I’d Written Off Eye Creams Until I Tried This Formula That Shoppers Call “Actual Magic”

Perhaps the distinction between early and mid-20s is the dark circles that increasingly show up beneath your eyes every morning, a stage of life I’ve, unfortunately, recently entered. Discoloration and bags were never a thing I worried about before — I could sleep a cumulative eight hours a weekend during college and wake up Monday morning with a glow. But now, if I so much as consider staying out past midnight, my tired under-eyes spend weeks playing catch-up. 

Still, I wasn’t convinced by under-eye creams, instead opting to apply concealer with a more heavy hand. I had heard (as I’m sure many others have) that these treatments were glorified, pricier moisturizers. But when Herbivore offered to send me its newest brightening under-eye cream, I decided, why not give it a try? Hitting snooze clearly wasn’t working, so I might as well attempt another solution. And after three weeks of testing, I can now confidently say that brand has made me an eye cream convert.

Shop now: $48; credobeauty.com and sephora.com  

Herbivore formulated its Super Nova Eye Cream with a number of brightening, depuffing ingredients, including 5 percent THD vitamin C, which, as Dr. Adrienne O'Connell, Medical Director and President of Laguna Beach Aesthetics, previously explained to InStyle, “is a highly stable form of vitamin C…[that] gives a brighter, more hydrated glow.” You’ll also find awakening caffeine and antioxidant-rich turmeric in the formula. And though it might be packed with effective ingredients, the texture still manages to go on smoothly, quickly absorbing into the skin “without leaving a greasy residue,” as one shopper noted.  

No product — well, for the most part — is an overnight miracle worker, so I decided to give this a three-week trial period to see if I’d be able to notice a difference over time. And by the second week, I was already sure of the cream’s effectiveness. My under-eyes weren’t just less puffy, but the blues and purples often found there were starting to fade away. Even on nights where I tossed and turned, I woke up looking more rested than I actually was the following morning. It’s by no means a cure — there will likely never be a day when my under eyes match the rest of my skin without makeup — but it offers results that might be as close as you can get.

One Sephora shopper wrote that this eye cream has found them “not leaning so much on [their] under-eye concealer,” explaining that after a couple of weeks of using the “brightening, soothing, and cooling” treatment, they noticed their eyes “looked less tired and brightened.” One other loved “how quickly it addressed puffiness,” noticing a difference in just two weeks, while another called it “actual magic” for under-eye circles.

The best cure for tired under eyes is probably sleep, but when hitting snooze isn’t an option, I turn to this newly launched brightening and depuffing cream from Herbivore.