Sunday Riley Start Over Active Eye Cream: Review

Sunday Riley has been doing a whole bunch of revamping the last year or so. They changed the packaging on several products, even reformulated some like Bionic. Some are now discontinued such as Skin Adrenaline. Start Over Eye Cream has gotten repackaged and slightly renamed(they added gel to the name). The formula looks the same on this one. It used to come in a 1 oz glass bottle with pump, now it's in a 0.68 oz plastic squeeze tube with a metal silver tip for a cooling effect.

Per Nordstrom: Start Over Active Eye Gel Cream is a hydrating, de-puffing eye formula with a gel-cream texture. Its innovative rolling metal dispenser emphasizes the effects of cooling ingredients of the formula, such as a vitamin C ester, marine algae and bio-fermented aloe. Vitamin C ester and theophyllisilane C work as antioxidants to protect the eye area from environmental damage and signs of aging. The cream instantly tightens and cools the eye area for an immediate pick-me-up and noticeably younger, revived, more rested eyes. Licorice, glucosamine and yeast extract fight dark circles and lines while working to increase skin firmness.

The texture is a heavier gel cream. It's a hydrating gel cream. Not on the same level as a heavier regular eye cream, but more than a light gel cream or heavy serum. It has no strong scent that I remember. It's definitely cooling and refreshing. Th lighter hydration means your makeup won't run off in the morning from it. However, it wasn't quite enough for me for night use. This did make my dark circles feel a touch lighter. After years of testing a zillion products for dark circles I've learned that honestly nothing makes them go away entirely, no matter how expensive they are. So I've learned to be realistic in my expectations. It did diminish my fine lines-though they didn't disappear entirely. It does reduce puffiness and tighten the area.

Unless they changed the packaging and pricing back to the bottle with pump I probably wouldn't be buying it again. I tried a mini version of the roller tube and it was OK, it did have a cooling effect from the metal tip. The main reason is that the old bottle was a 1 oz bottle for $85 and the new 0.68 oz tube is $75. So it's a worse deal. I haven't been liking Sunday Riley's new packaging or reformulations. What was good solid products with good packaging has turned into OK products with cheap packaging. Bionic's reformulation was a bust for me. The two new creams recently released come in plastic tubs exposing all the ingredients to air versus the glass bottles they usually used. Now, the new products are cheaper and I normally would be all over that, but they would have to be in plastic squeeze tubes to protect the ingredients for me to be on board with that idea. The two new creams Tidal is also heavily scented with a strong powdery perfume scent and CEO with another strong scent. Very much a turn off for me. Shame, Sunday Riley has great ideas and ingredients. Not sure why the big change for them.

Ingredients:

NV-5 Ageless Complex (Opuntia Tuna Fruit (Prickly Pear) Extract, Agave Tequilana Leaf (Blue Agave) Extract, Cypripedium Pubescens (Lady’s Slipper Orchid) Extract, Opuntia Tuna Fruit, Opuntia Vulgaris (Cactus) Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract & Saccharmyces Cerevisiae (Yeast) Extract), Squalene and Olea Europea (Olive) Fruit Extract, Rosa Rubiginosa (Rosehip) Seed Oil, Punica Granataum (Pomegranate) Seed Oil, Methysilanol Carboxymethyl Theophylline, Butylene Glycol, PEG-75 Meadowsol, Ammonium Polyacrylate, Isohexadecane, PEG-40 Castor Oil, Hydroxyethyl, Acrylate/Sodium Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolymer, Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate (Vitamin C Ester) Glucosamine HCL & Algae Extract & Yeast Extract & Urea, Algae Extract, Artemisia Vulgaris (Mugwort) Extract, Glabridine (Licorice) Extract, Lecithin, Cholesterol Oleyl Carbonate & Cholesteryl Nanoate & Cholesteryl Chloride, Punica Granatum (Pomegranate) Seed Oil & Astaxanthin & Lycopene & Alpha D-Tocopherol, Methyl Paraben, Propyl Paraben, DMDM Hydantoin