You’ve probably seen the adverts on television and in magazines for Estee Lauder’s new Idealist range, consisting of the Even Skintone Illuminator Serum and the Idealist Cooling Eye Illuminator.. These products are devised to brighten and even out your skintone regardless of what colour you are.
First up for review is the Cooling Eye Illuminator – I’ve seen a lot of Asian beauty gurus on YouTube recommending this already:
What do you want to know? Well, this tube has a ceramic tip applicator which is used to massage the product into your eyes. It is instantly cooling (it really is!) and refreshing. It reduces the appearance of dark circles, fine lines and puffiness. It comes in two shades, Light/Medium and Medium/Deep. Can one product really do it all? Hmm….
First off, let’s look at the ceramic tip. This is not completely unique in terms of shape, I do have other eye products from Asia that follow this type of applicator but they are NOT ceramic. This applicator is brilliant – it really is cold, all the time, it doesn’t suddenly get warm if you hold it against your skin for a while, and it’s a lot more hygienic than a metal roller ball.
I was sent the Medium/Deep shade to try – unfortunately it’s a tad dark for my liking, as you can see in the photo, it’s a soft coppery shade. Don’t get me wrong – you will see it still works beautifully but it’s not ‘ideal’ in that I think the ‘light/medium’ would lift my eye area more.
For reference I am about a NC35 in MAC foundation so if you are about there, I recommend you go for the lighter shade in this product:
So the cream has a pearl running through it, and it looks like a highlighter, but once it is on the skin, it is not garish in any shape or form.
Also the cream has a really nice, light texture which feels just lovely and sinks in quickly.
Because there is some pigment there, does that mean you can avoid under eye concealer? Well I think it totally depends – someone with little dark circles will find this brightens enough, someone with medium to darker circles may want to use their normal concealer on top. This is not supposed to be a concealer, mind you, but it does help make the whole area look radiant.
Excuse the messy hair – here I am applying it:
To use:
First squeeze tube to release a dot-sized amount – I dotted a few drops around my under eye. I then massaged the cool ceramic tip under the eye from the inner corner to the outer corner. You can swipe it upwards if you like! You can pat it until it is absorbed – I didn’t need to. Wipe the ceramic tip.
I am really happy with this product – I mean, the shade I got was too dark but I still think it made my eye area feel less puffy, cooler, brighter and hydrated. At the weekend I’d be happy to just use this to save myself time.
On my eye – bear in mind with shade light/medium it would be even brighter:
Verdict:
I really love this product! It’s relaxing and quick to use – at some point I will go and buy the lighter shade because I do think it’ll look even better than this one. It also works well as a eye cream in terms of hydrating and reducing dark circles. Any negatives? Well, it’s not cheap and perhaps ladies who want a hardcore anti-wrinkle eye cream will want to go for a product that specifically targets that rather than the dark circles.
This costs £40 for 15ml. You can buy it here.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
sounds anazing. wonder if it’s any help to heavy dark circles.
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I like the idea of massaging my eye bags with the cool ceramic tip…I guess you could still use the tip with other products after you finish the eye illuminator…it’s good to recycle and reuse lol
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