Sometime in your mid-twenties, it’s likely you started seeing the very first few signs of ageing.
It may have been a few ‘chinkles’ (chest wrinkles) first thing in the morning or some more pronounced smile lines, but regardless, you realised the time had come: It was time to start using skincare that would help you age gracefully.
A night cream and sunscreen were probably your go-to, and probably still are, but there’s another area that needs looking after – and we’re often quite neglectful of it. Yes, your eye area (this may have been an obvious answer).
The eye area is where we usually notice the first signs of ageing, and yet we still tend to give our eyes a lot of grief: We rub them (especially during hay fever season), often forget to apply sunscreen under the eyes (just me?) and we can be really rough removing eye make-up.
However, the under eye area needs special care; the skin around our eyes is thinner than the rest of our face and needs to be treated delicately. But if you ask the everyday woman if she uses an eye cream, I bet the answer is a guilty “no”. See, we know we should use an eye cream, but finding an eye cream that provides hydration, reduces the appearance of wrinkles and doesn’t cost a house deposit can be a Herculean job.
Just the thought of navigating overcrowded skincare aisles to find the right eye cream can make us feel overwhelmed. Here at Now To Love, we know this. In fact, before welcoming a beauty editor on board we were all in the exact same boat, which is why we want to help you combat what we’re calling ‘skincare anxiety’.
We’ve put together a guide for making sure you end up with an eye cream that works, smells amazing and won’t break the bank.
How to find the perfect eye cream
First, you need to decide what concern you want to target: Wrinkles, under eye circles, puffiness? Once you know what your main problems are you can look for products that target this.
Next, settle on a budget. There’s no point scouring the shops for a fancy lotion without first taking a glance at your bank balance (try not to feel guilty as you see Domino’s Pizza appear several times in your statement).
Lastly, look for certain vitamins and natural ingredients in your skincare (we’ll elaborate more on these soon), as there are a few ingredients that are known to target particular concerns.
Unfortunately, sometimes being prepared still isn’t enough: There are a million and one different products on the market these days and finding ‘The One’ can be difficult – this is when recommendations come in handy. To help you make the right choice of eye cream, we’d like to put a recommendation forward.
The team at Now To Love came across a standout Kiwi brand a few years ago, and have found their products to be reliable, effective and they smell oh so incredible, plus they meet all our ‘must-haves’ – no animal testing, contains natural ingredients and comes in environmentally-friendly packaging.
The brand is Wild Ferns and our beauty editor stumbled across them when souvenir shopping for a friend across the ditch. Wild Ferns are probably best known for their gorgeous Manuka Honey range (full of delightful cleansers, conditioning face masks and amazing scrubs), which is where our favourite eye cream, or crème in this case, fits in.
Wild Ferns’ Intensive Refining Eye Crème is our go-to eye cream. Not only is it affordable (a measly $20.10) but it contains a number of wonderfully natural ingredients. The crème contains premium certified Manuka Honey 80+, which has been specially formulated to be used around the eye area to hydrate, brighten and soothe the skin – which is exactly what our tired eyes want.
The eye cream also contains rosehip (which is essential for reducing fine lines and plays a role in cell regeneration), borage (for healthy skin maintenance), wheatgerm (helps reduce skin damage) and hazelnut oils (which soothe and soften the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles). The crème also contains skincare essentials, vitamins A, C and E (which provide high antioxidants that help stimulate collagen production), hydrating bees wax and calming chamomile. So, you know, not a bad combo of ingredients!
But don’t just take our word for it, the facts speak for themselves:
Wild Ferns regularly study the effectiveness of their products to ensure they’re meeting the concerns of their customers (which we really appreciate!) and their latest study results suggest what we already know to be true – these products don’t just smell and feel good, they actually work.
The study saw 10 healthy panelists between the ages of 26 to 61 years liberally apply a single layer of the Intensive Eye Crème. And what happened? The eye crème was shown to improve moisturisation by around 100 per cent. Yes, you read that right.
So if you’re looking for a product that will give your under eye area the hydration, wrinkle-zapping, TLC it needs, we couldn’t recommend Wild Ferns’ Intensive Eye Crème enough!
Once you’ve found your dream eye cream, your next step is ensuring you’re looking after your product and applying it correctly…
How to get the most out of your eye cream
Some of you may know the correct order to apply your skincare – from lightest to heaviest. So after giving your face a double cleanse, you should follow with your serums – think pigmentation/brightening serums, anti-ageing serums etc, then your eye cream and follow with your moisturiser (which is usually the thickest cream).
To apply your eye cream, add a small amount to your ring fingers (these have the least amount of strength) and lightly pat the product under and around the eye area. Do not rub! Rubbing your products mean they won’t absorb as well and you’re pulling and dragging your skin. Eeek!
And after all that trouble spent finding the perfect eye cream, you don’t want to trip over the finish line!
Wild Fern products are available online and in all good souvenir shops.
