Is eye cream important, or can facial moisturizer be just as effective? What eye cream is best for a 65-year-old woman?

If you need moisture around your eyes, moisturizer is definitely a good idea. Remember that the skin around the eyes has few oil glands, making it particularly prone to wrinkles.

But what should you do if you want to prevent loss of elasticity around the eyes, wrinkles, and overall skin texture? Lasers can certainly help, but you probably won’t use them very often due to the downtime. The key here is prevention, and if you start using an eye cream or two when you’re young, you won’t regret that decision.

Why eye cream?

• Look at your family. Can you guess what your pattern is? Do you notice more hooding on your upper eyelids, sagging lower eyelids, puffiness, sun damage, wrinkles, sunkenness or discoloration under or around your eyes? This is what you are trying to prevent.
• Often, Botox/Dysport around the eyes (especially if too much) can cause or worsen puffiness under the eyes due to muscle inactivity, which reduces lymphatic drainage. Eye cream to reduce swelling may help.
• Eye cream can help prevent further sun damage, improve skin texture, and provide a slight tightening effect over time.

What eye cream?

• Use an eye cream with retinol for wrinkles and sun damage. The amount is appropriate, but most products for the face are too irritating.
• For under-eye puffiness, MadisonMD Eye Rescue is still my favorite. You can get one by calling our clinic at (206) 939-6633. Minimum order quantity is 2. Use at night.
• Color Science 3-in-1 Renewal SPF 35, a sunscreen for the eye area.
• The eye area mask is a 12-pair pack of Color Science Total Eye Hydrogel Treatment Mask.
• For a mild lubricity in the morning with a variety of gentle active ingredients, try Pevonia Evolutive Eye Cream.

There are many good eye creams. Host an eye cream party with your friends and sample 5-6 products and rate them individually. You could even get a little container for everyone to use for a week or so and vote on!

What can a laser do that eye cream can’t?

• Creams are relatively superficial. Lasers or radiofrequencies work at deeper levels and can produce more results.
• Most short pulse, “no downtime” RF systems, such as Morpheus, are not very effective, and long pulse, deeper RF systems, such as Profound, are not approved for use around the eye. The Thermage system has an FDA approved small eye tip that is great for prevention and slight tightening.
• Fraxel Dual, some erbium lasers, CO2 (carbon dioxide lasers), and a new thermomechanical system (Tixel) can be safely and effectively used around the eye with an intraocular shield (e.g., a special contact lens) in place.

Hope this helps,

Brandis Irwin, MD
Concierge Dermatology and Laser, Seattle
Skin Tour Founder
Follow my skin tips and take a trip to Instagram!