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Welcome to Skincarma.

These are the musings of Carmine Montalto, NYC-based writer, skincare junkie and brand guru. The former copywriter at Kiehl’s, Carmine has more than 25 years of experience in beauty. Through the Skincarma Blog, he puts all of his product wisdom to work demystifying the ever-evolving world of skin care. 

You can change your skin’s destiny.™

PRODUCT REVIEW: FARMACY CHEER UP BRIGHTENING VITAMIN C EYE CREAM – THE BEST EYE CREAM WITH VITAMIN C

PRODUCT REVIEW: FARMACY CHEER UP BRIGHTENING VITAMIN C EYE CREAM – THE BEST EYE CREAM WITH VITAMIN C

FARMACY BEAUTY | CHEER UP BRIGHTENING VITAMIN C EYE CREAM

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This review was originally part of my blog article titled, A Few New Eye Creams I’m Really into Now With Farmacy, First Aid Beauty and More! You can still catch the full piece here.

As I declared in last week’s blog on my new sunscreen crushes for fall, I’ve had a secret crush on Farmacy for a while now. It’s kind of a hidden gem IMO.

One of my favorite winter treatments for dry skin is the Farmacy Honey Potion Renewing Antioxidant Hydration Mask. I’m a huge fan of that pot of gooey gold, and have probably gone through two or three jars of it over the last couple of years.

Farmacy locally sources and cultivates pure, natural ingredients for their range of clean skin care you can trust. I’m consistently wowed by the brand’s products — and Farmacy’s Green Defense Daily Mineral Sunscreen is among the best mineral sunscreens for face. Get you some!

Farmacy’s new Cheer Up Brightening Vitamin C Eye Cream is a solid brightening treatment and moisturizer for the eye area.

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It’s got a luxuriously creamy texture that’s a pleasure to use around the eyes. Like all of Farmacy’s formulas, it’s clean and devoid of toxins and other skin irritants like fragrance (ahem, La Mer!), fragrant plant oils and synthetic preservatives.

Farmacy describes their quirky little cherry-themed cream as “a super-hydrating, vitamin C-rich eye cream that brightens and helps reduce the appearance of fine lines and dark circles, delivering instant radiance.” I have no doubt it can achieve that in the eye area. But, of course, because it’s in a jar, it will likely only achieve that in the 4-week period after opening. So grab a spatula, dig in and use it up!

One of the most notable things about the Cheer Up INCI is the inclusion of four forms of Hyaluronic Acid — Sodium Hyaluronate, Hydrolyzed Sodium Hyaluronate, Sodium Acetylated Hyaluronate and Sodium Hyaluronate Crosspolymer. That’s quite the humectant one-two punch as each can act at varying depths in the skin to lock in hydration and prevent trans-epidermal water loss, more commonly known as TEWL.

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What is trans-epidermal water loss?

There’s an excellent article on the health website Skin Better titled, What Is Transepidermal Water Loss and Why Is it Important? available here. In the piece, the author defines TEWL as follows:

“The skin is comprised of three primary layers: the epidermis, the outermost layer; the dermis or middle layer; and the hypodermis, the undermost layer. When water passes from the dermis through the epidermis and evaporates from the skin’s surface, this is known as transepidermal water loss (International Journal of Pharmaceutics).

While TEWL is a process that your skin naturally regulates, certain factors that can damage the skin’s barrier function can also affect TEWL levels. Circumstances such as injury, low-humidity weather conditions and topically applied products that dry out the skin can impact TEWL.

To achieve this, combine humectant and occlusive skincare ingredients.

Transepidermal water loss can contribute to a variety of dry skin conditions, and although it is a natural process, there are ways that you can help your skin stay moisturized and hydrated. Hydration refers to the water content of the skin, whereas moisturization is the skin’s ability to retain those water molecules. Therefore, your skin needs both elements to maintain desirable levels of TEWL.

To achieve this, combine humectant and occlusive skincare ingredients. Humectants help to draw moisture to the epidermis, either from the air if it is humid enough, or from the underlying dermis in low-humidity conditions. Because water content that is drawn from the dermis can be lost through TEWL, it’s important to combine the use of humectants with occlusives. Together, these ingredients create a reservoir of moisture in the epidermis and act as a barrier on the skin to help prevent TEWL by sealing in that moisture. The occlusive agents simultaneously keep pollutants, toxins and harmful bacteria out (Skin Therapy Letter).”


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There’s also a good amount, perhaps a 5% concentration, of Vitamin C in the form of Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate — a relatively stable and non-acidic form of Vitamin C that’s an effective antioxidant for limiting environmental damage in the eye area.

As with all treatments in the eye area, high concentrations of actives can be irritating. I’ve seen no irritation with Farmacy’s Cheer Up Brightening Vitamin C Eye Cream.

It’s a good, clean eye cream — and one of the best antioxidant eye creams for brightening and protecting the eye area.

SHOP THE BLOG: Purchase the Farmacy Cheer Up Brightening Vitamin C Eye Cream for $45 here.



The Ingredient List of the Farmacy Cheer Up Brightening Vitamin C Eye Cream:


PRODUCT REVIEW: SOBEL SKIN RX OLIGO PEPTIDE EYE CREAM – THE BEST ANTI-AGING EYE CREAM WITH PEPTIDES

PRODUCT REVIEW: SOBEL SKIN RX OLIGO PEPTIDE EYE CREAM – THE BEST ANTI-AGING EYE CREAM WITH PEPTIDES

A FEW NEW EYE CREAMS I’M REALLY INTO NOW WITH FARMACY, FIRST AID BEAUTY AND MORE!

A FEW NEW EYE CREAMS I’M REALLY INTO NOW WITH FARMACY, FIRST AID BEAUTY AND MORE!