Though sun damage and aging certainly contribute to fine lines around the eye, crows’ feet can crop up on anyone—even those who are in their early 20s and faithful to SPF. Noticeable wrinkles are often a sign that skin is craving moisture, which is what makes hydrating eye creams such a valuable step in a skin-care routine. “Undereye skin is thin and sensitive,” explains Nathan Newman, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in Beverly Hills, CA, and dehydration is more common (and more visible) on thinner skin. “Daily moisturization of this delicate area will help improve the texture and appearance of your skin,” he says. If your skin is especially thin or prone to dryness, it’s even more important to use a hydrating eye cream.
Vogue’s Favorite Hydrating Eye Creams:
- Best Overall: SkinCeuticals A.G.E Advanced Eye Cream, $116
- Best Drugstore: Cetaphil Hydrating Eye Gel-Cream, $15
- Best Retinol: Beauty of Joseon Revive Eye Serum, $17
- Best For Dark Circles: iS Clinical Eye Complex, $90
- Best For Sensitive Skin: Kiehl’s Creamy Eye Treatment, $37
- Best For Wrinkles: Shiseido Benefiance Wrinkle Smoothing Eye Cream, $65
In This Article:
- What to Look for in a Hydrating Eye Cream
- How to Hydrate the Undereyes
- Can eye cream help with dry undereyes?
- Meet the Experts
Best Overall: SkinCeuticals A.G.E Advanced Eye Cream
- Why We Love It: Though we were instantly charmed by this cream’s silky, melty texture, it was its results that had us fully sold. The blend of ingredients—including firming peptide blend Matrixyl and brightening glycyrrhetinic acid—targets the deterioration of collagen and elastin that causes fine lines, sagging, and a tired look. In addition to providing long-term benefits, the formula instantly revitalizes eyes with a subtle blend of luminous pigments that effortlessly blends into all skin tones.
- Key Ingredients: Glycyrrhetinic acid, Matrixyl, caffeine, optical brighteners
- Best For: Fine lines, wrinkles, dark circles, puffiness, skin laxity
- Size: 0.5 oz.
Best Drugstore: Cetaphil Hydrating Eye Gel-Cream
- Why We Love It: Both Frank and Newman agree that this formula is not only efficacious, but extremely comfortable due to its hybrid gel-cream texture, which feels lightweight yet is surprisingly nourishing. Hyaluronic acid helps smooth out fine lines while anti-inflammatory skin-brighteners licorice extract and niacinamide work to depuff bags and brighten dark circles.
- Key Ingredients: Hyaluronic acid, licorice extract, niacinamide
- Best For: Fine lines, dark circles, puffiness
- Size: 0.5 oz.
Best Retinol: Beauty of Joseon Revive Eye Serum
Beauty of Joseon
Revive Eye Serum
- Why We Love It: This K-beauty pick is not only budget friendly and generously sized, but packed with heavy-hitting anti-aging ingredients to boot. Chief among them is retinal (like retinol, but an even stronger form of the vitamin A derivative) to trigger collagen production that’ll smooth out fine lines and wrinkles. There’s also ginseng and niacinamide to help depuff, brighten, and hydrate, and they’re all formulated into a quick-to-absorb serum that feels weightless on the skin.
- Key Ingredients: Ginseng, retinal, niacinamide
- Best For: Fine lines, wrinkles, dark circles, puffiness
- Size: 1 oz.
Best With Caffeine: L'Oréal Revitalift Derm Intensives Eye Serum
- Why We Love It: This fast-absorbing serum from L’Oréal Paris acts faster than a double espresso to wake up tired eyes. That’s not solely due to the caffeine, though—the innovative applicator features three petite rollerballs that promote lymphatic drainage as you glide it under the eyes. This depuffing, darkness-fighting combo is enhanced with a hefty dose of 2.5% hyaluronic acid for hydrated, healthier-looking skin.
- Key Ingredients: Glycerin, hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, caffeine
- Best For: Puffiness, dark circles, fine lines
- Size: 0.67 oz.
Best Lightweight: Neutrogena Hydro Boost Hyaluronic Acid Eye Gel Cream
- Why We Love It: This Neutrogena formula is like a glass of water for the undereyes: refreshing, weightless, and works quickly to restore your hydration levels. “It contains hyaluronic acid to help hydrate the skin,” explains Newman. It’s paired with another humectant, glycerin, to draw in moisture, so you’ll see smoother, plumper undereyes almost instantly after application.
- Key Ingredients: Glycerin, hyaluronic acid
- Best For: Fine lines
- Size: 0.5 oz.
Best For Dark Circles: iS Clinical Eye Complex
- Why We Love It: This clinical-strength formula addresses all the common undereye concerns—puffiness, fine lines, and so on—but we’re most impressed by its ability to brighten up dark circles. It does so with a combo of vitamin C, retinol, and caffeine: The first two work to fade skin discoloration, while the latter promotes circulation in the skin, draining fluid buildup under the eye that can contribute to darkness.
- Key Ingredients: Hyaluronic acid, green tea, vitamin C, retinol, caffeine
- Best For: Skin laxity, fine lines, wrinkles, dark circles, puffiness
- Size: 0.5 oz.
Best For Sensitive Skin: Kiehl’s Creamy Eye Treatment
- Why We Love It: If your skin can’t handle more aggressive actives, try this classic formula from Kiehl’s. “This eye cream is good for sensitive skin because it provides long term hydration without irritation and is generally well tolerated,” says Frank. It offers intense nourishment courtesy of avocado oil and shea butter while hydrating with potent humectant sodium PCA, quenching the thirst of dry skin for a smoother, brighter appearance.
- Key Ingredients: Avocado oil, shea butter, sodium PCA
- Best For: Fine lines
- Size: 0.5 oz.
Best For Wrinkles: Shiseido Benefiance Wrinkle Smoothing Eye Cream
- Why We Love It: This rich cream is packed with squalane, hyaluronic acid, and beeswax to intensely hydrate and nourish very dry skin, but moisturizing is not its only superpower. Using a mix of plants found in traditional herbal medicine (including ginseng, sanguisorba officinalis, and turmeric), the formula targets five different types of wrinkles around the eye—even the “elevens” between the brows. In a consumer study, participants found that this cream ironed our their lines out in just seven days.
- Key Ingredients: Ginseng, peptides, caffeine, squalane
- Best For: Skin laxity, fine lines, wrinkles, dark circles
- Size: 0.5 oz.
Best Under Makeup: Glossier Full Orbit Eye Cream
- Why We Love It: If you tend to skip eye cream in the morning because of pilling, you won’t need to anymore with this Glossier formula. A small dab of the lightweight gel-cream sits well under makeup—concealer won’t settle into fine lines—while hydrating and plumping the skin under the eyes with hyaluronic acid. Anti-inflammatory niacinamide and polyphenol-rich hawthorn extract work in tandem to depuff and brighten things up.
- Key Ingredients: Niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, shea butter, hawthorn extract
- Best For: Fine lines, dark circles, puffiness
- Size: 0.5 oz.
Best For Undereye Bags: Biossance Squalane and Marine Algae Eye Cream
- Why We Love It: According to Frank, this is a great choice for anyone with sensitive, eczema-prone skin as well as those concerned with texture around the eye. We find it to be particularly helpful for sending undereye bags packing—peptides and algae extract help firm, while paracress extract provides an instant lifting effect for a tauter, smoother look. The cream also contains Biossance’s signature ingredient, squalane, to deeply nourish dry, crepey skin.
- Key Ingredients: Squalane, algae extract, paracress extract
- Best For: Fine lines, wrinkles, skin laxity
- Size: 0.5 oz.
Best For Winter: Lancôme Advanced Génifique Wrinkle & Dark Circle Eye Cream
- Why We Love It: Fine lines—especially those in the delicate skin around the eyes—get exacerbated by harsh weather. This cream was specifically formulated to combat the effects of colder seasons by fortifying the skin barrier with a blend of prebiotics and hyaluronic acid. Lactic acid gently resurfaces uneven texture while vitamin C helps firm and brighten, leaving eyes looking fresh and luminous.
- Key Ingredients: Hyaluronic acid, lactic acid, prebiotics
- Best For: Fine lines, wrinkles, dark circles
- Size: 0.5 oz.
What to Look for in a Hydrating Eye Cream
When shopping for an eye cream for dry skin, the ingredient list should be your main consideration. “Look for ingredients that act as humectants to help draw moisture into the skin,” advises Paul Jarrod Frank, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in New York, NY. Humectants like hyaluronic acid and glycerin attract and grab onto water in the atmosphere, helping to hydrate skin and plump it up for a smoother, more even texture. Newman notes that the type of hyaluronic acid matters: “Many formulations use hyaluronic acid that cannot penetrate the skin due to the size of the hyaluronic acid molecule in the product,” he explains. Keep an eye out for sodium hyaluronate, a form of hyaluronic acid that has a low molecular weight, meaning it can absorb more deeply into the skin.
While hydrating ingredients are key, you’ll also want to look for emollients, like ceramides. “Ceramides help strengthen the skin’s moisture barrier, lock in moisture and protect the delicate skin around the eyes, preventing dryness and irritation,” says Frank. Another good emollient is squalane, a non-comedogenic oil that closely mimics your own sebum. “It works synergistically with other hydrating ingredients like hyaluronic acid to keep the skin soft and supple,” says Newman. Niacinamide (vitamin B3) also helps fortify the skin barrier, as well as offers anti-inflammatory properties that’ll help minimize dark circles and puffiness.
Lastly, seek out peptides. “Peptides act as building blocks for proteins like collagen and elastin, which are essential for skin structure and firmness,” explains Newman. “In eye creams, these synthetic peptides are used to support the skin’s natural barrier function, improve hydration and help reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.”
