When I posted my updated skincare routine, some people were impressed with the amount of products in it. And it’s true: my full skincare routine is anything but simple. Today’s blog post will focus on one of those skincare items that you may very well do without. You don’t need eye cream per se as you might as well apply a simple moisturizer too, but I really wanted to try this and that’s why I gave it a go.

Clinique Pep-Start eye cream

At €26.61 this is not a cheap product at all and I was quite hesitant about this at first. But I heard so many great reviews of this product and when I had finally decided to bite the bullet and went to the store, it had sold out. That to me was a sign that this may be an eye cream that I would like. I had tried the Dramatically Different moisturizer by the brand before and loved it, so I figured it might be worth a shot.

The Ingredients

Clinique Pep-Start is a full range of products aimed pepping up your skin by giving it an extra boost. This eye cream in particular should help against a tired look by depuffing and hydrating the eye area instantly for a more awake look. Well, with those 6 AM wake up calls I deal with on the daily, a cream that promises to depuff and hydrate my under eye area, I’m all ears.

Water\Aqua\Eau, Glycerin, Butylene Glycol, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Squalane, Cetyl Esters, Dimethicone, Methyl Gluceth-20, Polyethylene, Glycereth-26, Polybutene, Sucrose, Magnolia Officinalis Bark Extract, Sigesbeckia Orientalis (St. Paul’s Wort) Extract, Algae Extract, Molasses Extract\Saccharum Officinarum\Extrait De Melasse, Sapindus Mukurossi Fruit Extract, Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7, Whey Protein\Lactis Protein\Proteine Du Petit-Lait, Palmitoyl Hexapeptide-12, Trifluoroacetyl Tripeptide-2, Caffeine, Phytosphingosine, Acetyl Hexapeptide-8, Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1, Yeast Extract\Faex\Extrait De Levure, Glycine Soja (Soybean) Protein, Caesalpinia Spinosa Gum, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Glyceryl Polymethacrylate, Sucrose Stearate, Caprylyl Glycol, PEG-8, Sodium Hyaluronate, Simethicone, Polysorbate 20, Carbomer, Sodium Hydroxide, Dextran, Hexylene Glycol, Sodium Citrate, Phenoxyethanol, Mica, Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891).

The ingredient list isn’t too shabby either. According to Beautypedia, this has enough ingredients to account for the hydrating and beneficial claims. It includes the peptides Clinique raves about in their marketing. The only promise awarded to this product, to ‘brighten’, cannot be true as the ingredients that should do this are at the tail end of the ingredient list. So far so good.

The Packaging

What truly drew me in about this cream is its packaging. While many great eye creams come in jars (hello there, Kiehl’s Creamy Eye Treatment) that aren’t all that hygienic, this cream comes in a tube (yay), with a ball like applicator that is used to open and close the packaging (double yay).

You simply pull it up and squeeze product out and a little hole will dispense the product. You then proceed to use the ball to roll the product onto those under eye bags and press it back down. I’ve found that you can press down the ball without touching it by simply pressing the cap back on.

This packaging is innovative to say the least, but not necessarily new. There are other eye creams on the market that sometimes even have a metal ball to roll on the product, which helps your eyes to depuff and apply the product evenly. I think it’s ingenious, but I’d have loved this product even more if the ball was made out of a cooling metal rather than plain plastic.

The Application

What matters most of course is how this product works. I find that this packaging allows for a very precise application. It is difficult to squeeze out too much, which means that despite its price point, you can still make the most of this. I’ve been using this for months and so far, have only use it up half way.

The texture of this product is not very creamy but more gel like. It is easy to blend out and it sinks into the skin very effortlessly. I simply get dressed while I let this product sink in and then move on to make up. And it’s in this step that I have found the biggest improvement. I used to have major concealer creasing issues under my eyes. Now that I’ve been using this and my under eye area is much more hydrated, I find my concealer creases less and less easily.

I find this kind of depuffs my eyes, but not as much as I’d like. I simply have quite the under eye bag and no cream will be able to fight that. I always try to get enough sleep, but I simply, naturally, always wake up with a puffy eye. That’s just natural, so I’m not too fussed about it.

The Conclusion

It is safe to say that I really enjoy using this Clinique Pep-Start eye cream. But is it a must have in my skincare routine? Not really. I have tried other hydrating eye creams that could do something very similar as this for a fractions of the price. As I find this mostly hydrates well and thus helps against make up creasing, I think I will try something differently after this. For looking more awake by depuffing eyes, I find it has a little bit of effect, but not enough to my liking. If this had a metal ball instead, I think I might have liked this even more and that would have made it worth the splurge for me. For now however, I think I’ll go back to a cheaper alternative once this runs out.

What is your favorite eye cream?