Favorites: Eye Treatments from Dr. Perricone, Kate Somerville, and Le Métier de Beauté

You have asked me to describe my skin care - what I use and why. I thought I'd start today with eye care. Before I tell you what I've been using lately - and I do mean lately - I need to explain a blogger's routine.

I often switch products. A company will send me a product to use, and I normally test skin care for a full month before I will write about it. As a result, it's rare that I use a single product for a year or more. Right now, I am using three products around my eyes - products I have used a year or more - but I continue to test new things. One new-to-me product that impresses me (so far) is Laura Mercier Flawless Skin Repair Eye Serum. I love the glow it gives my under-eye area. It may make its way onto my more permanent list.

I usually wear a serum and a hydrator. I start with Perricone MD Acyl-Glutathione Eye Lid Serum ($115). I have been using it for over a year, and I love it. Claimed to be a first in skin-care technology, Acyl-Glutathione Eye Lid Serum topically replenishes the skin’s glutathione levels around the eye to dramatically reduce the visible signs of aging in the upper eyelid area and deliver a youthful, more awakened appearance. Additional benefits include dramatic tightness and firmness of droopy eyelids, smoothing of fine lines and wrinkles, and minimized redness and dark circles anywhere around the eye. The light, fast-absorbing texture of Acyl-Glutathione Eye Lid Serum also enhances make-up application by acting as a primer to help makeup glide on more smoothly and improve its wear throughout the day.

A patent-pending molecule, acyl-glutathione replenishes the glutathione levels in the skin. Glutathione is the chief, master antioxidant that rapidly depletes with age, stress, the environment, and less-than-optimal health. Its replenishment is critical to help the skin defend itself against accelerated aging. Glutathione deficits show up on the skin as fatigue, dullness, severe loss of elasticity, deep wrinkles, extreme loss of hydration, and visible change in skin texture.

Had I participated in the Perricone's test group, I would have been among those who saw dramatic results. I use Acyl-Glutathione Eye Lid Serum day and night. My concern was crepiness in the inside lid above the crease, closest to my nose. It happens to everyone with age, but I hate it. This serum clearly and significantly reduced that crepiness.

Dr. Perricone recommends applying the serum directly to the eyelid, working up to the brow bone in gentle patting motions. Also apply it to crow's feet and lower contours of the eye area. It takes only a few moments to absorb and then you can follow it with an eye cream if you wish (I do). There is no fragrance, and it is so lightweight, I cannot feel it on my skin. Additionally, a very tiny amount is adequate for coverage around both eyes; a light-handed pump is all you need. In short, it works!

I have been topping the serum with one of two eye creams/hydrators. One is Le Métier de Beauté's Revive Eye Concentrate ($175), which I adore. Revive Eye Concentrate with Syntoc Actif + HydrationPlus Complexe (to use its extended name) is an innovative eye treatment featuring a hydrating protein-peptide complex that penetrates the dermis to reduce puffiness and improve lymphatic circulation and elasticity. It's designed to repair and plump the delicate skin around the eyes. Using Le Métier de Beauté's exclusive Syntoc Actif delivery system, which delivers the active ingredients directly to the dermis where they are needed, it offers these key ingredients.

• Hesperidin methyl chalcone decreases capillary permeability to reduce edema (water retention that causes puffiness and even worse, slackening skin).
• A state-of-the-art dipeptide improves lymphatic circulation and further reduces edema.
• Palmitoyl tetrapeptide, a regenerating peptide that has been shown to improve elasticity and strengthen the skin around the eyes. It can slow or inhibit glycation and inflammatory damage too.

In the past couple of years, I have found eye creams with peptides to be enormously effective, and I'm a proponent of anti-glycation products. The experience of using Revive Eye Concentrate is extremely pleasing. I really like the pump container, although I'll admit I had to learn to use a light hand. The first few times I pumped, I got too much product. I used the excess around my mouth because I didn't want to waste it. I've got the touch perfected now. The only thing I might request to improve the container is the addition of a window. I'd like to know how much I'm using and when I'm approaching the day I need to buy a new one. One day I'll pump and get a spurt, and it's only then that I know I need to buy more.

The light pink, creamy serum smells like rose hip oil. It's a very light, pleasant fragrance that I smell on application, but not long after. I use it over and under my eyes. The concentrate absorbs rapidly, leaving the feeling and look of moisture on my skin without any greasiness that can interfere with makeup or trap water overnight. I have found that it's perfect for use on its own; I don't need any additional cream around my eyes. I am also enamored with the fact that my concealer or other products do not pill over it.

Even better, it works - really well. Since I started using it, I've noticed two major changes. The crepiness on the inner side of my eyes over the crease has been reduced significantly, making my eyes look younger and better, and the fine lines under my eyes have been blurred. I can crinkle my face (or smile) and force them to reappear, but they have definitely diminished. I've also experienced no puffiness in the morning - even after one nine-hour night sleeping on my side.

Early in my use of this product, I found the effects to be somewhat miraculous, so I tested it. I used a hydrating cream without peptides on one day and nothing on the next, a hide-out weekend day. I certainly noticed a difference. My areas of concern were back. That little test told me two things: 1) I need to use Revive Eye Concentrate every day, twice a day, as directed, and 2) a month's duration may not have produced lasting effects at the cellular level. That stands to reason, given a skin cell's life cycle. I've been using this product for two years. I would recommend Le Métier de Beauté Revive Eye Concentrate to everyone.

Another eye cream I love is Kate Somerville's KateCeuticals Multi-active Repair Lifting & Lineless Cream ($195), shown at the top of this feature. Rich and powerful, KateCeuticals Multi-Active Repair Lifting & Lineless Cream delivers unmistakable anti-aging results. This potent formula uses a proprietary blend of collagen-building peptides (there's that word again) to effectively tighten and lift the look of sagging skin, dramatically reducing the appearance of lines and wrinkles with instant relief of dryness and long-term moisturization. Designed to renew and rejuvenate, this powerful formula creates a lifted look and bright, youthful glow. The following description from Kate Somerville describes the cream's merits.

• A proprietary blend of peptides stimulates collagen production, helps prevent the breakdown of elastin, increases skin’s moisture levels, and dramatically reduces the appearance of lines and wrinkle.
• Commiphora Mukul resin extract (from an Indian tree well-known in Ayurvedic medicine) produces a volumizing effect to plump the skin from within.
• Blackberry leaf extract inhibits the breakdown of collagen.
• Natural sugar beet root extract promotes collagen production and long-lasting hydration.
• A unique brightening complex, featuring natural herbal extracts, improves luminosity and evens out skin texture and tone.
• A special blend of soybean lipid extracts repairs the skin’s lipid barrier for long-term hydration.

Why do I love it? For the same reasons I love . It works. Not only that, I like the container, which dispenses just enough and not too much cream for one application. Press on the top and out pops a "dose." My makeup never rolls off in sheets when applied over it. You wouldn't believe how many eye creams can't handle normal color products like concealer or foundation.

I must mention another product that have pleased me enormously when I tested it: HydroPeptide Eye Anti-Wrinkle Dark Circle Concentrate ($60). I am currently testing a new product that's already showing me great results: RéVive Intensité Volumizing Eye Serum ($350).

There you go. Part 1 of my daily skin care. Bored yet?

Photos courtesy of Kate Somerville, Perricone MD, and Le Métier de Beauté's Revive Eye Concentrate