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Want to appear bright-eyed, engaged and youthful? A great way to inject instant lightness into your face is to use a caffeinated eye cream. Today, we present a list of the very best caffeine eye creams on the market right now.
Who is this for?
Contrary to popular belief, eye creams are not just for older adults looking to rewind the clock and de-age their face. Eye creams, especially caffeinated ones, are a fantastic pick-me up for eyes of all ages.
Caffeinated eye creams reduce blood flow to this tender area, brightening the skin, eradicating bags and under-eye shadows, and overall injecting a lift to the face. So anyone who wants to look and feel their best can use a caffeinated eye cream.
When should I apply this product?
There are a few methods and timings of application. Some users prefer to apply a caffeinated eye cream first thing in the morning to wake up and look their best at work. Other users enjoy applying a caffeinated eye cream in the afternoon, when a long working day is wearing them down. A quick swipe before going home can have you looking your best for your partner too.
The most commonly used application for a caffeinated eye cream is overnight, allowing the product to seep deeply in the skin, which allows you to wake looking fresh-faced. This is especially true for longer-term use and for people looking for anti-aging benefits.
Blu Atlas Restorative Eye Stick
Application Type: liquid, roller ball
Natural Status: 96% naturally-sourced ingredients
Intended Consumer: men and unisex
First up on our list of the best caffeinated eye creams in 2023 is the Restorative Eye Stick from Blu Atlas. This deliciously restorative product gently soothes your face, bringing light and energy back into your eyes, while offering those hallowed anti-aging benefits.
We love how every product from Blu Atlas is highly natural while retaining clinical efficacy and being powered by scientific evidence. Along with this, the products are made in the USA, are vegan, and contain no parabens, phthalates, sulfates, or synthetic fragrances.
Ingredients
Of course, pride of place in this product blend is caffeine. Blu Atlas specifically uses Coffea canephora, a coffee species packed with antioxidants that are protective against skin damage.
Alongside the caffeine, which shakes your face awake, is the gentle healer and moisturizer, Rosa damascena (rose) flower water. This ingredient can heal all sorts of damage, including scarring, lacerations, and burns and returns a gentle youthful glow to tired, dull skin. Most importantly, rose water contains vitamin C and phenolics. Vitamin C is highly prized in the eye cream world for anti-aging,anti-puffiness, and detoxifying properties. To amp up the vitamin C action in this product, the team at Blu Atlas added potent ascorbic acid.
We love the inclusion of squalene, vitamin B3, and algae extract to soothe and nourish. Squalene is the hip skincare ingredient of the moment, mimicking the natural sebum of the skin. Vitamin B3 is a powerful compound that fights against dark circles, fine lines, and discoloration.
The Bottom Line
This blend can solve all your eye-related issues any time of day, and give your face a new lease on life. This is all achieved while putting your health first with gentle, safe, and natural dermatologically-guided ingredients and a lightweight formula that rolls on with a cooling roller ball.
We also love the stress-free factor of a complete money-back guarantee!
Kiehl’s Age Defender Eye Repair
Application Type: cream
Natural Status: non-natural
Intended Consumer: men
If you’re looking for a caffeine eye cream solution coming from the anti-aging market specifically for men, this is a great choice for you. Number two on our list of the best caffeine eye creams in 2023 is the Age Defender Eye Repair Cream from Keihl’s.
Ingredients
Alongside caffeine, this cream is packed with ingredients that both provide an instant lift and long-term results in the battle of aging. This formula has been created with the needs of tougher male skin in mind.
For an instant lift in appearance of eye circles and wrinkles, this formula contains blurring minerals. These natural pigments catch and reflect the light for an instant but subtle under-eye sparkle.
Dry and aging male skin benefits hugely from oil application. This caffeinated eye cream includes linseed extract, which is a nourishing oil that rejuvenates dull skin and works on fine lines over time.
Adding to the fine line action is an ingredient familiar to healthy bread lovers—rye seed extract. This ingredient also provides that all-important anti-aging firming action that suggests elasticity in the face.
The Bottom Line
This is a fantastic pick for the aging man, with a sumptuous creamy formula that both instantly recharges and works on improving the skin in the long term. This product can be used both day and night.
The Ordinary Caffeine Solution 5% + EGCG
Application Type: liquid solution
Natural Status: non-natural
Intended Consumer: unisex
The Ordinary is known for stripping back the confusion on ingredients lists in cosmetics, providing typically one or two active ingredients suspended in solutions. That way, you can mix and match the perfect skincare routine for you.
In line with this, number three on our list of the caffeinated eye creams in 2023 is the minimalist formula from The Ordinary, Caffeine Solution 5% + EGCG.
Ingredients
At a five percent solution, this potent shot of caffeine sits two percent above the average caffeine offering in other over-the-counter skin care products.
Not only does this increase the likelihood of beneficial effects on your face, you also benefit from an increase in coffee-related antioxidants, which protect your skin from further damage.
The EGCG in the name of this product stands for epigallocatechin gallatyl glucoside. This blended compound contains extract from green tea leaves, another well known pick-me-up for the skin.
ECGC has been shown to work well on reducing dark circles, with effective antihistamine action to reduce redness from irritation and any puffiness.
If oils are a total no-no for your skin, you’ll be relieved to find that this formula is free of any oils, as well as any silicones, alcohol, and gluten,
The Bottom Line
If you like your skincare simple, and like the idea of being able to mix and match products as per your specific skin needs, this caffeinated eye solution from The Ordinary may be just your thing. This applies in a light coating that dries quickly and can be used twice a day.
Mario Badescu Caffeine Eye Cream
Application Type: cream
Natural Status: some natural ingredients
Intended Consumer: men and unisex
This product is another great choice for people looking to avoid products with oil as well as satisfying the needs of vegans and people sensitive to parabens and fragrances. It’s a hit for under-eye circles and parched skin.
For these reasons and more, number four on our list of the best caffeinated eye creams in 2023 is the Caffeine Eye Cream from Mario Badescu.
Ingredients
For people who suffer from sunken eye areas, this product contains sodium hyaluronate. This compound is known for providing deep hydration and both lifting and plumping actions to combat any circles in this area.
This cream also contains the industry’s new favorite, squalene, a compound that mimics natural oils in the skin to allow the deep penetration of the beneficial ingredients in this cream. Working alongside this are jojoba esters, which soften the skin without leaving any residue or greasy feel.
Lots of skin-loving botanicals are also in this blend, and the texture is lovely, lightweight and cooling.
The Bottom Line
For a lightweight and nourishing caffeinated eye cream that can also lift the skin out of sunken under-eye circles, look no further than this classic offering from Mario Badescu. This is a wonderful product for all ages. It’s also a great morning-after solution for hiding a late night out!
The Inkey List Caffeine Eye Cream
Application Type: serum
Natural Status: non-natural
Intended Consumer: unisex
This product contains a gentle concentration of caffeine at 0.3%. This makes the product great for repeated use and for people with any caffeine sensitivities. Additional ingredients also suggest use for people with aging skin.
The Inkey List Caffeine Eye Cream makes it to number five on our list of the best caffeinated eye creams in 2023.
Ingredients
Of note in this blend is the patented ingredient Matrixyl 3000. This ingredient penetrates deep into the skin, stimulating collagen production at its core. Collagen is a vital skin compound that depletes with age. It’s important for skin elasticity.
Another ingredient of note is Albizia julibrissin bark extract. Similar to coffee and green tea, this natural compound fights against visible signs of under-eye skin fatigue. This is great for an instant lift to your facial appearance.
This product also contains hyaluronic acid and jojoba esters. Hyaluronic acid is big in the skincare scene for its action against wrinkles, wounded skin, and scarring. Repeated use of this ingredient promotes more supple and smooth skin in the long term.
The Bottom Line
This product is a hit with the young and old, targeting both pesky eye circles and long-term eye puffiness with a gentle yet effective blend. Skincare is what Inkey does, so check out their highly rated skincare bundles for a complete facial reset.
Hey Bud No Puff Hemp Eye Cream
Application Type: cream
Natural Status: very natural
Intended Consumer: unisex
This product has been designed with the natural crowd in mind, along with targeting younger folks dealing with acne-prone skin. Customers rave about their before-and-after results, often turning around completely what seemed to be a hopeless situation.
If you’re all about the bud, in a non-THC totally legal way, you’ll love this clean and creamy option from Hey Bud made for a gender-blasting and environmentally conscious generation.
Ingredients
Hemp seed oil is what Hey Bud is all about. This ingredient takes pride of place because it’s packed with those crucial fatty acids that smooth and lift the skin’s appearance.
This hempy goodness is backed by grapeseed oil, an oil that contains the powerhouse antioxidant, resveratrol. This compound fights signs of premature aging and damage, increasing skin elasticity and fighting back against fine lines and wrinkles while protecting your skin.
And of course, as a product hitting the trends, this caffeinated eye cream also contains hyaluronic acid for that potent and deep hydration so often needed for rough and damaged acne-prone skin.
We love that this company offers a 90-day money-back guarantee so that you have enough time to really judge if this product makes a difference for your individual skin needs.
The Bottom Line
This vegan, ethical, natural product aimed at the youth and the acne prone is making a huge difference to the under eye area of people with the most sensitive needs. If you’re a fan of hemp and other hip ingredients, be sure to give this product a spin.
Q+A Caffeine Eye Serum
Application Type: serum
Natural Status: 99.9% natural
Intended Consumer: unisex
Q+A offers concepts similar to The Ordinary, but made affordable, bright, and with a little more fun. They’re extremely natural too. That’s why the Q+A Caffeine Eye Serum is number seven on our list of the best caffeine eye creams in 2023.
Ingredients
Alongside our star ingredient, caffeine, is a pick-me-up that’s found in another favorite beverage. That’s the enlivening green tea extract. Q+A Caffeine Eye Serum also contains EGCG, an antioxidant compound that works to protect your skin from all kinds of stress.
Unique to this list is the inclusion of pomegranate extract. This tropical superfruit brings even more antioxidants to the table, along with other important nutritive benefits. For example, you can expect to see reduced redness, acne, discoloration, and wrinkles with the application of this serum. That’s a huge win for anti-aging and overall beautification.
As an added bonus, enjoy a deep cooling sensation with the inclusion of cucumber fruit water and long-term skin benefits with added collagen.
The Bottom Line
This is a vegan, cruelty free, and highly natural formula that works well on oily, normal, sensitive, and combination skins. It promotes anti-aging, calming, and brightening and improves skin firmness. It’s also fun and affordable.
The Glow Fairy Instant Eye Repair Serum
Application Type: serum
Natural Status: some natural ingredients
Intended Consumer: women
The Glow Fairy is passionate about delivering instant and real results to attack those puffy eyes, eye bags, crow feets, and frown lines, without risky surgical intervention.
The company is so sure of their product and their customer service team, they offer a 120-day satisfaction guarantee and around-the-clock support. The packaging is cute too.
It’s no wonder then that the Glow Fairy Instant Eye Repair Serum has made it to number eight on our list of the best caffeine eye creams in 2023.
Ingredients
The ingredients in this product look to target both long-term aging and skincare, along with the more instant results that will put an extra bounce in your step within five minutes.
For the more immediate results, this serum deposits a layer of hydrolyzed collagen and lecithin, which pull the skin taut for instant anti-aging and lifting results. For this reason, it’s important to stay still and expressionless for the first five minutes after application.
It’s also important to look after and rebuild the delicate under eye skin for the long term. This function is achieved in The Glow’s formula with the help of the deeply nourishing aloe vera extract; the nutritious glycerin; and the calming, rejuvenating, and fragrant geranium essential oil.
The Bottom Line
This is a great product to try, with an interesting and unique combination of key ingredients and a great trial period with near-instant online support. We love how this product can provide an instant lift while deeply nourishing the skin for more long-term anti-aging benefits.
L’Oreal Paris Revitalift Filler Hyaluronic Acid and Caffeine Eye Mask
Application Type: liquid solution
Natural Status: non-natural
Intended Consumer: women
If you’re a fan of the affordability and accessibility of drugstore brands, you’ll love this offering.
Number nine on our list of the best caffeinated eye creams in 2023 is the Hyaluronic Acid Cooling Eye Serum Mask from the Revitalift Range at L’Oreal Paris.
This product comes saturated into a cooling sheet mask for deep restorative action and overnight use. This mask holds an equivalent of half a bottle of serum in quantity for a deep hit of nourishment. Make sure to keep it on as long as you can to absorb all the goodness!
Ingredients
First and foremost is, of course, the titular hyaluronic acid. This ingredient is an anti-aging powerhouse that reduces wrinkles by increasing the stretch and flexibility of your skin. It’s also great for broken and delicate skin by speeding up the process of healing to reduce scarring.
We also love the inclusion of vitamin B3, which works wonders on evening skin tone, brightening the skin, reducing the appearance of fine lines, and rebuilding the skin barrier in delicate and acne prone skin.
Ingredients in this product also produce a deeply calming and healing temperature change on the face. Users can experience as much as five degrees of temperature change, promoting a sense of rejuvenation and calming any puffiness or discoloration.
Some soothing is also provided by Rosa canina seed oil, and a luxurious fragrance is added to this product.
The Bottom Line
If you enjoy the comfort of familiar, affordable products that have a luxury feel, consider this eye mask from L’Oreal Paris. This product, designed for occasional use, adds a deep and instant hit to the appearance of many under-eye skin issues and is extremely cooling for instant relaxation.
Vichy Liftactiv Supreme Yeux/Eyes
Application Type: cream
Natural Status: limited natural ingredients
Intended Consumer: women
Vichy Laboratories is proudly based in the USA. It’s a dermatology-driven brand that looks to deliver real, visible improvement in a variety of skin issues and needs. For over 40 years, they’ve used medical and scientific tools to hone the efficacy and safety of their products. That’s why we just had to include the Liftactiv Supreme Yeux/Eyes from Vichy Laboratories to our list of the best caffeine eye creams in 2023.
Ingredients
First, this product harnesses the explosive power of volcanic water to deal with your skin related woes. This water is packed with over 14 essential minerals that both protect your skin from damage and improve the skin barrier for long-term results.
In addition, this eye cream uses rhamnose. This is a plant sugar derived from natural srouces, which is a fantastic building block to increase firmness, improve texture, and wind back the clock on skin aging.
This product delivers so well on its promises that it’s become the most auto-replenished product that Vichy Laboratories produces, with stellar reviews that speak for themselves.
The Bottom Line
It’s reassuring to use a product that has the backing of dermatologists to not only ensure the efficacy but also the safety of ingredients and the tolerability of the combined product. You can trust this proud US company to deliver deep results and lift your overall facial appearance.
Choosing an Eye Cream: Further Considerations
Application Texture
Caffeine eye “cream” can be a little bit of a misnomer. The category of “eye cream” can contain products with a wide spectrum of textures.
This includes liquid solutions that are applied with a roller ball or dropper, thick creams and gellous solutions that are spread by hand, and even some thin gels that can be squeezed or saturated into disposable paper masks.
Texture can be a matter of preference or relate to different skin types. That may differ when targeting aged or younger skin; oily, dry or combination skins; and problem-skin needs.
Texture may also relate to the frequency of use; thicker formulas are often more deeply-hitting potions for night time use, where lighter formulas like liquid solutions tend to be able to be reapplied more frequently.
Skin Goals
In your hunt to find the perfect caffeinated eye cream, it’s important to consider what kind of results you’re looking for.
Some creams offer a lift to the skin, great for people with under eye circles and a sunken appearance. You may instead suffer the opposite problem, such as puffiness and redness, and would then be looking for a calming rather than plumping effect in your product.
You may also have skin sensitivities, such as acne or those related to age, that need to be considered when choosing a product. You may want to find a product that even directly targets the issues if possible.
Consider the benefits touted by each eye cream on our list and how they relate to your specific under-eye needs. Note also how well they match your demographic.
Desired Application Frequency
Some people notice long-term under-eye skin problems that they wish to treat. This kind of user may look towards deeper overnight treatments or even mask options.
Other folks may find that their face develops changes that they wish to combat throughout the day. A soothing, energizing, and lightening pick-me-up that can be applied multiple times a day can be a great choice.
Natural Status
People are increasingly aware of the toxicity of certain ingredients in the cosmetics industry, which is being backed by science and dermatologists. For this reason, some consumers are turning towards more natural products that take one’s health into account. It’s just as important to consider what ingredients have made it into the product as well as the list of “free-froms” on the packaging.
For others, clinical efficacy takes primacy in their decision in purchasing a caffeine eye mask. We hope we have offered you a range of products on this continuum, some which strike a balance of being both naturally powered and scientifically backed.
Company and Product Ethics
Another increase in demand from consumers in recent years has been in the ethical production of cosmetics. Ethics can range from cruelty-free and vegan formulations, to environmentally friendly production initiatives, and to giving back to certain communities.
If some of these factors are important to you, we recommend checking out the company websites of products that caught your eye, finding out about any accreditation they may have and what steps they’re taking towards making ethical decisions for their company.
Price
The biggest determinant in picking a product for many people is the cost. Unfortunately, an increase in price does not correspond to a guaranteed increase in efficacy. To save yourself from spending on products that may not pay back in results, we offer a couple of recommendations.
First, start with companies that offer extended periods of money-back guarantee so that you can try the product with a decent amount of time to judge the results without any risk to your pocket.
Second, look for products that have been highly rated across many reviews, and talk to people around you to cut through the hype to what’s working for real people in their lived experiences.
Keep in mind, however, that your needs may be different from those of others, and thus what works for them may not work for you. Try to match their needs to yours and keep an open mind!
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Members of the editorial and news staff of Us Weekly were not involved in the creation of this content.
