All Eyes On Her

I’m still mourning the loss of my favorite eye cream ever, Best Bath Store’s Intensive Undereye Treatment. This stuff was just the perfect blend of rich and non-greasy, of wrinkle-smoothing and skin-conditioning. It had a simple, short ingredient list with natural basics like rose hydrosol and shea butter, and it contained caffeine which really helped with circulation and seemed to smooth out wrinkles exceptionally well.

But two jars in a row went totally moldy on me, after less than a quarter of the product was used up. Sigh. I’m seriously considering writing to Justin at BBS and asking him if I can just continually purchase small samples from them, since my samples never got funky. Or begging them to change their packaging, or even buying a mini-fridge so I can store the stuff and make sure it doesn’t go off.

Obviously, though, a more practical approach would be to simply find a replacement that can handle life at room temperature. So my search has been on, but so far the results are still a tad disappointing.

The first cream I ordered a sample of was Jenulence’s Anti-Wrinkle Shea Eye Cream. I was quite excited when Kris from EDS recommended me this stuff, because it contains a very similar ingredient list to my beloved BBS — right down to the caffeine! I had high hopes that this would be a perfect fit, and it *almost* was.

My Jenulence sample (very generous, $6 plus $2 shipping) came in a little plastic pot with a tiny plastic spatula included, presumably for scooping out product without contaminating the contents. That actually made me a little nervous, because I took it as a sign that the stuff might be prone to early spoilage — but alas, it may just be fab customer service, so I’m holding off judgment so far. I will update when I see what kind of shelf life this stuff has, but so far it seems pretty stable, and it does seem to contain preservative ingredients that were lacking in the BBS cream.

The formulation itself is nice, but it’s definitely quite a bit oilier than the Best Bath Store version, which is a real bummer. I felt like the higher shea butter content was actually blocking some of my pores in my trouble area, where my wrinkle-prone crows feet intersect with my acne-prone oily temples. BBS never did break me out around there, and it definitely had a less greasy feel.

Despite the Jenulence caffeine content, I didn’t notice the same plumping/firming/smoothing action as BBS had shown. So of course, that was also a bit disappointing. Jenulence is still an exquisite cream, and I may switch to it when my skin decides to stop behaving selectively teenaged. But until then, I think this one will have to take a backseat to the other samples I’ve ordered.

And the search goes on!