Eye Creams Over 50: Are they Worth it?

I don't know if you've heard, but there is a ton of debate surrounding your eyes and skin care concerning your eyes. We need face creams and as many moisturizers as we can get our hands on, but what about eye creams? Does everyone need them or only certain people? Are they a scam? From droopy under eyes to waking up to blue and purple underneath your eyes, let's break all of this down and get down to who REALLY needs them.

Simply put, most dermatologists agree that only people who are concerned with their under eyes, either with appearance or a medical issue, could benefit from using an eye cream. To put that in perspective, no one in their twenties needs them. Because the skin around the eyes and eyelids is thinner than the rest of your face, some ingredients need to change in order to target these issues without posing a problem. So your heavy moisturizer you love to put all over your face may not be ok for your thin eyelids or may have more concentrated ingredients in them that is too much for that thinner skin.

If you have dark circles: The two holy grails of targeting dark circles are ingredients like niacinamide and vitamin c. We want to brighten everything up under there and the citrus will certainly help with that, giving more life to your eyes. If you want to take things a step further than those two, look for ingredients with vitamin k and arnica in them as well. A little side note here, sometimes puffiness under the eyes can cast a shadow making the appearance of dark circles when there is none. It's best to target the puffiness first before treating the dark circles or shadows.

If you want to treat wrinkles: One word - Retinol! Retinol will be your best friend here for people with mature skin. Retinol helps boost collagen production and the turning over of dead cells and bringing in new more glowy ones. Just make sure the concentration is enough for your thin skin under your eyes to handle without burning. Now the one step further ingredient here would be peptides. Peptides help with firmness and texture. These two together would make your skin unstoppable to prevent wrinkles!

If you have under eye bags: Good news here, this one is easy. Look for caffeine as one of the main ingredients. It will "wake-up" the skin underneath your eyes. For an extra step here and a spa like feel, use a cold compress under your eyes. Or even easier, get an under eye applicator with a metal tip. The metal will get cold and give a cooling effect to your eyes.

So, are eye creams necessary? If you are concerned with their appearance or are just self conscious and want them to look better, than yes. Go all for the eye creams! But if you are content with them and they've never given you any trouble before, best to keep that extra $40 and go splurge somewhere else in your skin care routine!