Most women believe that eye creams are specially formulated for the skin around the eye area. Although the eye area does tend to be more prone to allergic or sensitizing reactions and often shows wrinkles before other areas of the face, it turns out the product formulations for eye creams don’t differ from those for face products. There is no evidence, research, or documentation validating the claim that eye creams have special formulations that set them apart from other facial moisturizers. There is also no research indicating what ingredients should be used around the eye but not on the face or vice versa.
Aside from the actual lack of research, I have also never interviewed a dermatologist, cosmetic chemist, cosmetic ingredient manufacturer, or opthalmologist who has ever identified what moisturizer-type ingredients the eye area needs or doesn’t need in comparison to the face. On occasion one of these “experts” might say that they eye is more sensitive and therefore doesn’t need ingredients that cause irritation, which is just utter nonsense— the face doesn’t need irritating ingredients either! What is problematic for the eye area is problematic for the face.
It only takes a quick look at the ingredient labels of any moisturizer or eye moisturizer to see that they don’t differ except for the higher price and the tiny containers the eye creams come in. Eye creams are a great way to waste money on a skin-care product that is truly unnecessary.
The only time you might want to use a different product around the eyes is if the skin there happens to indeed be different from the skin on the rest of the face. For example, if your face is normal to oily and doesn’t require a moisturizer except occasionally on the cheeks or around the eyes, then an emollient, well-formulated moisturizer of any kind will work beautifully—you do not need to seek out a special eye cream! If you are using a well – formulated face moisturizer (anti-wrinkle cream or whatever the name is on the label), it can and should be used around the eye area.
Ironically, one of the drawbacks of many so-called eye creams is that they rarely contain sunscreen. For daytime, that makes most eye creams a serious problem for the health of skin. You could believe that you were doing something special for your eyes, but you would actually be putting them at risk of sun damage and wrinkling by using an eye cream without sunscreen. This is another example of the way cosmetics marketing and misleading information can waste your money and hurt your skin.