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For most of my thirties, my skincare routine stopped at the jawline. Cleanser, serum, moisturiser, done. The eye area got whatever was left on my fingertips, if it got anything at all.
It was not until I hit forty that I started paying proper attention, and understood what dermatologists have known for years: this is the thinnest skin on the face, with the fewest oil glands and the most constant movement. It is often the first place ageing becomes visible, and the last place most of us think to treat properly. Here is the routine I have settled into, and why each step actually earns its place.
Why this area ages
before the rest of your face
The skin around the eyes has none of the natural cushioning that protects the rest of the face. Fewer oil glands mean it holds on to less moisture on its own. Less underlying fat and muscle support means it shows loss of firmness earlier. And it moves more than almost any other part of the body, tens of thousands of times a day between blinking, squinting and expression. Add in reflexive squinting from sun exposure, and it becomes clear why fine lines and dullness tend to show up here years before anywhere else.
None of this is a reason to panic. It is simply a reason to treat this area differently, and earlier, than the rest of your skincare routine.
Protect before
anything else
The single most evidence-backed step in any anti-ageing routine has nothing to do with eye cream. It is sunscreen. UV exposure is behind the majority of visible ageing, and the eye area, with its thin skin and constant sun exposure from squinting, is particularly vulnerable. No serum or cream will undo what an unprotected morning walk does.
- Gentle cleanse, or just a rinse if I did not wear makeup the night before
- An antioxidant serum, usually vitamin C, applied to the whole face
- Eye cream, tapped in gently with my ring finger, never rubbed
- Broad-spectrum SPF 30 or higher, reapplied if I am outdoors for long
Where the real
repair happens
Skin shifts into repair mode overnight, and this is when active ingredients do their most useful work. Retinol is the one that comes up again and again in dermatologist recommendations for fine lines and collagen support, and it is worth understanding how to use it near the eyes specifically, since this is where most people either overdo it or avoid it altogether.
- Cleanse thoroughly to remove the day, including sunscreen
- Retinol or a gentler retinoid, two to three times a week to start, building up as my skin allows
- A small amount placed on the orbital bone, the bony ridge around the eye, rather than directly on the lid — it migrates upward on its own overnight
- A richer moisturiser to seal everything in, ideally one with ceramides or hyaluronic acid
A retinol-formulated eye cream is a gentler way in than diluting your facial product. The goal is consistency, not intensity.
This is the one I keep coming back to. It is formulated specifically for the eye area rather than diluted from a facial product, which matters given how thin the skin is here, and it has become one of those quiet staples I do not think twice about repurchasing.
It will not erase a decade overnight, but used consistently it is one of the few products where I have actually noticed a difference.
Hydration, from
the inside and out
Topical products can only do so much if the skin underneath is not hydrated to begin with, and the eye area shows dehydration faster than almost anywhere else on the face. A hyaluronic acid serum applied to slightly damp skin before moisturiser helps it hold on to more water throughout the day, but the bigger shift for me came from paying attention to hydration and collagen from the inside as well. I added a collagen supplement into my daily routine, and it is one of the few internal changes I have actually noticed in my skin's texture and bounce over time, the eye area included.
If you are curious what else is in my daily stack alongside the collagen, I go through all of it in the seven supplements I take every day. None of it replaces a good topical routine, but it works alongside it rather than against it.
For anyone weighing up whether to go beyond skincare altogether, I also wrote honestly about my first Sculptra and Daxify session after 35, including what it actually felt like and whether I would do it again.
The mistakes
that set me back
Here is what I got wrong before I got this right, in case it saves you the same detour.
- I used my facial moisturiser around my eyes for years — it is formulated for thicker skin and was doing very little for the area that needed the most help
- I rubbed instead of tapped, out of habit and impatience, for longer than I would like to admit
- I went all in on retinol too fast the first time I tried it, and ended up irritated and off it for months
- I treated eye cream as optional on tired mornings, which, ironically, were exactly the mornings it mattered most
I am not going to pretend I have found the one perfect product that erased a decade overnight. Nothing has. What I have found is a routine simple enough that I actually do it every day, which turns out to matter more than anything I put in the jar.
— Anjie, Style & Soul 35+