Cosmetics à la Carte Hydra Lift Energising Eye Gel - review

Hi folks, this fortnight I'm very excited to tell all of you beautiful people about a wonderful, nay, genius creation; the Hydra Lift Energising Eye Gel from Cosmetics à la Carte, those of the bespoke makeup and skincare in London.  I love it. Magic stuff. The end.

Okay, this would be a short post if it really was "the end", so let me expound a little.

First off let me just say that I haven't really had a whole lot of luck with lotions and potions for my peepers before. I had tried an eye gel, but that made my eyes look puffy.  Then I moved to an eye cream, which made my eyes water. I have incredibly sensitive eyes!  I even tried one of those cooling caffeine eye roller thingiemebobs.  Nope, nada, no results whatsoever.  So I guess I just sort of gave up on them altogether... oops.  And what with taking care of a baby and a toddler all on my own Monday - Friday while my husband is away working, the windows to my soul have generally been looking more dishevelled and grimy than gleaming and sparkling.  And I have a beautiful soul, people, it deserves sparkly windows!

But you know, you get into your thirties and you just have to accept the fact that your eyes have their own matching luggage in fetching shades of pink and purple. Right?  Wrong!

This product claims to firm, de-puff and tackle dark circles. Yes, yes and yes.  The only, and I mean only let-down of this product is actually the first thing you notice, and that's the large volume that one pump of the bottle discharges. The directions on the bottle instruct you to apply sparingly but the pump doesn't co-operate with the instructions.  If you use the whole amount it sits quite heavy and damp under your eyes for a while afterwards.  I've tried experimenting with an attempt at a furtive half-pump but it doesn't work (it usually just shoots violently off across the room only to be discovered at a later date, clinging to the side of the sink for example. True story).

The gel itself is a cream/gel hybrid with a delightfully light texture.  It is a gorgeous golden champagne colour with glimmering, glistening, light-reflecting particles that give it a lovely pearlescent sheen.  Also fragrance-free, which is important for a product so close to your sinuses and tear duct area (in my opinion!)  On application, the fluid instantly feels cooling and refreshing and acts to brighten and awaken your eyes.  Puffy bags shrink and firm up due to the Vitamin B3 and botanicals which increase lymphatic drainage.  Dark circles lighten up and skin tone evens out with the shimmery optical light diffusers (and other sciencey stuff).  And the absolute beauty of all this is that it happens instantly.  Like I said, magic.

In the name of scientific research I committed myself to a night of drunken debauchery to truly test its superpowers.  Ahem.  Lo and behold, after applying with foggy vision and a shaky hand, I looked as fresh as a daisy the following morning.  Well, someone had to do it... I took one for the team :-)  I've been using it for over three weeks now and though I usually wake up in the morning looking as if I've endured a round or two in the ring, after a quick slick of this, hello bright eyes!  I look, and more importantly, feel more alive and ready to face the day.  

I'm so happy with the eye gel, I've never seen such a significant change with anything else I've used on my skin or my peepers!  I will absolutely re-purchase this, although pricey by my standards at £45 (yep, that's sterling) for 30ml, I've found that you do get what you pay for here. And with the delicate eye area it really is worth it to splash out on a product that actually works.  I'm all about the bargains but there are certain times when I just have to bite the bullet and hand over the cash - boy oh boy this is worth it.  Look here  for more details.

So that's enough of my blathering on for now, thanks for reading!  Until this day fortnight, same bat time, same bat channel :)

Xx Emer