African Botanics has quickly become one of my favorite eco luxe brands. On a whim I grabbed their Resurrection Eye Cream. I am so glad that I did. Details per African Botanics:
Developed and produced in South Africa from natural botanicals, exotic oils, and active plant ingredients this anti-aging eye cream increases cell renewal and deeply hydrates to plump, tighten and smooth fine lines and wrinkles. It is formulated with Marula Oil, Baobab, Resurrection Plant, Green Rooibos Tea extract and Peptides to noticeably reduce the appearance of wrinkles, dark circles and puffiness.
Key Benefits
African Resurrection Plant extract – powerful antioxidant stimulates skin’s healthy collagen, elasticity and radiance. Marula Oil - softens the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles and revitalizes. Peptides - plump, tighten and smooth away the appearance of fine lines and deep creases. Baobab, Kalahari Melon seed oils, Arnica, Green Rooibos Tea extract, Shea Butter and Carrot Seed oil: regenerate, nourish, comfort, soothe and moisturize. Green Coffee Oil – tones and tightens, preserves skin elasticity and lipid balance.
This comes packaged in a glass jar. I know it's not everyone's favorite way to have a cream packaged. The cream has a thicker medium to heavier weight texture. It's not heavy or greasy at all. It is very hydrating. One of my favorite reasons I loved this cream was that it actually hydrated my eyes so well at night without being too heavy or greasy. If you have drier eyes like I do and a gel cream or serum doesn't cut it for you, this one is perfect for nights. It was a bit much for days hydration wise. It had a very faint scent, nothing bothersome. It just smelled of natural ingredients. The texture and hydration was perfect for my dry eyes at night.
Moving onto the ingredients. Resurrection plant extract is interesting. The Resurrection plant develops molecules to survive stress in times of drought. This allows the plant to come back after a desiccation state. The Haberlea extract form the plant is rich in caffeoyl phenylethanoid glycoside called myconoside which is what plays a role in how well it survives. The basic roles of the plant extract are an antioxidant & increasing production of elastin and collagen. It also helps increase skin elasticity and radiance. If you want to watch a really cool video of this plant coming back to live from a desiccated state after being given water go HERE. It will make you want to slather yourself in Resurrection plant extract. Luckily African Botanics can help you obtain this goal. In luxe style. Details from some research on the plant extract is below:
Peroxide-stressed normal human dermal fibroblasts treated with the Haberlea extract, showed increased collagen VI (+822%), collagen XVI (+928%) and elastin (+144%) mRNA synthesis, measured by RT-qPCR. This effect was superior to those obtained with benchmarks retinoic acid and retinol. When used at 3% in human skin biopsies, Haberlea extract protected against UV-induced dermis oxidation by 100% as evidenced by immunohistochemistry--Dell'Acqua G, Schweikert K. "Skin benefits of a myconoside-rich extract from resurrection plant Haberlea rhodopensis"
Green roobois tea extract is the unfermented version and much more powerful in it's antioxidant capabilities than the regular red fermented tea version. It's also anti-inflammatory & DNA protective. Coffee essential oil is also interesting. It's high in fatty acids, vitamin E and sterols making an antioxidant. Some studies have shown that coffee essential oil helps with elastin and collagen production, it's anti-inflammatory & helps with all the basic of anti-aging like firmness, texture and wrinkles. Add two more reason to love this eye cream now.
Of course there's Maurla oil which is a signature ingredient of African Botanics. Marula Oil contains high levels of antioxidants including vitamin C, vitamin E, tochotrienol, phenolic compounds, essential amino acids, flavonoids & is rich in omega 9 or oleic and omega 6 or linoleic. Gotta love wild flower honey. It's anti-inflammatory, antibacterial & an antioxidant. Acetyl TETRAPEPTIDE-9 is a collagen building peptide.
In this post I won't get into these others as I've talked about them sometime or another on the blog: arnica, baobab, carrot, hyssop & jojoba oil. Shea butter. Witch Hazel. Vitamin E. Vitamin C in the form of citric acid. This does contain a few essential oils like neroli, lavender & rose flower oil. Though the product doesn't smell like essential oils I couldn't even tell to be honest.
So the biggest question is did this eye cream work? Oh yes. Within two weeks my the skin under my eyes was firmer, hydrated, there was a reduction in fine lines (they were almost non-existent) & no creepiness at all as it magically vanished. The skin under my eyes felt so smooth, & tight. Not tight in a dry way. I was majorly impressed. It did depuff as the skin under my eyes was so smooth and firm. I would say the effects on dark circles was minimal for me, but alas every eye cream is this way for me. You can't fix inherited genes, lack of sleep induced dark circles with eye cream. I'm OK with that. This eye cream quickly became a night time favorite and I would 100% buy it again and recommend it. It earned a spot in my Hero Products very easily.
Sadly this version has been discontinued. It has been replaced by a new reformulated version in a new glass jar with pump. I do have the new one to test so I hope it's as good as this one. The original will be hard to beat. Stay tuned after I start testing that new version. I'll compare them in the end review. I have a couple new eye creams I'm going to work through first.