Beauty Bar Therapies Back to Basics for your Eyes - Creams, Balms and Serums

By Clare O’Hanlon, Business Development Manager

What is the difference between a cream, balm and serum for the eyes ?  Eye creams are mostly water based and they spread quite easily around the delicate eye area leaving it hydrated and feeling smooth. A balm is typically wax-based, allowing the concentrated ingredients to form a protective barrier on the skin - the barrier helps prevent moisture loss and prevents damage. A serum is a more advanced version of a cream that tends to be a in a liquid form and uses a dropper for application - a serum usually goes under a balm or cream. As it is in liquid form the molecules are smaller and can penetrate into the skin more easily.

When should the eye product be applied?

An eye cream should be applied in the morning and last thing at night just like your face moisturiser. The eye area ages the quickest on our face because the skin in 10 times thinner so it is important to keep the eye area hydrated and allow for the anti-ageing ingredients to penetrate onto the skin.

What is the best practice for applying products to the eye area?

The eye area should be cleansed with an anti-comedogenic eye makeup remover to remove foundation and eye shadow. On clean, dry skin apply 4 small dots of the product under the eyes, don’t be as heavy handed as you would with your facial moisturiser. Gently, using your ring finger glide the cream in sideway motions, some products come with a special adapter that helps to penetrate the products better into the area without damaging the delicate skin. Some eye products can be used all over the eye area including the eye lid. An example of this is the Skin Booster Eye Brightening Gel with it specially designed nozzle to massage the area.

What ingredients are used to help fight ageing, bags, and wrinkles?

There are many ingredients to deliver great results with the eyes, look out for eye products containing collagen for aging eyes, ascorbic acid (vitamin c) this brightens the dark circles and treats fine lines, matrixyl 3000 reduces the volume and depth of a wrinkle, Eyeseryl is a tetrapeptide the treats puffiness, Aldavine enhances type III collagen by 300% within a week, hyaluronic acid is brilliant for dry eyes and Vitamins A,E and F. Vitamin A exfoliants under the eyes helping to remove wrinkles. Vitamin E fights free radicals and Vitamin F has fatty acids to plump the wrinkles. Vitamin k1 treats dark circles and caffeine is used in eye products to treat puffiness.

How can you market these products to your clients?

Everyone has some type of concern with their eyes whether it be dark circles, puffiness, saggy skin, lines and wrinkles, eye bags and pigmentation. Eye creams have molecules so small in them that they can penetrate through the skin where as a face moisturiser simply can’t. Knowing the right ingredients to tackle the issues will leave your clients with results they can see and explaining that the skin ages first around our eyes will prompt the client to start caring for that area.