Skinfood 스킨푸드 Black Raspberry Eye Cream Review

[ Disclaimer: This product was sent to me for review purposes. All opinions are my own and unbiased. Contains affiliate links ]

Recently, Q-Depot contacted me to review some products and they offered me several choices of products that I could choose from. One of these items was an eye cream by Skinfood and I had this product on my wish list for a long time now, so I was happy to accept this item to review for my readers. Q-Depot, for those who may not know, is an online Korean cosmetic store that has thousands of skincare and makeup products with famous brands, such as Banila, Etude House, Hera, Skinfood, The Face Shop, History of Woo, Tonymoly, Innisfree, Missha, IOPE and many more. Q-Depot has free international shipping with any orders $69.00 or more and you will get free samples with every order as well.

Skinfood (스킨푸드) is a very popular K-Beauty brand and they have a lot of wonderful products that I use and love ~ such as the Black Sugar line (cleansing oil, sugar scrub, serum). I had been looking into their Black Raspberry line, which sounded very Hanbang ~ traditional Asian herbal medicine ~ and I am always looking for a new eye cream, as the skin around my eyes is very delicate and probably shows my age the most, with laugh lines, thinning skin and a slight crepiness. One issue I have is that a lot of moisturizing eye creams will cause the skin to puff up, which is something I do not want. I just want to soften the lines and moisturize without causing puffiness.

This comes in an adorable glass rose-peach colored pot with a twist off lid. The lid is in warm yellow and pink tones, that is printed to look like homemade paper. It has the classic Skinfood logo in gold lettering and bright raspberries adoring the lid. For those who hate sticking their fingers in cream pots, you might want to get a spatula to scoop out the eye cream. I have no issues sticking my fingers into skincare pots!! haha

Description: This herbal medicinal anti-wrinkle eye cream contains black raspberry extract, and jayangboeumdan (滋養補陰丹) and cheongyeondan (淸連丹) extracted from 12 kinds of oriental medicinal herbs that have traditionally been used by women to treat rough, dry skin. It provides deep moisturization to skin in eye areas. Anti-wrinkle adenosine adds resilience to skin, keeping it healthy-looking.

So, I have no idea what jayangboeumdan and cheongyeondan mean. I asked on the reddit subforum AsianBeauty and it seems that the only information that crops up with these terms are from Skinfood themselves!! According to rose_rae, who was very helpful, these are distillations of herbal extracts and the claims are as follows: give elasticity to the skin, help blood circulation and help your skin recover from fatigue caused by a stressful, polluted unhealthy environment. This blog post here does not seem to believe there is any scientific research behind these claims and since I cannot find out what these terms mean, it does make it very difficult. If anyone knows what those terms mean, I would appreciate it in the comments below!

Press Release (translated) about the Black Raspberry Skincare line for men. It is very similar in wording to Black Raspberry line for women.

Ingredients of Note

So, based on the above press release, the key ingredients to focus on are bokbunja (black raspberry), mokdanpi (peony), sukjihwang (foxglove) , lotus as well as beta-glucan, anti-aging peptides and adenosine

Black Raspberry (rubus coreanus/bokbunja) extracts ~ This is a traditional Asian herbal medicine ingredient that is an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory ingredient, high in anthocyanins that contain 150 flavonoids. Anthocyanins help protect your connective tissue from being damaged by enzymes and they also repair damage. It helps fight free radicals, while soothing and conditioning your skin.

Beta-Glucan is a compound that is naturally derived from mushrooms, oats, yeast and grains. It helps stimulate the production of collagen, speeds up wound healing, soothes and calms skin due to its anti-irritant and strong anti-inflammatory properties, moisturizes, locks in natural moisture, anti-aging and anti-wrinkle due to its anti-oxidant properties and also helps repair your moisture barrier. Other moisturizing, hydrating emollients include glycerin, jojoba esters, coconut oil, sunflower seed oil, mango seed butter and rosehip oil

White Peony (paeonia lactiflora/Bai Shao Yao) is another important ingredient for TCM. Peony extracts are used to help prevent wrinkles when applied topically, as they might have anti-aging properties.

Peony (paeonia suffruiticosa/mokdanpi ) root extract ~ more peonies!! This particular ingredient is used as a skin brightener and softens and improves skin texture, as it is a conditioning agent as well.

Chinese Foxglove (rehmannia chinensis/sukjihwang ) root extracts are antibacterial, antiseptic and are reported to help heal any skin rashes or irritations.

Lotus (nelumbo nucifera) extract is an antioxidant and is a skin conditioner as well. It helps hydrate and moisturize and increases skin tone and elasticity. Due to the abundant amount of antioxidants in lotus extracts, it will also help reduce the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles and help fade hyper-pigmentation spots.

Adenosine is an amino acid and it became popular after it was found to help improve the reduction of wrinkles. Adenosine is safe to use day and night, unlike vitamin C and retinol.

Anti-Aging peptides ~ Palmitoyl oligopeptide, palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7 and palmitoyl pentapeptide-4 are all designed to help increase and stimulate collagen production while helping to stabilize skin cells help skin cells remain more stable. This allows the skin to heal itself and to rejuvenate and reduces the appearance of deep wrinkles.

This also contains a slew of herbal plant ingredients besides the ones mentioned and are used in TCM (traditional Chinese medicine): lilum candidum, nelumbium speciosum, bupleurum chinense (Chai Hu), coix lacryma-jobi ma-yuen (Job’s Tears) , lonicera japonica (honeysuckle) flower, plantago asiatica (Che Qian Zi), polygonatum officinale (Jade Bamboo Yu Zhu) rhizone/root and runus armeeniaca (apricot) extracts.

Skinfood Black Raspberry Eye Cream is a thick, moisturizing cream in a pale pink shade, even though it doesn’t really look pink on the skin. Since this is a hanbang cream, it does smell earthy and herbal ~ if you were expecting a fruity scent, you will be disappointed. However, due to its abundance of hanbang ingredients, I did expect it to smell more natural and warm. Not everyone will care for this scent, but I like it a lot ~ much better than putting floral scents on your face. The scent does disappear quickly.

I do think this has a smooth, yet rich texture and it is a thicker cream. Initially, I was thinking that I would only use it at night, but it does absorb quickly into my thinning skin around my eyes. I do not find it greasy or oily, but very moisturizing. It does soften the wrinkles around my eyes, smoothing the skin so it looks more youthful. However, this cream is just temporary for me as I do not feel it prevents wrinkles nor reduces them. This is not a miracle cream, but what it does do is provide ample moisturize and hydration around my eye area, softening the fine lines and wrinkles, reduces the crepiness right under my eyes and most important of all, does not cause the skin under my eyes to puff up with the additional moisture.

Ingredients: water, glycerin, butylene glycol, jojoba esters, PEG-90, biosaccaride gum-1, hydrogenated coconut oil, hydrogenated poly (c6-14 olefin), trehalose, beta-glucan, dimethicone, hydrogenated lecithin, heliantus annuus (sunflower) seed oil, cetyl alcohol, mangifera indica (mango) seed butter, cyclopentasiloxane, cetyl palmitate, rubus coreanus (black raspberry) fruit extract, caprylic/capric triglyceride, sorbitan olivate, sorbitan palmitate, cyclohexasiloxane, C12-16 alcohols, lilum candidum bulb extract, nelumbium speciosum flower extract, paeonia lactiflora bark/sap extract, paeonia suffruiticosa root extract, rehmannia chinensis (Chinese foxglove) root extract, palmitic acid, rosa canina (rosehip) fruit oil, sodium lauroyl glutamate, acrylates/C10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolyer, lecithin, triethanolamine, adenosine, carbomer, disodium EDTA, polysorbate 20, bupleurum chinense (Chai Hu) root extract, coix lacryma-jobi ma-yuen (Job’s Tears) seed extract, lonicera japonica (honeysuckle) flower extract, nelumbo nucifera (lotus) seed extract, plantago asiatica (Che Qian Zi) extract, polygonatum officinale (Jade Bamboo Yu Zhu) rhizone/root extract, runus armeeniaca (apricot) fruit extract, palmitoyl oligopeptide, palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7, palmitoyl pentapeptide-4, methylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben, red 33 (CI 17200), yellow 5 (CI 19140), fragrance cosDNA.com analysis

Final Thoughts

I have been using Skinfood Black Raspberry Eye Cream for over 2 weeks now ~ I actually started using it as a night-time eye cream about 3 1/2 weeks ago, but I have been using it twice daily in the morning and night time for over 2 weeks. I have to say that it really does keep my skin moisturized during these cold winter months and it isn’t that greasy so that my eye makeup does not slide around. I also really love the earthy scent, but that could be a turn-off to some. However, compared to some of the other eye creams I have recently reviewed ~ Wei East and Skinfood Royal Honey ~ this product is by far the best one so far. However, I am still on the lookout for “the” eye cream. It may be a never ending pursuit, but for now, I will continue to use this product until completed. I am about 1/2 thru this 25 gram eye cream and it looks like this one pot of eye cream will last me about two months. You can purchase Skinfood Black Raspberry Eye Cream at Q-Depot (click here) for $21.34 USD. If you register with Q-Depot, you will receive several coupons to use with a combined value of $25.00 USD, based on the purchase amount. You can always check what coupons and promos you have with Q-Depot by using the Coupons Page (you must log into your account).

Have you tried this product? What did you think of it? Do you have any Holy Grail eye creams? I would love to know what you use!