There’s something magical about trying out a new skin care product that surprisingly ticks all the boxes for your needs and even exceeds expectations. This “aha!” moment is a rarity that elevates a product in your toiletry bag or medicine cabinet from I’ll-give-this-a-whirl status to a must-have, mainstay level of necessity in your beauty routine. While you might have some “hero” skin care products on this proverbial (or literal) top shelf — be it the perfect gentle facial cleanser, a powerful rejuvenating facial serum, or the most luxurious night cream — there’s always at least one champion of a particular skin care product category that’s still waiting to be discovered. For this writer, it’s an eye cream — and I might have found a winner with Macrene Actives High-Performance Eye Cream.

The eyelid skin — the thinnest and easily the most irritation-prone area of skin on your face — becomes an increasing concern as we age. While some dermatologists have deemed eye creams unnecessary (aka Team “Just Use Your Facial Moisturizer”), many skin care fanatics, like myself, would rather not take any chances and invest in this area-specific treatment that can hydrate, revitalize and brighten under-eye skin to combat dullness and damage caused by free radicals and gravity. I accept the idea that there’s no such thing as a miracle in a jar, but that doesn’t mean I can’t find the right scientific formula to target eyelid elasticity that justifies and amplifies my efforts to live a balanced life of consistent beauty sleep and the ideal amount of water consumption. This new Macrene Actives High-Performance Eye Cream aims to provide that much-needed assistance I’ve been searching for, and after hearing some of my beauty industry friends rave about Macrene Actives, I knew I needed to test it out for myself.

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Product tested: Macrene Actives High-Performance Eye Cream

Testing time period: Five days and counting.

Application method: I used my ring finger to gently pat a small amount of product across the under-eye area twice daily.

Ingredients: Peptides, hyaluronic acids, and 38 plant actives

Where to buy: Available now at macreneactives.com; available at major retailers later this month.

Pros: Lightweight, hydrating, firming, clean ingredients, eco-friendly packaging

Testing review: A small amount goes a long way for immediate hydration and firmness in this formula made from ethically sourced, clean ingredients.

Renowned dermatologist-scientist Macrene Alexiades MD, Ph.D., FAAD boosts three Harvard degrees;  has been featured in publications such as Town & Country, Vogue, and The New York Times, and regularly contributes her ongoing research to leading scientific journals. Dr. Macrene’s resume is impressive, but if that’s not enough to pique your interest in her Macrene Actives High-Performance Eye Cream, her unwavering commitment to creating formulas that aim to replace the need for cosmetic and surgical procedures should grab your attention.

“My formula instructs the eyelid skin to protect, repair, and rebuild itself and provides the raw materials and tools it needs to do it,” says Dr. Macrene. “There is no reason why the aging process around the eye area cannot be addressed and reversed through active ingredients as opposed to cosmetic procedures.”

The Macrene Actives High-Performance Eye Cream has been in the works for 12 years, with the two in the formula completion, lab testing, and production phase. Today, it’s finally available to purchase on macreneactives.com and will soon be available at major retailers.

The clean eye cream formula aims to do it all: depuff the under-eye area, diminish dark circles, and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, all while hydrating and firming the eyelid skin. It sounds almost too good to be true, I know. But the new eye cream is packed with potent natural actives, many extracted from organic plants from Dr. Macrene’s farm in Rhinebeck, New York. The long list of ingredients includes peptides and hyaluronic acids to fight off wrinkles and improve the elasticity of the skin, natural caffeine to reduce under-eye swelling, bisabolol, and organic rosemary to reduce redness and blue discoloration, gluconolactone and alanine for brightening, and sunflower oil and glycerin to maintain even eyelid skin hydration. Macrene Actives products, including this eye cream, are formulated by in-house chemists in her laboratory and undergo rigorous third-party testing. The results: an eye cream that claims to provide both instant results and long-term improvement.

My possession of Macrene Actives High-Performance Eye Cream couldn’t have come at a better time; I have been stressed beyond the norm, missing hours of much-needed sleep, and after recovery from a recent illness during the change in seasons, my skin has completely freaked out. While I work on getting my complexion back on track, I could really use an eye cream that at least makes my eyes look rested.

The texture of the eye cream is silky and surprisingly lightweight, but the lightweight feel doesn’t make this eye cream any less effective. I’m unsure if I was too exhausted to see clearly, but I believe I noticed immediate results. My skin quickly absorbed the formula and appeared more plump, firm, and evenly pigmented than it did 20 minutes prior. The first time I tried it was in the evening, and I was concerned the benefits would wear off by morning. As if I had just applied the eye cream within the hour, the under-eye area of my skin was still hydrated and firm in the morning. I quickly texted Kaitlin Clark, a beauty editor and mega fan of Macrene Actives products.

“I’ve been using Macrene Actives moisturizer for many years, so I knew I needed to try this new eye cream ASAP — and it didn’t disappoint,” says Clark. “Thanks to its milky, smooth texture, it spreads super easily across the delicate under-eye area. My skin is sensitive, so active eye creams usually irritate my eye area, but this produces no redness, just pure hydration.”

Clark also points out that the hydrating eye cream made it easier for her to apply under-eye concealer with an effortless glide, no caking or flaking, which can be a true test to see how well the eye cream firms and hydrates the skin.

While temperatures drastically change in New York City and humidity drops over four days into October, Macrene Actives High-Performance Eye Cream continued to protect and hydrate my under-eye area from day to night with a twice-daily application, providing a well-rested look.

It’s too soon to speak to any long-term benefits of this tiny-yet-mighty ethically-sourced, sustainably-made beauty product, but as for now, Macrene Actives High-Performance Eye Cream has solid spot in my daily skin care routine — and on the top shelf of my medicine cabinet.

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