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What makes eye-cream eye-cream?
I’ve heard some customers asking for eye cream, but is the under eye area really that special or is it more a marketing thing to sell more products?
I use a formula with retinol, niacinamide, hylauronic acid, ceramides and film formers formula under the eyes without any issues and I’m not sure how it could be changed to better for under eye use.
Are people just expecting the same actives in a thicker carrier?
Do eye-creams using agents that puff up the skin temporarily?
Do eye-creams use unique actives?I do know that some ingredients are can cause eye irritation and aren’t suitable for use around the eyes.
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11 Replies
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Skin under eyes is the same as everywhere else but thinner and more sensitive. It means that you need less concentrated product. And no, there is no proof that caffeine, that is often seen in eye creams actually does anything to reduce appearance of dark circles.
I analised around 20 commercial eye products and my conclusion is, that they are the same as face lotions. So, they basically sell less concentrated product and charge more. -
Same story with neck creams.
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sometimes it comes from the use of ingredients specifically designed for the under-eye area, but in my experience it’s mostly marketing
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Brands do like to release a lot of new products, so no ingredients that are particularly effective for the under eye area?
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What makes an eye cream an eye cream? MARKETING
Although you might consider looking at the rheology of products on the market because they are a bit thinner.
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@Zink, I researched that specifically and the answer is no. As Perry says rheology is different (again it depends on the product shiseido benefiance for eyes is very thick and contains petrolatum) and it’s usually less concentrated. For example there are face moisturizers with aggressive ingredients such as glycolic acid or retinol. Normally you wouldn’t want the same strengths under eyes. Caffeine is not helping at all. The only thing I am aware of, there are specialty products that reduce puffiness. Those are not moisturizers and are not intended for daily use. If I am not mistaken those products contain aluminum. I can’t find an example but those are not sold in regular stores. You can usually find them in magazines in airplanes. I had one before started formulating but forgot the name. @Perry, I am right about aluminum? Can it instantly reduce puffiness?
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There are two separate issues people have with under the eye area: Dark circles and puffy bags.
As noted above, the skin under the eye is thinner than the rest of the face and has a very large collection of tiny blood vessels running through it. The dark circles are simply a reflection of blood flowing through lots of vessels under thin skin combined with an orbital shape that does not reflect light as effectively as other areas of the face creating a “shadow” effect. The common approach to this is vasodilators (hence caffeine) to try to enhance blood flow. This approach simply does not work and there is no cosmetic topical product that will work as there is no skin condition to “correct” … it’s completely normal. The best you can do is try to hide it with powders or fillers.
The puffy bags … you can try skin tightening, wrinkle smoothing ingredients such as tripeptides and anti-inflammatories, but again, this is normal with aging. You can also combine these ingredients with skin tightening polymers that make the skin taut upon drying creating the optical illusion of the puffiness disappearing, but that will only last 6 to 8 hours or so.
So, to sum it all up … the best you can do to address this as a cosmetic chemist is to create products that give the temporary optical illusion of being effective. So, yes, there are certain ingredients that can make an eye cream an eye cream, but it does not mean you could not use those same ingredients on all other parts of the face. As @Perry mentioned … the only magic bullet here is Marketing.
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@MarkBroussard thanks for your explanation, this is also my understanding.
What’s your best bet skin tightening ingredient? I think that’s perhaps what makes the most sense for a under-eye specific formula, but it’s something I have no experience with. I like the idea of a temp tightening “makeup” effect combined with actives that give long term benefits such as say 0.2% retinol.
Any specific peptides that could help btw? I was never impressed by the peptide literature, but haven’t kept up.
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By the way, provided that sun exposure doesn’t make dark circles problem any better, adding skin lightening agents, such as MAP or Alpha-Arbutin to the eye product would make sense. However it’s not specific for eyes, as mentioned already. Regarding retinol, I have been using it for quite a while and it makes skin flaky (normal reaction). This side effect is more visible aroud eyes.
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ngarayeva001 said:By the way, provided that sun exposure doesn’t make dark circles problem any better, adding skin lightening agents, such as MAP or Alpha-Arbutin to the eye product would make sense. However it’s not specific for eyes, as mentioned already. Regarding retinol, I have been using it for quite a while and it makes skin flaky (normal reaction). This side effect is more visible aroud eyes.
Is that proven that sun exposure makes it worse? What about niacinamide here for skin lightening? Is there actually any peer reviewed studies (of if not, perhaps supplier studies) that confirm any such effect?
Retinol at .2% shouldn’t make you flaky after a few weeks of use, but I guess there might be outliers here
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I agree 0.2% is quite low. I am using much higher concentration but since I don’t have eye cream I applied ‘regular’ moisturizer with retinol under eyes and I noticed more flaking in that area. Re: is that proven that sun exposure makes it worse, I don’t think that any proof is required because skin under eyes has melanocytes. So sun exposure will no doubt make it darker, which isn’t desirable.
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