What are the Best Products for Under-Eye Wrinkles and Crow’s Feet?

November 12, 2013
by Bob Frazier

Recently, a reader asked me about what he could do to get rid of his undereye wrinkles and crow’s feet. (You can submit your questions too – email me anytime at nicki[at]futurederm[dot]com!)

I’m sure the reader wasn’t alone — the eyes are one of the first places to show signs of aging. One of the main reasons for this is that cellular production of collagen and elastin lessens with age (AAD: Aging Skin, MayoClinic:Wrinkles). Collagen and elastin act like a structural framework within your skin.

When you press a baby’s cheek, the skin is soft, supple, and bounces back — that’s collagen and elastin in action. On the other hand, if you kiss your 100-year-old great-grandmother’s cheek, chances are the skin is thin like paper, and won’t bounce back very quickly at all — that’s a lack of collagen and elastin in action. The major reason why your body slows production of collagen and elastin is UV damage. Every time you incur sun damage, it shortens the length of your DNA a teensy-tiny snippet, which affects both the integrity of the collagen and elastin produced, as well as the rate at which collagen and elastin are produced. It is commonly known that the eyes is thinner than the rest of the face, which makes it more prone to aging. Yet the skin around the eyes is also more dry, because there are far fewer oil-producing glands in the skin around the eyes than the rest of the face.

This also makes periorbital (“around the eye”) wrinkles more difficult to treat, as the skin is more sensitive. This is why there is so much substantiated research demonstrating 0.5-1.0% retinol or 10-20% vitamin C makes a huge difference in the skin, but why you rarely see eye creams containing these concentrations of cogent ingredients.

Luckily, there are a few treatments that do make a huge difference, despite the concentrations being lower than for the rest of your face:

Best for Day: FutureDerm Vitamin CE Eye Cream 10.0

The reason vitamins C and E are you friends for daytime is that they tighten and brighten skin while also boosting sunscreen protection, which helps to fix under-eye wrinkles and crow’s feet while also helping to prevent further damage. Vitamin C was shown to upregulate collagen production, helping to smooth out fine lines and wrinkles in skin in this 1981 study by Murad et. al. And several other research studies, like this one by Geesin et. al have found similar results. And vitamin C gets a boost from vitamin E. When antioxidants stabilize free radicals in the skin, they lose and electron. Synergistic antioxidants like vitamin C and E can “borrow” electrons from each other, allowing them to work for longer when they’re paired together.

Best for Night: Strivectin-AR™ Advanced Retinol Eye Treatment

I like Strivectin-AR™ Advanced Retinol Eye Treatment ($87.50, amazon.com) for a lot of reasons. For one, it is really, really hard to get to use niacinamide in a product. You know from reading this blog that it is a major component in Olay products, which are owned by Procter and Gamble. As you can imagine, a big product giant like Procter and Gamble patented the heck out of niacinamide, so it’s hard for small companies to get to use it without having the threat of a lawsuit. Some unambitious small companies will still sneak it in their products, thinking they can fly under the big guys’ radar and make some money off of a few sales each month. Maybe that’s true for a while, but it’s a risk that I personally wouldn’t take. Strivectin is not owned by Procter and Gamble, but they were acquired by Catterton Partners a few years ago, a large private equity firm with about $2.3 billion in management at the time of the acquisition. So I am thinking they licensed out the rights to use niacinamide in a product.

Business deals aside, what does this mean for your skin care? Simple: It means you can get the effects of retinol and niacinamide in a single product, and a product that is likely to be on the market for years in the future, thanks to Catterton’s likely licensing of the ingredient and widespread distribution (they also obtained Fekkai, and as beauty junkies everywhere know, Fekkai is everywhere).

It means that you get the scientific effects of niacinamide: According to a published research study from Bissett et. al., niacinamide as a topical ingredient is amazing, reducing fine lines and wrinkles, hyperpigmented spots, red blotchiness, and skin sallowness (yellowing), and increasing skin’s elasticity over time. Further, according to a 2005 study by Draelos et. al., niacinamide may help alleviate some of the symptoms of rosacea by increasing hydration and barrier function of the uppermost layer of the skin, the stratum corneum.

Combine that with the proven studies of topically-applied retinol. As Jenny Bailly, an expert beauty writer, once mused in Allure, “If dermatologists ever wrote an ode, it would probably be to retinoids — with an opening line stolen from Elizabeth Barrett Browning: ‘How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…'” So true. According to research by Fisher et. al, retinoids are effective in preventing and treating the collagen loss caused by the sun over time. In addition, Fisher et. al demonstrated that application of retinoids prevents your cells from stimulating genes that breakdown collagen. (For the ultra-scientific, this is preventing the induction of matrix metalloproteinase genes). Retinoids also increase cell turnover and decrease the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. According to Dr. Ranella Hirsch, M.D., president-elect of the American Society of Dermatologic Surgeons in Allure: “We have beautiful, profound data that shows if you use it for 20 years, you’re going to look a lot better than someone who doesn’t.” Amen.

So I’m all in favor of Strivectin-AR™ Advanced Retinol Eye Treatment.

Ingredients: Aqua (Water, Eau), Dimethicone, Glycerin, Myristyl Nicotinate, Isononyl Isononanoate, Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Ricinoleate, Isostearyl Neopentanoate, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Polysorbate 20, Butylene Glycol, Polymethylsilsesquioxane, Sucrose Polysoyate, C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Trimethylsiloxysilicate, Dimethicone Crosspolymer, PPG-2 Isoceteth-20 Acetate, Retinol, Sodium Hyaluronate, Ceramide 2, Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7, Palmitoyl Oligopeptide, Dipeptide-2, Tocopherol, Avena Sativa (Oat) Kernel Extract, Passiflora Incarnata Flower Extract, Lecithin, Glycine Soja (Soybean) Sterols, Tocopheryl Acetate, PEG-10 Rapeseed Sterol, Tribehenin, Cetearyl Glucoside, Behenyl Alcohol, Glyceryl Stearate, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Polymethyl Methacrylate, Steareth-20, Hesperidin Methyl Chalcone, Ethylhexylglycerin, Xanthan Gum, Chlorhexidine Digluconate, Polyglycerin-3, Parfum (Fragrance), Mica, CI 77891 (Titanium Dioxide), Lactic Acid, Sodium Citrate, Citric Acid, Sodium Hydroxide, Potassium Sorbate, Disodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol, Benzoic Acid, Chlorphenesin, BHT, BHA

I Don’t Like: RoC® Multi-Correxion® Eye Treatment

Don’t even get me started on RoC® Multi-Correxion® Eye Treatment ($19.99, amazon.com). It is very popular, probably because it costs under $20 and is very gentle, so no one is running around complaining that they got any irritation from it. Unfortunately, that’s my problem with it. No one likes retinol because it’s a friendly, sunshine from the get-go, Reese Witherspoon-type of ingredient. Retinol is more like I would imagine working for Marissa Mayer (CEO of Yahoo!, former Google goddess) would be: Tough in the beginning. You don’t necessarily tolerate it well in the beginning. But you work up gradually, and it’s the best thing for you in the long run. Once you get used to it, you’re in the best shape of your life. That’s retinol.

Ingredients: Water, Glycerin, Cetyl Alcohol, Nylon 12, Dimethicone, Ethylhexyl Hydroxystearate, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Glyceryl Stearate, Hexyldecyl Stearate, PEG 100 Stearate, Sorbitan Stearate, Phenoxyethanol, Mica, Sodium Acrylate/Sodium Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolymer, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Hexylresorcinol, Titanium Dioxide, Isohexadecane, Fragrance, Methylparaben, Polysorbate 80, Acrylates/C10 30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Disodium EDTA, Tocopheryl, Sucrose Cocoate, Ascorbic Acid, Panthenol, Sodium Hydroxide, Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Extract

Bottom Line

When you’re looking to take care of under-eye wrinkles and crow’s feet, you want to stick with quality ingredients. Look for skin-firming and sunscreen-boosting vitamins C and E FutureDerm Vitamin CE Eye Cream 10.0 (coming soon!) for daytime, and collagen production-increasing retinol and elasticity-improving niacinamide in Strivectin-AR™ Advanced Retinol Eye Treatment for nighttime for the best results. Sometimes if you want to get the best results, you have to go through an adjustment period, which is why I don’t recommend RoC® Multi-Correxion® Eye Treatment — it’s just too gentle (in all the wrong ways) to get the job done.

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