How to choose the right eye cream for you?

The eyes are often referred to as the ‘windows to our souls’, with this, the area around our eyes also shows tell-tale signs for potential deficits in sleep, hydration and moisture. Eye cream is the finishing touch of an evening and even daytime routine for many, to help with well-aging, reducing puffiness or getting rid of those dreaded dark circles.

However, with so many eye creams, gels and masks on the market, it’s difficult to know which one will give you what you need. Not all of them have the same properties or benefits, which is why it’s important to choose the right one for your concern. The main concerns of the eye area include: puffiness and eye bags; fine lines and wrinkles; and dark circles. Some products may be more focused on treating specific problem-areas, so let’s take a look at some key ingredients to treat these concerns.

For Puffiness and eye bags:

Caffeine, green tea and ‘soothing’ ingredients are known to help reduce puffiness and get rid of eye bags. Caffeine works as a diuretic to reduce the amount of water being retained under the eyes and decrease swelling. Green tea also contains a lot of caffeine, but has additional benefits thanks to its soothing and antioxidant properties to help reduce puffiness.

Fine lines and wrinkles:

Retinols, peptides, and hyaluronic acid are great for reducing fine lines and wrinkles. We know that retinol and other Vitamin A derivatives are brilliant for increasing skin-cell turnover and promoting collagen production to reduce wrinkles and fine lines, peptides have been said to work as well as Botox for reducing the appearance of wrinkles as they are easily absorbed into the skin and act as ‘messengers’ to our skin cells to produce more collagen!

Dark circles:

Vitamin C, niacinamide and liquorice root are some ingredients which are great for brightening the skin and hence reducing the appearance of dark circles. Vitamin C is an antioxidant and therefore protects skin from wrinkles and dark spots causing free-radicals, as well as inhibiting melanin production and therefore reducing hyperpigmentation. Niacinamide is a fantastic skin-lightening ingredient thanks to its ability to reduce melanin transfer to the skin as well as protecting the skin from UV damage. Liquorice root is a great, natural ingredient which disperses and removes excess melanin from the skin, as well as inhibiting melanin production in a similar way to vitamin C and retinol. 

Products containing some of these ingredients with multiple benefits include:

Cosrx Advanced Snail Peptide Eye Cream:

This eye cream contains 73.6% snail secretion filtrate as well 5 types peptides and niacinamide. This product moisturizes the eye area and reduces fine lines and wrinkles, as well as brightening the appearance of dark circles.

I’m From Ginseng Eye Cream:

As well as containing a liquorice plant derivative to help improve dark circles, with ginseng as the key ingredient, this helps to improve blood circulation and increase collagen production to reduce fine lines and wrinkles.

Klairs Fundamental Eye Awakening Gel: 

This eye cream contains caffeine to help reduce puffiness around the eyes, as well as peptides known for their effectiveness at reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

Klairs Fundamental Nourishing Eye Butter:

This eye butter contains ingredients aimed at helping the three main concerns of the eye area: caffeine for de-puffing the eye area; turmeric root extract with great anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and skin brightening properties; as well peptides for helping reduce fine lines and wrinkles.

The area around the eyes can suffer from many different concerns which need to be treated differently, therefore knowing which key ingredients are essential and which products are suitable for your concerns, should hopefully help you find what you’re looking for.