Eye Care

The skin around the eye is the thinnest on the body and it moves more than any other — roughly ten thousand blinks a day. That is why it shows fatigue first, and why the products made for it are formulated differently rather than just packaged smaller.

What an eye product is actually for

Three different complaints get lumped together under "eye cream", and they do not have the same answer:

• Puffiness is fluid, and it responds to cold and to caffeine more than to any cream. It is usually worst in the morning and better by midday.
• Dark circles are often not pigment at all — in many people they are the vascular layer showing through thin skin, which is why they run in families and why no topical product makes them disappear.
• Fine lines are the one a cream can genuinely change the look of, mostly by hydrating skin that creases more visibly when it is dry.

Knowing which of the three you have saves you buying the wrong product twice.

How to apply it

Ring finger, tapping rather than rubbing, on the orbital bone rather than right up against the lash line. Product migrates upward into the eye overnight; starting closer does not get it closer, it gets it in your eye.

A grain of rice per eye is the whole dose. More does not absorb, it sits — and that is what causes the milia people blame on the formula.

Do you need one at all?

Honestly, not always. If your face moisturiser is gentle and fragrance free, extending it to the orbital bone is a legitimate routine, and a great many eye creams are a face cream in a smaller jar at a higher price. The case for a dedicated one is when it does something your face cream does not — caffeine for morning puffiness, a lighter texture that will not migrate, or a fragrance-free formula when the rest of your routine is scented.