routines and consistent hydration and sun protection.
• Moderate lines will take more time, and may require professional treatment to soften completely.
• Deep lines, however, will almost always need in-office care to show a dramatic change.

How to Get Rid of Crow's Feet on Face

The answer to how to get rid of crow’s feet on face comes down to a two-part plan: consistent at-home care for fine lines and professional treatment for deeper ones.

At home, look for products with the following ingredients:

• Retinol: Speeds cell turnover and supports collagen.
• Vitamin C: Brightens your skin and protects it from daily environmental stressors.
• Hyaluronic acid: Draws moisture into your skin and temporarily plumps fine lines.
• Peptides: Support firmer-looking skin and a more youthful appearance.

These ingredients can do quite a lot on their own, but they may not be enough for deeper lines. In those cases, you might want to consider checking with a professional dermatologist. They can give you several more options, including:

• Botulinum toxin injections: Botox relaxes the muscles that create the lines, with results typically lasting three to four months.
• Laser resurfacing: Removes damaged outer layers and stimulates collagen.
• Chemical peels: Smooth your skin’s texture and soften fine lines.
• Microneedling: Triggers your skin’s repair response to build collagen.

A certified dermatologist can match treatments to your skin and goals, but it’s important to always remember that maintenance is crucial. Staying consistent with your skincare routine and choosing the right products is the key to reversing and keeping crow’s feet at bay.

Best Skincare Products for Crow's Feet

The best skincare products for crow’s feet pair proven active ingredients with hydration and sun protection.

For a one-stop routine that includes everything you need for crow’s feet eyes, our Complete Defense Anti Aging Routine is your best and simplest option. It contains five anti-aging products to smooth, brighten, firm, and protect your skin. Inside the bundle you’ll find our:

• Reviving Hyaluronic Acid Serum: Aimed at boosting collagen production, it reduces wrinkles through the use of peptides and hyaluronic acid.
• Daily Defense Face Moisturizer with SPF 20: A daytime moisturizer delivering potent hydration and broad-spectrum protection.
• Repairing Vitamin C Serum: This concentrated serum repairs aging skin and reduces skin cell inflammation.
• Revitalizing Anti-Aging Cream: A nighttime combination of hyaluronic acid, MSM, and DMAE to dramatically reduce wrinkles in a matter of days. This also helps with dark circles and skin texture.
• Restoring Eye Cream: A fast-absorbing eye cream that tackles wrinkles, lines, bags, and dark circles by strengthening the skin and improving circulation.

You can also add other products to this mix. For example, our Smooth Finish Glycolic Acid Peel restores youthful skin with a powerful combination of MSM, Aloe Vera, and Glycolic Acid.

Otherwise, our Redefining Anti-Aging Face Wash is the perfect cleanser to start and finish your day. It frees your skin from stressors such as dirt, excess oil, and bacteria while fighting the appearance of aging skin.

Crow's Feet and Anti-Aging FAQs

What is the main cause of crow's feet?

Repeated facial expressions, sun damage, and the natural loss of collagen are the main drivers behind crow’s feet. Lifestyle habits (such as smoking and drinking) and genetics also play an important role.

Why is it called crow's feet?

The lines earned the name because they resemble the branching footprint of a crow, but they are also called laugh lines due to their connection with laughing and smiling. The clinical name for the same thing is “lateral canthal lines.”

Can face wrinkles go away naturally?

Fine lines caused by dehydration can fade with better hydration, but set-in wrinkles won’t disappear without skincare routines and/or professional treatment. Sun protection, though, can stop existing lines from getting worse.

Does drinking water reduce wrinkles such as crow’s feet?

Drinking enough water is extremely important for healthy and youthful skin, but it won’t erase wrinkles by itself. Treat water as one part of the whole plan, which should include other lifestyle adjustments, skincare routines, and checking with a professional.