The eyes have it. Eyes are the windows to the soul. Say it with your eyes. If cliché sayings have taught us anything, it's that people really care about eyes and how they look. Your eyes are likely the first to divulge the effects of too many glasses of wine, salty snacks, and the Atonement-related tears from the night before.
Clinique's Moisture Surge range (which includes a CC cream, a thirst-quenching gel, the Best of Beauty Award-winning hydrator, and the original moisturizer), is not-so-secretly one of our first-line defenses against dry skin in need of serious R&R. Now, Clinique is adding an eye concentrate to the mix — and in typical Moisture Surge fashion, making us rethink everything we thought we knew about hydrating formulas and textures.
"I'm a firm believer that consumers shouldn’t have to compromise on texture preference for the benefits they seek and need," Julien Moignard, Clinique’s senior vice president of global marketing, tells Allure exclusively, citing the brand's proprietary in-house technology that delivers long-lasting hydration in a lightweight, watery texture. Clinique's Moisture Surge Eye 96-Hour Hydro-Filler Concentrate does exactly that.
Courtesy of brand
"The undereye area is one of the thinner areas and is easily neglected in basic skin care," Paul Jarrod Frank, a cosmetic dermatologist in New York City, previously told Allure.
Clinique's new supercharged eye gel is laced with activated aloe leaf water, a proprietary "auto-replenishing lipid-sphere technology", encapsulated vitamins E and C (those are the tiny pink spheres suspended in the gel), plus invisible polymers to lock in moisture. That 96-hour claim isn't messing around because it offers round-the-clock hydration.
The lightweight, clear gel has an almost plush texture as it glided onto my skin like a dream. The instructions say to break any spheres by pressing your fingertips together before applying it, but this wasn't really an issue in the nearly two weeks I spent testing it out. Within minutes, it fully absorbed into my undereye area with a virtually invisible finish.
Courtesy of brand
"We created this texture for people who want to be able to apply foundation immediately after, thanks to a fresh, non-sticky, dewy finish," Moignard explains. "It was only natural to extend the [Moisture Surge] franchise to eyes, especially when you see the explosion of concealer usage."
Sure enough, makeup didn't slip or slide — if anything, it went on more smoothly — and the area felt pretty comfortable throughout the day. (However, if you, like me, prefer a creamier formula for the colder months, then this might take some getting used to.) Consider it the best kind of skin-care disappearing act.
Clinique's Moisture Surge Eye 96-Hour Hydro-Filler Concentrate retails for $34, and launches May 2019 at Clinique counters nationwide, clinique.com, and sephora.com.
More on undereye care:
- The Best Eye Creams to Shop Right Now
- How to Get Rid of Undereye Bags and Dark Circles, According to Dermatologists
- The 14 Best-Selling Eye Creams on Amazon
Now, see how face masks have evolved within the last 100 years:
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