Botox Around the Eyes: Which of the Four Things You Mean
Reviewed for medical accuracy against our Medical Review Board · Last updated 5 September 2026
Part of Botox Guides and Basics
Four different concerns get called "Botox around the eyes", and they have four different answers. Only one of them is an approved use.
This page is the map. Each of the four has its own guide, and the point of this one is to get you to the right guide rather than to repeat what is in it.
1. The four concerns, and where each one goes
| What you see | Is a toxin the answer | Where to read |
|---|---|---|
| Lines fanning from the outer corner when you smile | Yes, and it is approved | Crow's feet |
| Lines or crepiness directly under the eye | Sometimes, off-label, and often no | Botox under the eyes |
| Brows sitting low or asymmetric | A small effect, off-label | Botox brow lift |
| Puffiness, shadowing or a hollow under the eye | No. This is volume | Tear trough filler |
The fourth row is the one that saves people the most money. A hollow or a shadow under the eye is a structural change, and relaxing a muscle does not address it. If a clinic proposes a toxin for that, ask which muscle they are treating and what it is doing.
2. One muscle explains most of it
The orbicularis oculi is a ring of muscle that goes all the way around the eye. It is the muscle that closes your eyelid, and it is a sphincter: it works by tightening the ring.
Everything on this page follows from where in that ring you are working.
- The outer fibres, out toward the temple, are what crease the skin into crow's feet when you smile. Relaxing them is the approved treatment, and it is well away from anything that holds your eye open.
- The lower fibres, in the flat area under the lashes, contribute to lines there but also do real work holding the lower lid against the eye. Relaxing them is where under-eye treatment gets its reputation.
- The upper fibres, near the brow, pull the brow down. Relax those and the brow can sit slightly higher, which is the mechanism behind a so-called brow lift.
Same muscle, three effects, one of which is approved and two of which are judgement calls.
3. What is actually approved here
Lateral canthal lines are the only approved eye-area indication in the class, and only two of the six products carry it: Botox Cosmetic and Xeomin. Dysport, Jeuveau, Daxxify and Letybo are approved for frown lines only.
Both approved products use the same pattern for it: 4 Units into each of three sites per side, six injection points, 24 Units total.
Everything else around the eye, under the eye and at the brow is off-label for every product. That is legal and it is common. It means the dose is convention rather than protocol, and your injector's own experience is the evidence behind the number you are quoted. Our area by area guide covers where else that applies.
4. Why this area carries the most placement rules
Read the labels for the eye area and you find something you do not find elsewhere: specific distances.
Corrugator injections are to be placed at least 1 cm above the bony supraorbital ridge. Forehead injections at least 2 cm above the orbital rim. Crow's feet injections given with the needle bevel oriented away from the eye. Xeomin's label names the muscle to avoid outright, the levator palpebrae superioris.
That muscle is the reason. It is what holds your upper eyelid open, it sits directly behind this territory, and if product reaches it the result is a drooping lid until the effect wears off. Eyelid ptosis is reported in 3% of subjects treated for frown lines, which is the highest rate of any cosmetic adverse reaction in the label. Our page on treatments going wrong covers what it looks like and what can be done while you wait.
The practical read: this is not a dangerous area, it is an unforgiving one. Millimetres and depth matter more here than anywhere else on the face, which is the argument for choosing your injector on volume of experience rather than on price.
5. Working out which one you have
Two tests, in a mirror, before your consultation.
- Smile hard, then stop. Lines that appear at the outer corner when you smile and vanish when you stop are crow's feet, and they are the ones a toxin treats best.
- Look at the under-eye with your face completely still. If what bothers you is there at rest, it is skin quality or volume. No toxin addresses either.
If both are true, which is common, the honest answer is that they are two problems and they need two treatments. A clinic that proposes one injection to solve both is answering a question you did not ask.
Frequently asked questions
Is Botox around the eyes safe?
Can Botox fix under-eye bags?
What is the only approved Botox treatment around the eyes?
Does Botox lift your eyebrows?
How many units of Botox for crow’s feet?
Sources
Every figure on this page was read from the documents below rather than from a clinic or a manufacturer's marketing. They open in a new tab so you can check any claim here against its source.
- BOTOX Cosmetic (onabotulinumtoxinA) for injection, full prescribing information, US National Library of Medicine, DailyMed
- Xeomin (incobotulinumtoxinA) for injection, full prescribing information, US National Library of Medicine, DailyMed
Know the count before the quote. The unit count is half the bill, and a low per-unit rate recovered by a high unit count is the commonest way a deal is not one. How to tell.
Deciding which area, not how many units? Botox by facial area covers what each zone actually achieves, which four are FDA approved, and the things Botox cannot fix at all.
