Eye Cream Face-Off


Posted on November 28th, by Helen in Blog, Products, Skincare, This vs That. 9 comments

Eye Cream Face-Off

Kellett Skincare Intensive Radiance Eye Treatment ($75) vs. Prevage Ultra Protection Anti-Aging Moisture Eye cream with SPF 15 ($100)

Winner: Kellett

I arrived at this conclusion after conducting a highly scientific blind study. Ha, well kind of…I convinced some of my friends to be my guinea pigs. This select group included my lawyer friend Lisa, who is the biggest skeptic when it comes to anything beauty-related. Each person was given a sample of each cream in a small unbranded sample jar, marked A and B. They were told to use one cream on one eye and the other cream on the other eye. All I told them was that they were two high-end anti-aging eye creams meant to tighten and firm the eye area. And I warned them that each cream gives off a pearlescent effect to blur imperfections like dark under eye circles (some people don’t like this quality). The token dude in my experiment thought that this meant sparkles, but he still went through with it anyway. He’s my male bestie, by the way. After a month, I checked in with everyone…

Sample A was the Kellett; Sample B was Prevage

Male bestie said that he preferred cream A because it went on smoother than B, and the look of B weirded him out because, in his own words, “it looked like Thousand Island salad dressing.” He also liked the immediate tightening sensation he got from cream A when applied just underneath his tear duct. My opthamologist friend commented that she liked A’s “silky smooth texture and brightening effect.”

Prevage is flesh-tone and thick.

Kellett is white and and has a lighter texture.

Lisa, who is a lawyer by profession, never uses CAPS in her emails so I was blown away by her feedback via email.

[gn_quote style=”1″]For years, I have been in search of the perfect eye cream. Something that will hydrate, diminish fine lines and disguise dark circles. My favourites, to date, have included Teamine and Dr. Perricone until you presented me this challenge! Within about four days, I developed a wicked allergic reaction to “B” and had to abort our experiment. That’s the bad news. The good news was discovering that jar “A” is FANTASTIC! It does everything a good eye cream should do and more: It impeccably hydrates and I swear, three weeks later, you would need a magnifying glass to see any fine lines. Gone! What’s more, there’s special optical reflectors in the cream that instantly brighten the under eye area with continual improvement over time. I don’t often rave about a product but eye cream A is in a class of its own. Seriously. My search for the perfect eye cream just ended and I couldn’t be happier![/gn_quote]

As for my experience, like Lisa, I also had an allergic reaction to the Prevage cream. After a week of daily use, I had to stop using it because the area underneath my eyes turned red and crepey. See…

The beauty nerd in me wanted to know what was in the Prevage cream that caused mine and Lisa’s allergic reaction, so I consulted a skin care product developer friend to help deconstruct it. This is her analysis after deciphering each product’s ingredient list:

[gn_quote style=”1″]Both eye creams contain a pearlescent pigment that gives them light reflective properties, which helps illuminate the eye area and blur imperfections. First of all, the Kellett eye cream was developed by a doctor [our go-to dermatologist Dr. Lisa Kellett] and it targets several different signs of aging with moisturizers, anti-oxidants, and actives the deliver both instant results (it has an ingredient that has been shown to firm skin and reduce the appearance of fine lines within two hours) and long-term improvement (with actives that help increase skin density in the thin eye area, which are one of the factors that can lead to dark circles). Plus it’s got a couple of advanced peptides and anti-inflammatory properties. The Prevage eye cream has similar ingredients with the unique addition of sunscreen, which is important for anti-aging purposes. However it lacks any ingredient to target dark circles. The Prevage line, which is part of the Elizabeth Arden brand, is known for its presence of idebenone, a power antioxidant thought to prevent cell damage and aging. However, Prevage products contain dyes and parabens, which may trigger allergic contact dermatitis in some people. The Kellett eye cream is free of these additives.”[/gn_quote]

I was initially attracted to the Prevage cream because of the built-in sunscreen, but the allergic reaction was so not worth it. And I thought, hey, I’m already using sunscreen in my day time moisturizer anyway, so there’s really no need for SPF in my eye cream. I have since been using the Kellett cream both at night and in the morning. During the day, I love love love the light-reflective effect it provides, which is similar to how the iconic Yves Saint Laurent’s Touche Eclat concealer pen works to blur  dark circles and shadows. In fact, when I layer the Kellett eye cream underneath the YSL concealer, I look so well rested! So in a way, the Kellett eye cream acts like make up because it instantly enhances your look by brightening up the eyes. In my opinion, Kellett + YSL is the best fix for faking a good nights sleep!

Other eye creams I’ve used and like include Yonka Phyto Contour and Revaleskin’s coffee berry Replenishing Eye Therapy, but I’m a total Kellett convert now. None of the eye creams before have given me the ethereal glow of the Kellett one. In terms of its purported long-term firming and lightening benefits, I’m a night owl and I’m always pulling at the sides of my eyes when I apply eye liner (it’s such a bad habit, I know!), so I hope with continued use of this eye cream, I’ll delay my inevitable fate of having crow’s feet and dark under eye circles by a few years. Here’s hoping!

Click here to purchase the Kellett eye cream to try it out for yourself.





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