Skincare: Moisturizers and Eye Creams

Hi Steemians! Welcome to my skincare series! You can find my last two posts here (about cleansers and exfoliators) and here (about toners, treatments, and sheet masks).

Today I'll be talking about moisturizers and eye creams -- while eye creams are technically moisturizers as well, I broke them out into their own category because a lot of people use different products for the skin underneath their eyes and the skin on the rest of their face.

Moisturizer
Moisturizing is one of the only non-negotiable parts of skincare, in my opinion. But here’s the tricky part about it: depending on how much moisture your skin needs, you may not need to use a moisturizer to moisturize. I know. It’s weird.

Cleansers strip away some of your skin’s moisture, even if you’re using the gentlest cleanser in the world. But as long as you’re restoring that moisture in some way, then you’re good. For instance, if you have a hydrating toner and serum, or if you layer multiple serums and ampoules, your skin may not need a moisturizer. You’ll know your skin has all the moisture it needs once it stops absorbing products. As I mentioned before, you can also use products that contain hyaluronic acid to help your skin absorb more moisture.

But if your skin is still thirstily absorbing products at the end of your routine, then definitely use a moisturizer! Moisturizer acts as an occlusive, which means that it helps to seal all the other products into your skin and make them more effective. On its own, moisturizer also helps to prevent wrinkles and overactive oil production.

I have a few different moisturizers, but the one I use most regularly is a water-based one that has a gel-type consistency. I really like the Jeju Carrot Moisture Soothing Gel by Welcos* -- it sinks into my skin quickly, which is one of my biggest requirements for a moisturizer since I hate worrying about whether it’s going to get on my pajamas/pillows/boyfriend/etc. (A quick note on boyfriends: they will think your skincare is time-consuming and mildly ridiculous. Ignore them. When they have wrinkles and you don’t, they will realize that you were right.)

I also recently came across Klairs’ Rich Moist Soothing Cream, which I’m in love with because it’s a fairly heavy and hydrating moisturizer, but it sinks into my skin quickly and doesn’t leave any residue. WITCHCRAFT, I tell you. It’s fantastic.

But to be honest, a lot of the time I’ll rely on my serum to act as a moisturizer, since my skin tends to be pretty well-hydrated as long I’m not using harsh products. If I use moisturizers that are too rich, I run the risk of getting breakouts when my skin struggles to deal with all the products. (Oh, the woes of combination skin.) But for people who struggle with dry skin rather than oily skin, moisturizer is going to be the most important step in their routine. It just varies by person.

Eye Cream
The skin around our eyes is the most fragile skin on our faces, so it deserves some special attention. It wrinkles easily if it’s treated roughly or is too dry. The best way to take care of it is to moisturize, use sunscreen, and make sure not to tug too much on the area when applying and removing makeup. You can use a far richer moisturizer on the skin around your eyes than you could get away with on the rest of your face, because it needs the extra moisture. Just be careful when applying it to use your ring finger or your pinky, and to lightly tap the product into your skin – try not to rub or press.

I use two different eye creams: one in the morning and one at night. In the morning I use Supergoop’s eye cream with SPF 37. It has a brightening effect as well, so it helps to conceal dark circles and makes me look less tired. I appreciate that it’s formulated with sunscreen already, so I don’t need to deal with applying both sunscreen and eye cream in that area. But if I ever feel like I need extra moisture under my eyes in the morning, I’ll layer Belif’s Moisturizing Eye Bomb cream underneath the Supergoop cream because I am paranoid about getting under-eye wrinkles. (I’m not sure if I actually recommend this unless you’re as neurotic about under-eye wrinkles as I am.)

At night I use Nivea cream. It’s considered a dupe for far more expensive eye creams and is proven to be just as effective. And because it’s cheap, you can use it for a lot of other things too, like hand cream or moisturizer for your legs after shaving. You can also use it in the mornings, but I prefer to use it at night because it's heavier than both the Supergoop and Belif creams, and it's bright white. So even though I have pale skin, Nivea cream can sometimes leave a white cast under my eyes... so I prefer to reap its moisturizing benefits at night, rather than during the day.

And that's all I've got on moisturizers and eye creams for today! As always, if you have any questions, comments, or skincare tips, please comment below!

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All photos were taken on an iPhone 7, and since they are my own work, all the usual copyright rigamarole applies.
[*] You may have noticed that I didn't actually take a photo of my Welcos moisturizer. This is quite simply because I couldn't get a good shot of it, but I'll link a website with a photo here.