I am sometimes asked to recommend an eye cream that moisturizes. Sounds simple doesn’t it? But actually, it can be difficult because many eye creams are serums, delivering high-tech anti-aging actives, but not much hydration. Secondly, although people ask for recommendations for an eye cream that merely moisturizes, often they add a little postscript about dark under-eye circles and the odd wrinkle. With Avitalin’s Smooth Contour Eye Care ($55), I have something I can heartily recommend. On its own, or layered over a serum, Smooth Contour is a hydrating eye cream with additional benefits.
With an aloe base and calendula (from marigold), Avitalin’s eye cream soothes as well as smooths. Shea and cocoa butters plus avocado oil supply moisturizing and antioxidants, as well as the cream’s rich texture. I found that it absorbs readily and does not feel heavy – in fact, dry skin feels quenched, nourished and silky.
Avitalin’s schitck is to improve the appearance and health of the outer epidermis, the skin’s first line of defense. The focus on the outermost layer of the skin, the stratum corneum, is dubbed “corneotherapy” and Avitalin claims its ingredients are also effective in reducing skin irritation and inflammation.
For those additional benefits, look to Syn-Ake, an ingredient that inhibits the formation of expression lines, such as laughter lines or crow’s feet. Syn-Ake is a synthetic version of snake venom. It is composed of a peptide complex that supposedly mimics the neuromuscular blocking compound found in snake venom.
There are two complementary ingredients that are helpful for dark under-circles and skin brightening: coffee extract and alpha arbutin. Because of caffeine’s ability to constrict the veins, it can be used to reduce dark circles and puffiness around the eyes. Alpha arbutin lightens the skin and prevents it darkening by blocking tyrosinase (enzymes that are activated by UV light).
As always with Avitalin, there’s nothing nasty and the preservative is fermented radish root. The fragrance is listed as essential oils; however, I feel that the light scent is vaguely chocolaty from the shea and cocoa butters.
Ingredients: Aloe barbadensis (aloe) juice, Rosa damascene (rose) distillate, Butyrospermun parkii (shea) butter, Calendula officinalis (calendula) extract, Theobroma cacao (cocoa) butter, emulsifying wax , Persea americana (avocado) oil, vegetable glycerin, Hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel), dipeptide diaminobutyroyl benzylamide (Syn®-Ake), tocopherol (vitamin E), coffee extract, alpha-arbutin, stearic acid, xanthan gum, Leuconostoc (radish root) ferment filtrate, fragrance (essential oils)