When it comes to skincare, the most basic steps include washing your face, then applying moisturizer and sunscreen. But what about eye cream? If you’ve already slathered on moisturizer, do you really need eye cream?
The delicate skin around the eyes is actually the thinnest and most sensitive skin on your face and contains the fewest oil glands. For this reason, visible signs of aging, such as wrinkles and fine lines, often show up around the eyes first. This area deserves a little extra love and attention.
Why Is Eye Cream Important?
Although you may think that any facial cream will work in the eye area, this is not the case. The thin skin around the eyes absorbs moisturizers better than other areas of your face, so you may be overdoing it if you use a regular moisturizer around your eyes. If you use something too strong, it could irritate the skin.
Eye creams treat specific conditions and are specially formulated to get the best results in that area. Here are six important reasons to use an anti-aging eye cream.
1. Fight Visible Signs of Aging
Since the skin around the eyes has fewer oil glands, some oil is required to keep the skin barrier strong and healthy. A lack of natural oil production in this area makes the skin very dry. This, in turn, leads to premature aging, and fine lines often develop faster than if the skin were moisturized and nourished. This is why it is important to consistently use an eye cream to reduce visible signs of aging, including fine lines and crow’s feet.
2. The Skin around the Eyes Is More Prone to Fine Lines and Wrinkles
As we’ve already discussed, the skin around the eyes is thinner, dryer, and more delicate than other areas of the face. Combine that with the constant muscle action of blinking, winking, and even smiling, and your eyes are likely to show the signs of aging sooner than other areas of your face. Look for an eye cream with collagen and other ingredients that help seal moisture into the skin and smooth out fine lines and wrinkles.
3. Reduce Puffiness and Smooth the Skin under the Eyes
Under-eye puffiness is caused by fluid building up and swelling the tissues around your eyes. This can happen due to sinuses and allergies, but can also happen if you are sleep deprived, drink alcohol, or eat certain foods. It can also just be caused by aging. Choose an eye cream formulated to reduce the puffiness and brighten the skin.
4. Slay Dark Circles
Dark circles – sometimes called mulberries – under the eyes can be caused by a variety of factors, including stress, heredity, pigmentation, smoking, sun exposure, and shadow from age-related hollowing out of your eyes. Whatever their cause, they can make you look tired and worn-out; not a good look for anyone. To minimize the appearance of dark circles, choose an anti-aging eye cream that delivers ingredients deep into the skin, so they work where they will do the most good.
5. Combat Dryness of Under-Eye Skin
Although the skin around your eyes is normally drier than the rest of your skin, it can also be even drier due to environmental aggressors, stress, and overuse of facial cleansers. Gently cleanse around the eye and pat the area dry to avoid stressing the sensitive skin. Use a hydrating eye cream to moisturize the area. Gently apply with your ring finger by gently patting, not rubbing or dragging the product.
6. Tighten Skin under the Eyes
In addition to being thinner and dryer, the skin around the eyes is also more sensitive to losing elastin and collagen. These two substances help skin stay firm and leave the under-eye skin vulnerable to fine lines, wrinkles, and sagging. An eye cream can help your skin improve its natural production of collagen and elastin, which work to firm the skin.
Eye Cream Is Different from Facial Moisturizer
It can be tempting to use facial moisturizers on your under-eye area, but you may not get the results you are looking for. So while you need a moisturizer for this area, it needs to be formulated specifically for the delicate skin around the eyes.
Using facial cream instead of eye cream can cause small white spots called milia to form, as the pores are clogged because the product is not formulated to penetrate the thin, delicate skin in this area. Eye creams also have ingredients that facial moisturizers don’t, and these ingredients are especially beneficial to the eye area.
Make applying a moisturizer specifically for the eyes, such as Revitalize & Firm Eye Cream, a part of your regular morning and evening beauty routine.