7 Best Eye Creams

The skin around your eyes is relatively thin, which makes it more vulnerable to pollution, UV radiation, and damage from other environmental factors. Because of this, it’s also particularly prone to showing signs of aging. If you religiously moisturize the rest of your body, the more you should do the same for the skin around the eyes.

Treating your eyes with extra TLC is important. But using just any moisturizer isn’t enough. You need something that will hydrate and protect the eye area without causing irritation. Eye creams are designed to do just that—and so much more. Many eye creams contain additional ingredients that stimulate collagen production, banish darkness, reduce puffiness, and help prevent fine lines and wrinkles.

We’ve put together this buying guide to help you make smart shopping decisions. The eye cream is an integral part of the modern woman’s skincare routine—so choosing the best possible product for yourself is important. Check out the following sections to learn more!

Eye Cream Shopping Tips

1. Go for an eye cream in opaque packaging.

Some anti-aging ingredients, such as antioxidants, have a tendency to deteriorate or lose their effectiveness over time when regularly exposed to light. Opaque packaging will help prevent this, therefore preserving the effectiveness of the product.

2. Try a sample if you can.

Especially if you’re eyeing high-end or luxury eye creams, asking for a small sample before making the splurge would be a smart move. If that’s not possible, then try to go for tried-and-tested faves, such as those we’ve included in our list above.

3. Consider how it will wear under makeup.

When shopping for an eye cream for daytime use, you should consider whether or not the product will work well with makeup. If you intend to wear your eye cream underneath concealer and powder, look for a formula that won’t slip and slide. Some eye creams can even pill under concealer, so check out what makeup junkies have to say before purchasing a product.

4. Pay attention to product volume.

Most eye creams come in tiny packaging for a reason. Even if you absolutely adore one product, you should avoid buying larger sizes of it. Yes, we’re talking about those special jumbo editions that usually hit the shelves over the holidays.

Everyone literally only needs a teeny tiny amount of eye cream for each use. Even a deluxe sample or mini tub will last you a couple of months—and these are usually less than half the volume of a full-size product. If you buy too much, the product might have already gone bad before you’ve had the chance to completely use it up.

5. Pay attention to your specific concerns.

When it comes to eye cream, not all products are created equal. Using just any eye cream is indeed better than using nothing at all, but you’ll do your skin a huge favor if you make the effort to select a product that’s targeted to your specific concerns.

Any good eye cream will hydrate and nourish the skin around the eyes. But if you have other concerns like, say, dark circles, then you should definitely take advantage of anti-darkness eye creams! Check out our ingredients guide below to help you pick out the best formula for whatever issue you may be facing.

Best Eye Cream Ingredients for Different Concerns

Eye creams for dryness

There are a lot of moisturizing ingredients that can improve the look and feel of the eye area. Oil-based ingredients, like jojoba oil, argan oil, and ceramides, can immediately banish dryness around the eyes. But if you prefer to stick to oil-free eye creams, you should look for ingredients like glycerin and hyaluronic acid, which is popular for their ability to draw moisture from the air.

Eye creams for puffiness and eye bags

Caffeine is a known ingredient that helps banish puffiness around the eyes. As a natural diuretic, it helps drain excess fluids that have accumulated around your peepers—therefore easing puffiness and reducing the look of eye bags. Arnica and vitamin K can help reduce swelling, too.

Know that eye puffiness can be triggered by many factors, such as your diet, hydration level, genetics, and even your sleeping position. So, for best results, combine your eye cream with low salt intake and make sure that you’re drinking at least eight glasses of water every day. Avoid alcohol and MSG, and always elevate your head while you sleep.

Eye creams for anti-aging

Luckily for us, anti-aging ingredients come aplenty in the beauty community. Perhaps the most popular is retinol, which firms the skin and combats wrinkles. A vitamin A derivative, retinol works its magic by promoting cell turnover and stimulating collagen production. This, in turn, makes the skin more resistant to developing fine lines and wrinkles.

If your skin is way too sensitive for retinol, an eye cream that contains neuropeptides is a great alternative. Like retinol, neuropeptides can stimulate collagen and elastin synthesis. They might not be as potent and fast-acting, but neuropeptides definitely delay the signs of aging in a much gentler manner.

Antioxidants are widely used ingredients, too. Some popular examples include vitamins C and E. Antioxidants help fight free radicals that cause oxidative damage in your cells, and damaged cells lead to accelerated aging. That said, maintaining healthy cells through the help of antioxidants will help delay the appearance of wrinkles and lines.

Eye creams for dark circles

Some ingredients to look for if your main concern is dark circles are niacinamide, arbutin, azelaic acid, caffeine, and vitamin C. Niacinamide, which is also known as Vitamin B3, helps lighten pigmentation and brighten the skin. Caffeine constricts blood vessels around the eye area—therefore lessening that shadowy look effectively.

Vitamin C is a popular brightening agent that also enhances the effectiveness of SPF. Just make sure to go for a vitamin C cream that is clinically proven safe for use around the eyes.

How to Apply Eye Cream Properly

Before we go to actual application techniques, we’ll briefly discuss a topic that’s been surrounded by a lot of confusion: product order. Are you supposed to apply eye cream before or after moisturizer? What about other face products like toners, serums, and essences? Which goes first?

A simple rule of thumb is to apply lighter formulas first. Skincare should be applied in increasing order depending on the consistency or thickness of the formula. Generally, eye creams are denser than toners, essences, and serums, so the latter three should definitely be applied first.

If your eye cream has a thinner formula than your moisturizer, then it should be applied first. Conversely, if you’re using a very lightweight moisturizer, then your eye cream should go on top.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on to the actual application process!

With clean hands, pump a small amount of eye cream onto your ring finger. Lightly press both your left and right ring fingers together to split the product evenly between them.

Next, gently dot the product on the orbital bone around the eyes—starting from the brow bone all the way to the spot that’s half an inch below the center of your eye. The orbital area is what eye creams are actually formulated to treat—not your eyelids, and certainly not your lash line. These areas will get their fair share of hydration once the product has warmed up with your body’s temperature, as this causes the cream to spread toward the eyes.

After dotting the product all over the right spots, it’s time to blend. With light tapping motions and using only your ring fingers, proceed to distribute and gently work the product into your skin. Don’t put too much pressure though, and remember: no pulling and stretching, either!

Can Eye Creams Give You Immediate Results?

We all know that pretty much all skincare products give the best results after several weeks (or even months) of continuous use. However, that doesn’t mean noticing immediate improvement is impossible with the right eye cream.

You can’t expect miraculous changes overnight—that’s true. But many eye creams are specifically formulated to instantly improve the look and feel of the skin around the eyes. A good moisturizing product will help plump the skin and quickly reduce the look of fine lines. Some eye creams also contain brightening ingredients that have a shimmery effect. This effect then makes your eyes immediately brighter upon application.

What’s more, using a cold eye cream, or applying the product with a cold tool (stone rollers that have been stored in the fridge are particularly popular these days), will reduce the look of tired eyes and reduce puffiness right away.

Eye Cream Do’s and Don’ts

Do:

• Be careful when using an eye cream in a tub or jar packaging. These types of packaging require you to dip your finger into the product which, if you’re not careful, can lead to contamination. That said, make sure that your hands are clean and sanitized before touching the product. Better yet, use a clean spatula to scoop out your cream instead of your fingers.
• Perform a patch test if you have sensitive skin. Some skin types can react negatively to certain ingredients. Even gentler eye creams may still be irritating if you have super sensitive skin. To avoid complications, we recommend that you first test a small amount of the product on your wrist or on the inside of your elbow. If no adverse reaction appears in a span of 24 hours, you’re good to go.
• Use sun protection. UV damage from the sun is among the leading causes of skin aging. Thus, you need to invest in an awesome sunscreen if you’re really serious about protecting your eye area. Using ingredients like retinol can also make your skin more sensitive to the sun, so an SPF of at least 30 is highly recommended.
• Let it sink in completely. Give your eye cream about a minute or two to sit undisturbed on your skin to let it sink in completely. If you immediately apply makeup on top without waiting for the product to absorb, you might end up with cakey-looking under eyes.
• Use an eye cream morning and night. Just as you would cleanse and moisturize twice a day, eye cream should be a morning and night thing, too! This ensures that your peepers are moisturized, protected, and pampered around the clock.

Don’t:

• Use eye creams with irritating ingredients. Ingredients like alcohol and essential oils are known irritants and are better avoided when we’re talking about the delicate eye area. Even fragrance could be too irritating for some people, so avoiding anything that smells too strong is recommended for those who have sensitive skin. Remember: a good eye cream should never sting!
• Pull at your skin. The delicate nature of the eye area makes it more prone to sagging. Our hands are already full trying to fight the effects of gravity, so pulling at your skin is a major no-no!
• Overwhelm your eye area with potent ingredients. We know the idea of erasing fine lines and wrinkles with strong ingredients like retinol sounds exciting, but you should always err on the side of caution. Start with an eye cream that has a lower concentration of retinol. If that’s not possible, you may also start off by using it every other day.
• Apply eye cream too close to your eyes. If you’re swiping eye cream right on your eyelids or along your lash line, that’s too close. This can cause the product to move and get into your eyes, which can lead to redness, stinging, and irritation.