white tea & plum roses

Guess who's been going to bed in the dead of night and waking in the middle of the day? (Hint: It's me.) My sleep schedule has been all turned around since February started. I'm staying up until 4am and waking up past noon. I mean, I've always been a non-scheduled sleeper so I guess it isn't too weird to me. However, having pulled a couple of all-nighters starting at an early age and just not sleeping well overall has earned me some pretty nice dark circles under my poor tired eyes.

I have never actually been one to take care of my eyes very well, up until last year or so. I didn't think I would need to be very wary about my eyes back then since I just barely stepped into my twenties. Working in cosmetics really teaches you a lot about self-care, especially Korean cosmetics. I've started using eye creams only last year but I honestly haven't found one that I particularly love.

Almost the only English you will see on the box.

The product review today is the Innisfree Eco Science White C Double Eye Circle Cream, that is certainly a mouthful to say. I got this in a haul I posted about not too long ago here, along with the sleeping mask in the same line. While the rest of the White C line is available on the Innisfree website, this eye cream alone doesn't seem to be listed. The text of the box itself is 95% Korean which is why it took me a while to write this review.

Much Korean, many confusion.

This eye cream's alluring point is that it contains a day and night cream. The [day] cream "corrects dull eyes to be bright and protects eyes against UV rays during day time" with SPF35 PA++, meanwhile the [night] cream "improves dull eye circle and takes care of fine wrinkles". According to the descriptions for the product, it contains Jeju organic tangerine and green tea which in turn gives double the whitening effect.

As many Innisfree products, this one has has a 5 Free System (Paraben free, animal ingredient free, mineral oil free, artificial fragrance free, and imidazolidinyl urea free). But, speaking of ingredients, there doesn't seem to be a full ingredients list on the box. I tried to use the translator on every side of the box but it only gives me a few ingredients.

Ingredients as indicated on the box:
Day Cream: Ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, titanium dioxide, bemotrizinol**, arbutin, polyacrylate-13, phenoxyethanol, ascorbyl glucoside.
Night Cream: Arbutin, polyacrylate-13, phenoxyethanol, adenosine, ascorbyl glucoside
**비스에헥실옥시체놀메톡시페닐트리아진 bis-ethylhexyloxyphenol methoxyphenyl triazine
(This ingredient gave me hell to translate.)

I looked around some more to see if there was a full list of ingredients somewhere, there usually is after all. You can find more information on CosDNA; click here for [day] and click here for [night]. I am not sure, however, how accurate this is but CosDNA is pretty trustworthy for the most part. More trustworthy than Google Translate, surely.

As of now, I've completely finished the [night] side of this eye cream. The reason is very simple, it's simply because I don't go out everyday. With the [day] cream having SPF, I find it unnecessary to apply unless leaving the house so I use the night cream probably twice as much. In the month that I've used it, I saw a slight reduction in my dark circles. The difference is very small but still noticeable. I suppose if I used it even more that it would slowly, but surely, fade the dark circles even more but with only 10ml for each side, you'll most likely have to repurchase a few times. In terms of the day cream, I mainly use that one like sunscreen for my eye area. It definitely does a bit of brightening from the shimmery white cast that it has. Neither side has done much or anything at all for wrinkles, honestly.

Dual pump, tubes are opaque so you can't see remaining product.

This product comes in a pump container which is always welcomed for it being more hygienic. I had a small problem with the pump though because it seems to pump a bit too much sometimes and it is a little harder to control the amount that comes out. For me, I had to fiddle with how much to push down to get the right amount and usually half a pump is just about enough. The pump is also not very comfortable to use and the spout is slightly problematic, personally. I think I just have a personal grudge against the design of this pump because objectively it isn't that big of a problem.

That was half a pump of [day] and the last bit of [night]. You can see the shimmer in [day].

Here's the part that explains why I have a small problem with the amount that pumps out with each pump. The consistency of both these creams are very light, almost watery when applying to the skin. This kind of consistency is really good for an eye cream because you don't want something too thick and heavy in the eye area. However, this consistency makes it difficult to know how much product you actually need when you first start using it. One full pump of product gives you more than enough for both eyes, and if you're using the day cream, it gives you a heavier white cast/shimmer. This will probably vary among person to person, but I would suggest trying half pump before going for the full pump just in case.

Both the day and night cream have a tangerine peel smell, it's a slightly herbal scent. It's hard to explain what it smells like but it's similar to a bitter citrus scent. It isn't as bad as the dried peels that you might have come across in a chinese restaurant or supermarket, but it has a very good semblance to it. The smell fades super quick and isn't very noticeable unless you are purposefully trying to smell it.

Pros:
- Gently brightens and whitens dark circles
- Very lightweight texture
- Provides UV protection for sensitive eye area
- Hygienic pump
- Convenient 2-in-1 product (day & night)

Cons:
- The day cream is shimmery?
- Herbal smell might be weird?
- Small amount of product

Overall, it is a good product and I was pretty satisfied with the results. I'm not sure about repurchasing right now since I don't really think I've made good use of the day cream. I'm mainly an indoor person so I might not even have much use for the sun protection to justify a repurchase for a 2-in-1 product. I might actually switch over to the White Tone Up version instead later on since it has the same function.