Eye Creme: Less is More?

Hi everybody,

Confession time: I have never finished a tube or a jar of eye creme (not ice-cream, though!) I would use it for about 2-3 months. Then, the eye creme just plateaued and I would lose interest. The next thing I know, I have quite an expanding collection of half-used eye cremes in my bathroom.

"Ah, the eye creme, the eye creme, it doesn't work!"
("Home Alone" has nothing to do with eye cremes but this is too cute to pass.)

I wrecked my brain trying to understand this phenomenon. It only applies to eye creme because I actually finished full-size bottles of face wash, body wash, face lotion, body lotion, and bar soap before. Only the eye cremes are left unfinished. Then, one day it dawned on me: I haven't used enough of it.



To explain, I do have normal to oily skin. Therefore, I use a lot less products to avoid feeling like an oil grease by lunch time. However, after observing my mom and BFF, I realized they go through their skincare products a lot faster than I do. My mom basically spackles on her cremes and stuff. She went through a giant jar of Elizabeth Arden face creme in less than a month. If it were in my hand, that jar would last forever and some more because I only needed a pea size to moisturize my face. My BFF, on the other hand, slathers sunscreen like it's the end of the world. She goes through a big tube of Banana Boat SPF 50 pretty fast. Both of them have amazing skin for their age.

With that in mind, I went back to Z Mei Correcting Eye Serum. It was an accident that I grabbed this jar of eye creme 2 weeks ago and started to apply it heavier than usual around my eyes. Screw Forget the pea-size amount recommended by beauty magazines, I went for half a lima bean size instead. And I had the first shock of my life when it comes to eye creme: when I woke up the next day, the skin areas around my eyes actually felt a lot softer! Hallelujah! I have to retract my previous comment, this $60 eye creme actually works!

Now, I totally change my mind: when it comes to applying eye creme, more is more. Unless my eye creme is a Chanel something-something which costs more than my monthly rent for a half-ounce jar, I would use more of it than I did. I also tried on another eye creme and saw better results.

Of course, after some time, your eye creme will not be a cure-all anymore. It's not the creme's fault though. It has more to do with you and your skin. After a while, if you have a decent eye creme, it will moisturize the area around your eyes to its maximum level and alleviate dark circles. After that, it's a matter of maintenance. You would not see any improvements but you definitely would not notice anything bad, either. If you reach that stage and you're not happy with what you see, you will have two choices: use the same Ye Ole Faithful eye creme or switch to something else that hopefully may improve your condition.

Which leads to one of my pet-peeves: skincare companies' claims to erase wrinkles around your eyes.

I bet you've seen something like, "x percent of participants saw improvements in their wrinkles" in some eye creme ads. Then, when you move down to the fine line, you'll realize it's a perception-only measure, meaning if the participants said they saw improvement then it would be recorded so. There's no scientific measurements in this matter, only what they see.

The reason why they worded it that way is to avoid litigations. Also, the ugly truth is there's creme so far that can knock down or erase out a wrinkle. Sure, vitamin A (retinol, tretinoid, pro-retinol) can improve the look of wrinkles and hyaluronic acid can plump up your skin but the moment you stop using the product, your skin would be reverted to its previous state.

Most of the time, you see wrinkles looking more pronounced because of the lack of hydration in your skin. I am blessed with not having wrinkles yet, just some fine lines around the eyes. Whenever I skipped moisturizing for a couple of days, my skin looked terrible. But after 2-3 consecutive days of applying moisturizers and toners, the skin just springs back.

So, the take-home lesson of the day regarding to eye creme are:

1. If you don't see the result, don't give up. Just increase the amount of material used and chances are, you are going to see a difference. 
2. They are still looking for a creme that can totally erase wrinkles. It hasn't happened yet. My prediction is: whoever can come up with that (a) will be very rich and (b) earn a Nobel Prize as well.

So ladies and gents, please tell me what do you use to moisturize the skin around your eyes? Does it work? Do you like it? I'm all ears.

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