Review: Decleor Aroma Lisse 2-In-1 Dark Circle & Eye Wrinkle Eraser

I’m finally wrapping up my reviews of the new Aroma Lisse range with a long-overdue post on the 2-in-1 Dark Circle & Eye Wrinkle Eraser. It costs £32/15ml (available in John Lewis, HOF, Liberty etc.). It’s designed to smooth away fine lines and brighten dark under eye circles. Decleor's website mentions these key ingredients:

•  Mandarin Essential Oil to protect and repair cells
• Galanga, yeast and Ruscus Extracts to plump the skin, reduce puffiness and reduce the appearance of dark circles
• Gold pigments that instantly illuminate and neutralise dark undertones

Those are five ingredients out of fifty. FIFTY. If you used this with the day cream that’s 100 chemicals on your face already. Wowza.

Ingredients

Aqua (Water)

Butylene Glycol

Polymethylsilsesquioxane

Caprylic/Capric/Succinic Triglyceride

Coco-Caprylate/Caprate

Beheneth-25

Dimethicone

Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil

Nylon-12

Fluorescent Brightener 230 Salt

Glycerin

Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil

Glyceryl Stearate

PEG-100 Stearate

Pentaerythrityl Distearate

Oenothera Biennis (Evening Primrose) Oil

PEG-6 Isostearate

Phenoxyethanol

Cetyl Alcohol

Propylene Glycol

Ruscus Aculeatus Root Extract

Sodium Polyacrylate

Mica

Polyacrylamide

Avena Sativa (Oat) Kernel Extract

Caprylyl Glycol

CI 77891 (Titanium Dioxide)

Alpina Galanga Leaf Extract

Pentylene Glycol

C13-14 Isoparaffin

Citrus Aurantium Bergamia (Bergamot) Fruit Oil

Linalool

Disodium EDTA

Michelia Alba Leaf Oil

Polyvinylalcohol Crosspolymer

Triethanolamine

Limonene

Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Extract

Tocopherol

Laureth-7

Sodium Hyaluronate

Glycerol Acrylate/Acrylic Acid Copolymer

Glycine Soja (Soybean) Oil

Hesperetin Laurate

Citrus Nobilus (Mandarin Orange) Peel Oil

CI 19140 (Yellow 5 Lake)

Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride

Xanthan Gum

Ethyhexylglycerin

Panax Ginseng Root Extract

Goodness that took a long time to type up! I'll follow up with an ingredients breakdown, but for now suffice to say it works with (1) yellow pigments to brighten eye bags and (2) silicones to fill out wrinkles.

In tests conducted by Decleor over a 28-day period, 81% of users witnessed smoothed lines and wrinkles and 100% saw a more moisturised and brighter eye contour. 81% of 21 participants, i.e. 17 people. Whats the point in using such a small sample!? I’ve been using it for a few weeks and I can’t say I’ve noticed a difference. As a caveat, it is kinda pointless for me to comment on the anti-wrinkle benefits when I’m 25. I hate those reviews where someone gushes over a firming cream, an anti-wrinkle cream or anti-acne cream when they clearly have NONE of those problems. Also, I think it’s a little misleading to call this a wrinkle ‘eraser’, when whats happening is that silicones are filling in lines. You can’t ‘erase’ winkles but you can reduce their appearance by minimising sun exposure and always using suncream, drinking enough water and using hydrating skincare products. L-ascorbic acid, Retinol, Niacinamide and AHAs & BHAs are also effective in reducing wrinkles.

When it comes to dark circles, gather round my friends. I have under eye circles to complement my pallid skin tone and produce a gaunt sickly appearance. I don’t think my dark circles are too bad (but then again I could just be delusional.) I could do with some concealer, but I don’t feel the need to buy specific skincare products for it. What I need is more sleep!

This cream might appeal to people who don’t use make-up but want something to brighten the eye area, as there is a subtle difference when you use it. By subtle, I mean so subtle that you probably wouldn’t notice it unless you were purposefully looking for a difference. If you have some serious eye-baggery going on, this is not the solution to your problems.

For people who use concealer, using creams like this seems pointless because any effect is covered by make-up. And on that topic, my biggest gripe with this cream is that it tends to flake when you apply make-up on top and leave patchy bits.

To sum it up:

Pros:

-Has a subtle brightening effect

-Some good ingredients, like sunflower seed oil, evening primrose oil and soybean oil

-Hygienic packaging, easy to control the amount that comes out

Cons:

-The brightening effect is temporary

-Wrinkle ‘eraser’ is filler

-The top three ingredients are water > petrochemical > silicone. Meh.

-Not hydrating enough

-Irritates the eyes if you get it in the tear duct. (Whose smart idea was it to use citrus peel in an eye product?)

-Expensive - works out as £200+/100ml

You can read my reviews of the other products by clicking on the links: Energising Smoothing Cream, Smoothing Night Balm and Aromessence Mandarine Serum.

Non-Review: Clinique Superdefence SPF 20 Age Defence Eye Cream

Yeap, a non-review. I did intend to review it but ended up returning it unopened.

Why?
-I sent an e-mail enquiry two weeks ago to Clinique and still haven't had a response
-It contains Titanium Dioxide, which blocks UVA and UVB short rays, but not Zinc Oxide which provides full protection from UVA and UVB rays. Suncream without Zinc Oxide is pointless to me :(
-I bought this from Debenhams because they include a free sample with online orders ("try something new guarantee"). Product arrives: no sample. Thanksssalot. I tried asking for a sample at different counters, showing them that I'd bought the full-sized product to no avail - Clinique don't make samples apparently o.O

Does anyone have an alternative?

p.s./ You should spell Super/defence with an "S". As a British person I cannot.

p.s./ 2: Original post and review updated here

On Trial : Clinique Superdefence SPF 20 Age Defence Eye Cream

Behold! A suncream for the eye area. It’s from Clinique, a brand that I vowed to never buy from again, thanks to a poor experience with their Anti-Blemish range and a toner that burnt my skin. (*hiss*)

You’re probably thinking err, girl do you live under a rock? All brands make eye creams, most have SPF yo. Thats true, but so far none have what I’m looking for - a physical suncream (one with Zinc Oxide & Titanium Dioxide). All the brands I’ve looked at (like Origins, Kiehls, Estee Lauder, Shiseido, Skinceuticals, Dermalogica, Philosophy, Ole Henriksen, Dior blahblah and even other Clinique products) make eyecreams with chemical filters, which I’m trying to avoid.

I came across Clinique's Superdefense SPF 20 Age Defense Eye Cream by chance on House of Fraser’s website and had something of a Hallelujah moment when I saw it described as an 'all physical sunscreen'. Woo wooo! I bought it earlier in the week and will test it out for a week or so before reviewing it in full.

These are my first thoughts:

• It's SO EXPENSIVE!! It’s £30 for the tube, which doesn’t seem too bad by itself, but at £30/15ml that makes it £2 per ml!
• The ingredients. No list of ingredients online (*glare*), so I looked to Beautypedia. The thing is that the UK product seems to be slightly different from its US counterpart, which is described as “broad spectrum”. Are they one and the same? I certainly hope so and I’m waiting for a response from Clinique to confirm :/

Update 29.May.14
As mentioned in a later post (somewhere), I ended up returning this because I didn't think it contained Zinc Oxide and because of the broad spectrum difference. I've had a response from Clinique, who very kindly provided a full ingredients list:

Water/Aqua [] Isocetyl Stearoyl Stearate [] Titanium Dioxide [] c12-15 Alkyl Benzoate [] Butylene Glycol [] Cetyl Clcohol [] Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) [] Dimethicone [] Laureth-4 [] Cetyl Esters [] PEG-100 Stearate [] Polyethylene [] Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract [] Sea Whip Extract [] Padina Pavonica Thallus Extract [] Sigesbeckia Orientalis (St. Paul's Wort) Extract [] Algae Extract [] Lecithin [] Micrococcus Lysate [] Caffeine [] Astrocaryum Mmurumuru Seed Butter [] Isohexadecane [] Tocopheryl Acetate [] Trehalose [] Glycerin [] Isostearic Acid [] Caprylyl Glycol [] Polyhydroxystearic Acid [] Polysorbate 80 [] Phytosphingosine [] Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate [] Sodium RNA [] Lauric Acid [] Linoleic Acid [] Sodium Hyaluronate [] Hhydrogenated Lecithin [] Ascorbyl Tocopheryl Maleate [] Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) [] Acrylamide/Sodium Acryloyldimethyltaurate Copolymer [] Hexylene Glycol [] Nordihydroguaiaretic Acid [] Tromethamine [] Alumina [] Disodium EDTA [] Phenoxyethanol [] Mica [] Iron Oxides (ci 77491, ci 77492, ci 77499) [] Zinc Oxide (ci 77947 nano) [ILN 40151]

And look, there's Zinc Oxide waiting at the end of the list! I checked this list against the ingredients list on Beautypedia, and they are in fact the same. However, Clinique do not claim that this product (the one sold in the EU) is broad spectrum, unlike the product sold in the US. So they may well be the same product, but end up being classed differently because of different regulatory systems. C'est un mystere.