As a beauty editor, one of the questions I hear most is “But do I really need an eye cream?” And to be honest, I can never give a straight answer. If your face creams, serums and oils make their way up and around your eyes, shouldn’t that be enough? After all, it seems that eye creams have many of the same ingredients as face products, just in different concentrations and tinier, cuter jars that are near impossible pass up.
And of course there are the lofty promises set forth by skincare brands, which often includefading under-eye circles, de-puffing bags and smoothing crow’s-feet and wrinkles among the many benefits. As someone who has gotten Botox for the latter, I can assure you no cream I’ve tried has been as quick and effective (and I have tested many).
But on the other end of the spectrum, the skin around the eyes is the thinnest on the face. It has fewer sebaceous glands, which makes it harder to ward off environmental aggressors and rid the area of toxins. This also means that sometimes the products we slather on are much harsher on our poor eye area, often leading to milia (those tiny white bumps), dryness and overall irritation. And—this is a big one—what about all the harmful UV rays and blue light we can never fully avoid given our desk jobs, our attachment to our phones and, you know, stepping foot outside? How do we protect our skin from all those?
My answer came in a yellow-capped vessel, straight from one of my favorite SPF brands, Supergoop. I’m already a huge fan of its 100% Mineral Zincscreen as my everyday UV protection, and the bottle of its new Bright-Eyed 100% Mineral Eye Cream SPF 40 looks identical, so I hoped it would at least be good in the SPF department.
At first pump, I noticed the consistency was a bit like a mousse—thicker than you’d expect, but not chalky-looking whatsoever, thanks to its slightly pinkish tint (much like that of the Zincscreen). One pump visibly brightened my bags in mere seconds. It has a similar effect to Meghan Markle’s favorite Yves Saint Laurent Touche Éclat All-Over Brightening Pen, but with way more benefits (caffeine for puffiness, green tea extract for free radical protection and wild butterfly ginger flower, which helps protect against blue light) and the addition of SPF, of course.
So now when people ask me the eye cream question, I have a suggestion. Whether or not you believe a standard formula can provide Botox-like results, the brightening, de-puffing and SPF benefits of Supergoop’s Bright-Eyed 100% Mineral Eye Cream are things you just can’t get in most products. And while I’ll probably continue on my Botox journey for my crow’s-feet, I’ll be keeping one of these stocked at all times to help with the other things (and yes, you should too).
