Fact: Eye Creams Aren’t Necessary!
I haven’t met a woman who isn’t shocked when I tell her that she doesn’t need an eye cream for the eye area. Yet there is no reason in the world to buy a separate product labeled as being for skin around the eyes. All the cosmetic industry provides is a product with half the content of the face product yet they charge you twice as much. All of the claims about why you need an eye cream (or gel) are ludicrous. They make no sense, especially not when you when you look at the formulations.

But Aren’t Eye Creams Specially Formulated?
False. There is no evidence, research, or documentation validating the claim that eye creams have special formulations setting them apart from other facial moisturizers (assuming both are well formulated). It only takes a quick look at the ingredient lists to see that they don’t differ in any significant way. There are no studies showing what ingredients the eye area needs that are different than what facial skin needs.

You may have been told that because the eye area is thinner it needs lighter weight products. Yet when you compare an eye cream to most face products they end up being thicker and heavier.

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 might 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.

Wait a Minute—Isn’t the Eye Area More Sensitive?
Another myth you may have heard is that the undereye area is more sensitive than the face and so eye creams shouldn’t contain irritating ingredients. In truth you shouldn’t be using products for the face that contain irritating ingredients either! It’s illogical that the eye area gets the good formulations and the face gets the bad stuff or should somehow endure the irritating ingredients.

I’ve also been told that because eye creams are placed close to the eye and because of seepage they may get into the eye and therefore need to contain ingredients that are safe for the eye. As logical as that sounds, when you look at an eye cream it almost always contains fragrance, coloring agents, or potentially irritating plant extracts. That certainly isn’t good for the eye. All face products need to be safe for the eye area and the mouth!

The Exception to the Rule
The only time you might want to use a different product around the eyes from the one you use on your face is if the skin under the eye happens to be different from the skin on the rest of the face. For example, if your face is normal to oily and doesn't require an emollient moisturizer but the eye area is drier then an emollient is needed around the eyes. The rest of the face would only need a gel or liquid (of course both should be loaded with state-of-the-art ingredients that restore and repair skin). Despite this exception, you still don’t need to seek out a product labeled “eye cream”. Any emollient facial moisturizer that’s well formulated will work great.