I rarely feature eye creams for review even though I use them all the time mainly because I don't often see a huge difference between them that is worth writing an entire blog post about. I have also become oddly sensitive in the eye area with many eye creams making my eyes water upon initial application and tend to develop milia. I have a feeling this has all been due to getting older as my skin goes through its estrogen-depleting changes, but that being said I have found that keeping my eye care routine as simple as possible has been the ticket. Enter my first review of The Ordinary! I have been using Ordinary products on and off since the beauty world rocking launch in the summer of 2016 and after going through a couple of different products, I am finally ready to start talking about my favourites starting with the Caffeine Solution 5% + EGCG (30mL/$6.70 CDN)!
I don't think this brand needs any introductions at this point, so all I will say is that when I first saw the prices on the press release from PR, I just could not believe it. I have always been a huge fan of Deciem and their pricing structure for the ingredients used and even found the email where I told the brand that they were going to revolutionize the beauty world that year!
I have determined that my biggest concern is feeling puffy in the morning and having dark circles. I know there are a ton of brightening eye creams out there with caffeine and sparkly mica pigments to make me look brighter and more awake, but I really prefer to lean towards the skincare part of the spectrum rather than the makeup part.
This solution is kind of like a serum in consistency because it is oil-free. This was one of the most attractive things about the product for me as it meant the chances of milia formation were very low. There is no scent nor silicones to "fake" better looking undereyes, but what makes this product special is that it is an antioxidant BEAST with exceptionally high concentrations of caffeine and EGCG (Epigallocatechin gallate - a potent phenol and antioxidant extracted from green tea leaves). Unlike MANY skincare brands, these featured ingredients are very much at the top of the ingredients list!
Ingredients: Aqua (Water), Caffeine, Maltodextrin, Glycerin, Propanediol, Epigallocatechin Gallatyl Glucoside, Gallyl Glucoside, Hyaluronic Acid (moisture), Oxidized Glutathione (antioxidant), Melanin, Glycine Soja (Soybean) Seed Extract, Urea, Pentylene Glycol, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Polyacrylate Crosspolymer-6, Xanthan gum, Lactic Acid, Dehydroacetic Acid, Trisodium Ethylenediamine Disuccinate, Propyl Gallate, Dimethyl Isosorbide, Ethoxydiglycol, Benzyl Alcohol, 1,2-Hexanediol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol
Application is pretty simple as all you need is a drop or two which I massage under the eyes and all around the orbital bone. I tend to not have very restful sleeps so my eyes are often quite puffy in the morning and though a cold spoon would certainly do the trick, I find that this solution makes my undereyes feel like they are sloooowly deflating and stay down. With consistent use, I think my dark circles have stabilized to a mauve shade that I can tolerate as opposed to their normal shade of dark, bruisy purple. I can now get away with using foundation instead of full-on concealer which has saved me a few precious seconds in the mornings!
One caveat listed on the website is that if you genetically have a more hollow eye socket, this will create a physical shadow that obviously cannot be "fixed" with this solution. This is when concealer will be your friend as concealer "flattens" the skin's surface and eliminates this illusion of depth. If you have fat deposits that cause your undereyes to be puffy (a lot of Asians have this), this also will not do a thing for you.
Final verdict: Obviously pricing is not even a question, but the crazy scary thing with this product (and many others from the Ordinary) is that the ingredients are more solid than any eye cream I have ever tried. It did the job of depuffing and minimizing the look of my dark circles AND hydrated my undereyes because there is actual hyaluronic acid in here! Not, sodium hyaluronate (the salt of HA), but actual moisture-retaining HA! Though I still dabble with other eye creams I keep coming back to this one because it just works and does what it claims.
You can find The Ordinary at Theordinary.com and online at Sephora.com
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