Eye Care

The skin is different??
The skin around the eyes has weaker lipid and collagen structures than the other facial skin. On top of that, the skin diameter in this area also is thinner than the diameter of the other skin. Accordingly, any changes of skin elasticity are easier to detect. Dark rings around the eyes are a typical consequence of the thinner skin diameter as the internal blood vessels can be visible. In case that tissue and blood vessels are stressed due to insufficient sleep and excessive alcohol consumption, and if recovery phases are not adequately observed the preconditions for an effective long term cosmetic treatment are rather inadequate.

The cosmetic eye care is based on four essential elements:
~Base care,
~Active agents,
~Adequate treatment procedures,
~Use of appropriate products without straining additives

1) Base care:
Already here there are two different concepts: Many users favour aqueous eye gels which are more or less free of lipid components. Others prefer lipid enriched products ranging from W/O emulsions to oleogels (water free). No other skin area involves so many subjective perceptions and expectations regarding the product selection. Both of the product groups provide reasonable arguments for their use.
i) Eye gels
~gels generally have a cooling effect and this is the reason why consumers rate the gels as rather agreeable to use. They protect the eye area as they are easy to apply without any mechanical stress. And by the way, gels can optimally be combined with water soluble moisturizing substances. Regarding their composition and application however there are some basic hints to observe: In case that the gels do not create superficial water retaining films as e.g. if hyaluronic acid or other mucous generating agents like aloe vera, algae or CM glucan are added, they should be applied only sparingly or otherwise be combined with an additional lipid enriched cream. Why that? As the water in the gel evaporates the moisturizing substances will concentrate and if the gel is frequently and abundantly applied there may be an immanent risk of overdosing the moisturizers. This however can be avoided by a water retaining film on the surface. The following treatment with a refattening cream though will not retain any water, however it will impede that it can evaporate.

ii)Eye cream
~eye creams provide moisturizing substances and lipids in various combinations. There are oil-in-water as well as water-in-oil emulsions on the market. In order to achieve easy and comfortable spreading they are frequently combined with spreading oils which, however, are rather misplaced in eye creams as they may easily cause irritations of the mucous membrane of the eye. In case of extremely sensitive skin it is recommended to use preparations without any emulsifiers. Products with DMS technology (DMS = Derma Membrane Structure) or water free oleogels belong to this specific category. The advantage of the last named is that they do not require any preservatives (see above) per se. Their disadvantage is that they practically do not contain any moisturizing substances. In this case it is however possible to firstly apply an active agent in pure form (see below). This combination allows to individually and optimally control skin hydration as well as lipid content of the skin. An effective compromise solution here are eye gels with emulsifier free DMS concentrate. They provide the specific properties of a gel, contain lipids and yet are free of emulsifiers. These formulations are now on the market as finished products. It is however also possible to combine a moisturizing base gel with a DMS base cream and appropriate active agent concentrates as individually needed.