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| Chanel Ultra Correction Line Repair Eye Cream |
This is just a quick shout out to the Chanel Ultra Correction Line Repair Eye Cream. As most people who have been following this blog will know, I am loyal enough to one particular brand, while occasionally I dabble with other brands (for the sake of investigation and reviews!), I don't stray too far from the former.
When I got a few samples of the Chanel eye cream to try out with some recent purchases, I was non-plussed. I love Chanel makeup however, and a friend of mine swears by Chanel skincare products, so I thought I'd give it a go. I was pleasantly surprised.
I'm going to digress a little to explain the eye care products I've used in the past... feel free to skip over and head straight to "The Skinny..." below!
In my experience, I've used a bunch of eye creams or gels in the past. During my early 20's, I used The Body Shop Elderflower Eye Gel. At that point, I knew little about skin care, and just liked the feel of it. Fast forward a few years and I moved into my Clarins products phase, after I used (and abused) my skin for a few years with Clinique skin "care" products (the high alcohol content of their products did little else other than exacerbate, perhaps even create, rosacea in my cheeks, and give me overly-sensitised skin that I spent years trying to work with). From there I moved to Clarins products (this one in particular I loved) on the recommendation of a friend who worked part time for Clarins PR in London, and there I stayed for a couple of years, until I discovered Darphin products, and in particular this eye and lip cream-gel, which is absolutely gorgeous, and probably one of the best eye-care products for early-mid 20's that you can use.
After that, I discovered Crème de la Mer, and have been hooked since. The CDLM eye cream is absolutely the best around, ever, bar none, in my opinion. Since I started using it, I have completely halted any lines or wrinkes. It's lightweight, it's cooling, it helps with puffy eyes, it helps (a little) with dark circles. It's also expensive, but it does last the bones of a year. All-round, this is what I measure other eye creams against.
I have dabbled with Lancôme and Estée Lauder eye creams and serums in the last year out of interest, and didn't stay too long using them - I found that in no time at all, I had fine lines under my eyes that were never there before. Cue a return to CDLM, and they disappeared again.
The Skinny...
Enter the Chanel offering. Bearing in mind that I'm comparing it to CDLM. Not the most expensive skin care range available on the planet, but sure as hell not the cheapest. And also, in my experience, the best I've ever used. So how did the Chanel eye cream compare?
According to Chanel, this is an "ultra-fine, fragrance-free emulsion" providing "anti-wrinkle action" and will "decrease puffiness and dark circles".
Well, first off, it's not as lightweight as the CDLM, it's a little creamier, but it still applies easily with no dragging (unlike some other eye creams which require warming up prior to use, this can be used directly from the tube to the skin). However, "ultra fine" it ain't.
It has no scent (which is just fine by me) so +1 on the "fragrance free" claim.
It moisturises nicely. It doesn't "cool" or "refresh" the skin in the way that the CDLM or the Darphin offering above do, but I can live with it. The latter two probably work a little better than the Chanel offering for de-puffing the skin, but it's not bad.
I most certainly have found (after slightly more than five weeks usage now) that I have no lines or wrinkes, which is a good acid test. So in this respect, it works as well as CDLM.
I have also found that it helps with dark circles, but there's no miracle cure for dark circles; this one is a question of diet, exercise, sleep, hydration, moisturisation, correcting and concealing...
The big plus? It's "almost as good" (very little in the difference) as my CDLM. And it's about half the price, still not cheap, but bloody great for half the price. Half the price. Did I mention half? I have a brand new pot of CDLM that I haven't even opened yet, but in about a year's time, I will most certainly be heading towards the Chanel counter for some of this instead...