Investing in the Right Eye Cream
I work in an industry where I get to talk and interact with A LOT of women, and a lot of what we talk about is skin care. I love this part of my job because I am constantly learning. Even when I’m teaching or telling a client about a solution to her skin care problem, I’m still learning! Every woman’s reactions, facial expressions, arguments, and questions are different. It’s a constant challenge.
One of the things I’m often shocked to hear is that so many women who sit in my chair do not use eye cream! THE HORROR!!! This is literally horrifying because skincare is all about being preventative, and when I hear this it’s usually because the client has concerns about wrinkles around her eyes, which means it’s kind of already too late...
These experiences have inspired me to break it down for the beautiful people who follow and support me by allowing me to not only do their makeup, but to have a conversation about our skin care routines.
There are probably 1000s of different eye creams on the market, which makes it very easy to become overwhelmed. But if you’re reading this, you’re strides ahead because I have answers for you as to which eye creams are good for different budget levels, and for different common concerns for the eye area.
The Skin Around Our Eyes Is Unique
Let me just start by saying, LADIES! The skin around the eyes is the THINNEST of all the skin on our bodies. It’s about 7x thinner than the rest of the skin on our face!
Not only is it thin, it has its own unique type of pores that allow absorption but not secretion. This means the skin around the eyes has the ability to absorb products you place on the eye area just like the rest of the body; however, the pores in the eye area do not allow anything to exit (such as sweat, sebum, or build-up of products) like the rest of your skin. These pores are unique in the sense that they only allow one-way passing of very refined ingredients into the skin cells.
Now you may be thinking, “That can’t be true, my eye lids get oily all the time!” Or, “My eyeliner runs and gives me raccoon eyes when it’s hot out.” This is because the eye area is the warmest of the entire face due to eye movement, blinking, and the thinness of the skin. This accelerated heat in the eye area causes sweat and/or sebum from the face to gravitate towards the eye area.
Common Concerns & Recommendations
One of the most common concerns of women of any age is dark circles. When you see “dark circles” under your eyes (really any discoloration), it’s actually veins and muscle under the skin that is visible because the skin is so thin. Just like curtains; thinner, more sheer curtains allow much more sun to be visible and thicker curtains allow less sunlight to shine through. The veins and muscles under the skin are the sunlight shining through the sheer curtains of the skin around the eyes.
Besides covering up the darkness under the eyes, you could actually help the problem by investing in a good, daytime eye cream. Daytime eye cream has ingredients refined enough to penetrate the delicate skin in the eye area. These ingredients actually plump-up the cells in the skin, making the skin THICKER; meaning less visibility of veins and muscles underneath. Yay!
I’ve been using Drunk Elephant Shaba Complex Eye Serum in the morning. My makeup teacher, mentor, international beauty educator and industry badass, Donna Mee, says in this blog post, “My absolute favorite is Chantecallie’s Stress Repair Concentrate”. This article on eye creams from ConsumersAdvocate.org provides a TON of information on the most popular eye creams and provides information on prices, information and analyses on ingredients, FDA regulations (or lack thereof), and more general information regarding eye creams. Both of these articles I've linked above have amazing information as well as recommendations for eye creams and I suggest reading both, but I recommend you do your own outside research (although these two a lot of great information) in order to make the most informed purchase. As I said earlier and will say again and again, skincare is an investment. You do research before making an investment, right?
Another common concern for the eye area is, you guessed it, fine lines and wrinkles. As women, we’re constantly stretching and pulling on the skin in this area to apply and remove makeup. Not to mention rubbing our eyes once the makeup is off because it just feels amazing (like running your fingers through your hair when it’s been in a tight pony all day, or taking your bra off!).
To reduce the look of fine lines you will want to invest in a corrective, nighttime eye cream. Nighttime eye cream is more powerful than daytime eye cream because it is corrective, whereas daytime eye cream is preventative. Nighttime eye cream is a thicker consistency that gives a smother appearance. Donna Mee suggests Elizabeth Ardens 8-Hour Cream on eyes and lips before bed. I'm currently using Algenist Complete Eye Renewal Balm at night. I am almost out of my current nighttime eye cream and will be trying the Algenist Genius Ultimate Anti-Aging Eye Cream.
Important Reminders
I want to stress how important it is to have realistic expectations. It is impossible to completely reverse the signs of aging, no matter what cosmetic companies tell us. Unfortunately most of the products on the market are marketing gimmicks used to trick the masses into buying things that either don’t work, make the problem worse or we just don’t need in general.
Good skincare is an investment in both time and money. It takes a lot of time to find what works for your personal needs. Investing in your skin will be the best investment you ever make, I promise. Youthful skin is something everyone longs for when they no longer have it. This is why it’s so important to start taking good care of your skin as early as possible, long before wrinkles or discoloration develop.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post. If you enjoyed reading please share this newfound knowledge with your friends and family by sharing this post with them. I appreciate you.
With love, passion and inspiration,
Karissa Lorinne
