One of the most commonly asked questions in my office is “What eye cream do you recommend?”, I usually answer that it depends on what you are looking for.  Do you have dark circles, bags, or fine lines?

In the past, I have recommended freezing green tea bags,thawing them with a little cold water and relaxing for 10 minutes with the tea bags on your eyes to help reduce eye puffiness.  I have recommended human growth factors that you can find in Skin Medica’s TNS Night Eye Repair and Neocutis’ Lumiere as well as Renova for fine lines around the eyes.  Dark circles, hmmmmmm…. in eight years of seeing patients and trying creams I have yet to find one that I LOVE for dark circles.  Now I don’t have dark circles around my eyes, but plenty of my patients do.  When they don’t come back in raving about what I have recommended, I stop recommending it.   Last but not least, if your eyes are bothering you enough to depress you every single morning when you look in the mirror, sooner or later you will likely be consulting with a plastic surgeon about a blepharoplasty (which is a fantastic procedure) but in the meantime….

It looks like there is finally an eye cream on the market that claims to do all of the above. SKinCeuticals, a company known for their extraordinary antioxidant serums has just released A.G.E. Eye Complex.
This eye cream contains a complex of flavonoids and synergistic peptides that strengthen blood vessel walls, improve lymphatic drainage and eliminate hemoglobin’s colored end-products which ultimately greatly decreases dark circles and puffiness surrounding the eye.  This all occurs in 4 – 12 weeks based on the company’s clinical studies(which have produced some pretty amazing pictures).

How does it work to reverse fine lines and wrinkles?  These are big claims, but this is how they are doing it.  By twelve weeks and beyond, blueberry extract interrupts the formation of advanced glycation end-products (A.G.E.) and Proxylane restores water and nutrient content to the dermal epidermal junction (D.E.J.) to increase skin elasticity and thickness for dramatic improvement of wrinkles and crow’s feet.  Now you all know that I am a huge fan of human growth factors, but I sure am willing to give this a try, besides whose to say that I can’t apply human growth factors as well?  I have been using it for a few weeks now and must say that I love the texture of the eye complex as well as the cooling sensation that I feel after applying it.   I can’t wait to get some feedback from my patients on this new eye cream.

This is the skin care regimen that I follow and recommend to my patients:

Morning Skin Care

• Wash your face (my favorite gentle cleanser is Toleriane and I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Clarisonic Brush which removes all of my dead skin cells,  it is like microdermabrasion in my bathroom).
• Apply Phloretin by SkinCeuticals (antioxidant that has had amazing results at preventing sundamage)
• Apply TNS Recovery Complex (most potent form of human growth factor) one pump is enough and try to put it on slightly wet skin
• Apply Journe (SPF 30 sunscreen, human growth factor and green tea all in one oil – free sunscreen- AMAZING!!!)
• Apply makeup

Evening Skin Care

• Wash your face, if acne prone, I recommend a salicylic acid wash, Acne Foaming Wash by Skin Medica is my favorite
• Apply TNS all over face
• Apply Retinoid of some sort
• Apply Moisturizer if necessary
• Apply Eye Cream

Now regarding the retinoid… you can get a rx from a dermatology office or you can buy retinol in non prescription strengths as well.

My favorite moisturizer is Hydraphase by La Roche Posay it is oil free, light and cheap.

Last but not least my favorite eye cream is TNS Night Eye Repair, I apply this am and pm to my eye area.

There are four ingredients that have been medically proven over and over again to be essential in preventing and reversing the aging process of our skin.

1. Sunscreen SPF 30 or greater  If you can see without a light on you are getting sun on your face.  If you are getting sun on your face, damage is occurring.  SPF 15 in your moisturizer or makeup is not going to do the job.  With an SPF 15, when you are driving around in FL at lunch you are getting tons of sun exposure on your face.  That is why one of the most common complaints I see in my office is “Why do I have all these brown spots on my face?”. Find an SPF 30+ that you LOVE to put on every morning and use it.
2. Retinoids, multiple studies have shown that retinoids stimulate collagen production and cell turnover which reduces the appearance of wrinkles as well as brown spots.  This is the number one skin treatment for reversing damage already done.  You can get this in a variety of strengths, the strongest being prescription and the lowest over the counter at your drugstore. Prescription strength tends to be a little irritating and most people can only handle putting it on their face a few times a week. It is important to find a strength that works for you and use it as much as you possibly can.  Retinoids are inactivated in sunlight so be sure to always apply them at night. The only reason not to use it is if you are pregnant or breast-feeding.
3. Human Growth Factors- this stuff is awesome, multiple medical studies have shown that this ingredient (which is derived from fetal foreskin) does what Retinoids do just without the irritation.  We use this in our office after laser procedures because it helps to heal the skin as well as for daily usage to reverse aging.  I have personally found that I can use prescription strength Retin -A- Micro 7 nights a week when I use Human Growth Factors twice a day.  When I don’t use Human Growth Factors, I can only use my Retin -A-Micro 2 to 3 nights a week.  We carry two product lines with Human Growth Factors, Neocutis and TNS by Skin Medica.
4. Antioxidants, we all know these are good for us to eat but they are also great for our skin.  Antioxidants are huge in preventing further damage to our skin.  Remember the line about seeing without a light on, causing sun damage to your skin?  Well we live in Florida, anything that I can do to prevent further damage I am going to do.  Vitamin C is one of the most studied and proven antioxidants available.  CE Ferrulic and Phloretin by SkinCeuticals are two of my favorite products filled with potent, stable antioxidants. Green tea is another topical antioxidant that I favor especially for calming skin that is prone to redness or after laser procedures.

All the other stuff that is out there might be good in one study here or there but these ingredients have been proven to work over and over again.  I can choose to put anything on my skin that I want, as owner of a skin care store I have access to every cream you can imagine- I have done my research and I am not going to waste my precious time putting stuff on my face that does not work-this is the stuff that has been proven to work and I have seen the results on my skin and my patients’ skin.

So what do I recommend?  See my Personal Skin Care Regimen