I'm not sure I'd recommend this for use everyday .. but if you have nothing else and it's an emergency, you could try using the same gel which is used to treat "piles"! (But make sure you buy the one which contains shark oil). It's cheap .. and it really works.

A great and cheap tip for reducing eye bags is to put thin slices of chilled cucumber under the eyes. Makes the eyes feel bright and you also feel more awake. Used teabags (allowed to cool!) also work. Tapping the area lightly also improves circulation and drainage. Be careful not to pull the delicate skin around the eye area. As Alice says, Touche Eclat works brilliantly, although unfortunately I am sensitive to it and get red patches where I have used it - the price of being a redhead, I guess!

As eye products go, Touche Eclat is really quite a bargain. There's a brilliant product for shrinking eye bags temporarily(the sort of thing that celebrity make-up artists use to hide the worst bags on photo-shoots) called Eyesential which costs £39.95 from www.eyesential.net. There's a knack to putting it on -- your skin has to be absolutely dry and you have to keep absolutely still while it dries. Another thing to try is massaging gently around the eye area each night (use a cleanser, or lotion, or face oil so your fingers slide) using your ring-fingers so you don't press too hard, for a minute, to help improve circulation in the area. And don't overload the skin around the eyes with moisturiser as that can make baggy eyes puffier.