Sags, bags, circles, lines…. just as we were about to resign ourselves to living with these eye issues, the skin gods smiled down upon us and we received a sample of Relastin Eye Silk from Revance Industries. We started applying it twice daily with a huge grain of salt, having tried so many products for so many years that we were pretty jaded about what eye products could actually do. But since Allure magazine named it “Editors’ Choice Best of Beauty/Best Anti-Wrinkle Eye Cream” in 2007 and again in 2008, we thought it was worth a shot.
Day 1: Our eye area looks brighter. Nah. Must be wishful thinking.
Day 8: What happened to the dimples (okay, crepiness) on our upper eyelids? Nothing works this fast.
Day 12: Is it our imagination, or have the bags under our eyes diminished by half?
Day 14: We’re sold. Our crows’ feet are much improved, and our entire eye area looks undeniably younger. We’re sticking with the program because we’re told to expect even greater results by week three and beyond.
As you probably know, elastin is the protein fiber that lets young skin stretch and snap back to a firm resting state. What you probably don’t know is that we stop producing elastin in our early teens. Nobody ever said life was fair. So after that, all the usual suspects-time, stress, pollution, sun-conspire to break down the fibers into useless shreds. Minus any support, the skin has nowhere to go except down. Adding insult to injury, lax skin also produces wrinkles.
The good news for us is Eye Silk’s Zinc Firming Complex works at the cellular level to promote the formation of functional (young-acting) elastin in the skin. In a clinical study, Eye Silk was shown to significantly decrease fine lines and wrinkles, coarse wrinkles, and undereye laxity and puffiness. Participants in the study also noticed a decrease in dark circles after four weeks.
While most anti-aging products focus on stimulating collagen production, Eye Silk is specifically intended to increase skin elasticity. True, there are other contenders on the market. But in a double-blind clinical study, skin treated with Eye Silk showed a 53% increase in epidural elastin and snapped back 2.1 seconds faster after stretching when compared to a leading copper peptide product. (We’re not naming any names, but we tried that one. Don’t bother.)
At $69 for 0.5/15ml fl.oz., Eye Silk doesn’t come cheap-but hey, neither do a lot of non-performing formulations. Find it on relastin.com. and select online retailers, or in select dermatologists’ offices nationwide.
