Product Review: Shiseido Benefiance Concentrated Anti-Wrinkle Eye Cream

For more pictures, please see my previous posting here.

Please visit Shiseido's website for more information about their products and product lines.

Since my disappointment with the Avalon Organics eye gel (read about it here), I have been wanting an eye cream to treat the very fine lines that have started appearing around my eyes.  My brother was such a sweetie that he got me this for my birthday.  I'm not supposed to know how much it costs, but I can tell you from rudimentary research done on Amazon.com, this can set you back anywhere between $40-$60 USD.

The .51 oz of product claims to protect skin from a harsh, dehydrating environment* and dramatically minimizes the appearance of wrinkles and lines to promote a youthfully smooth, radiant look.  Please note the following:

* Clinically tested under conditions of extremely low humidity (20%).

The skeptic in me naturally says, "But I live in Texas and humidity here averages 75%."  Luckily, I have my handy dandy smart phone and it tells me that the humidity in California (blessed Los Angeles) is 18%, but I digress.

The product comes in a very substantial gold glass jar that will fit nicely in your palm.  The lid is gold, as well.  It comes with a little (plastic) spatula - a surprise to me given how luxurious everything else is.  I'm not really fond of expensive products coming in jars like this because I don't think it's very sanitary to keep opening up the jar and dipping your fingers or the spatula into the product and risk contaminating the whole bunch.  I prefer if these types of products come in squeeze tubes, but we can't get everything that we ask for, right?  I've done the best I could under the circumstance and have transferred a small portion of the eye cream to a sample jar I got from La Mer.

The product is a very thick cream with a nice, lightly perfumed scent.  A little goes a long way.  I don't even used a 1/4 of a pea size.  I basically dip the tip of my ring finger in once, rub it with my other ring finger and apply to my eye lids and under my eyes.  Because the product is so thick, it doesn't absorb very easily and I feel that most of the product sits on top of my skin.  For that reason alone, I use it only at night.  When I wake up in the mornings, my face is so greasy that I have to blot my face before washing.  *grimaces*  Since using the Concentrated Anti-Wrinkle Eye Cream, I've noticed a profuse amount of grease on my eyelids and under my eyes in the morning.  It's not a big deal because I wash my face in the mornings.

So now, the question is, does this product do what it claims?

The answer, in my experience, is YES.  When I look at the skin under my eyes in the morning, the fine lines have been filled in and are not as deep as when I don't use the product.  I at first thought that my lines would come back during the day because I can't use such a rich product during the day, or that the skin around my eyes would feel dry and tight without the product, but that is not the case.  The skin under my eyes still look nice and soft, and I don't feel that uncomfortable tightness from lack of moisture that I used to get with Avalon Organics or with no product.  I must assume that the benefits of the product have penetrated my skin to provide that boost of moisture even without a morning application.

Would I purchase this again?

I suppose that if there was nothing else on the market, I would purchase this product.  I like what it does and it really feels so luxurious.  I just wish it came in a squeeze tube.