Review: Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye

Disclosure: PR sample


Estee Lauder's Advanced Night Repair serum is a bit of an anti-ageing skin classic.  Now it has a little sister - Advanced Night Repair Eye.  Housed in the same iconic brown glass packaging, this "serum-gel" product claims to reduce the appearance of pretty much every sign of ageing skin: dark circles, uneven tone, fine lines, wrinkles, puffiness, and dryness.

The texture of this product is lovely - serum-gel is very descriptive.  It's very silky, yet absolutely light.  While it doesn't linger atop the skin for long, it doesn't absorb immediately - you get to spend a little time smoothing and patting it into the skin.  Once absorbed, the skin feels well hydrated and smooth, but not coated - in the morning, concealer applies just as easily as over untreated skin; no irritating bobbling.

The packaging might be made of the same iconic brown glass as the original serum, but to my mind, it's not quite as easy to use.  The jar does come with a small applicator stick, but I lost mine pretty quickly, and soon resorted to sticking my fingers into the pot, which is always a little bit less hygienic.  Due to the narrow neck and wide bottom of the jar, once you're halfway through the pot, you're faced with having to stick your applicator or finger right down into the jar to scoop out product, and although this is easily remedied by storing it upside down, it does make the packaging slightly less effective in my mind.

So how does it perform in relation to reducing the appearance of dark circles, dryness, puffiness etc?

On the left, a photo of my eye from when I finished my last eye cream.  On the right, a photo of my eye after about a month of using Advanced Night Repair Eye.

My dark circles have deepened slightly, although that might well be to do with lack of sleep and lifestyle at the moment- but still, I'd definitely say that this product is less effective on dark circles than the Hylexin cream I trialled a while ago.  I think there's a definite difference in the level of puffiness between the two photos - on the left, my upper lid and the area immediately below the outer corner of my eye look quite puffy, with the skin looking much less puffy on the right.

I don't really have a lot of wrinkles (yet) to observe much of a difference there, but for me the biggest difference is in the level of hydration in the skin around my eye.  This isn't really something that can be seen in the photos, but my skin hasn't felt at all dry this winter, which is impressive.  It's been an exceptionally cold winter so far at that, and I've also had a week of very cold holidaying in New York, and I've felt absolutely no dryness or tightness.

At £35 for 15ml, it's certainly expensive, although I believe I'll easily stretch this little pot out for a good three months, making it less expensive over time.  I love the texture, the fact that it doesn't interfere with my concealer, and the smoothing, anti-puff effect it's had on my eyes.  For me, though, the dark circles are the deal breaker - they are the thing I hate the most about my eye contour area, and so unless a product is effective at reducing dark circles, I'm unlikely to keep buying it.  If your eyes suffer more from dehydration or puffiness, though, this could well work wonders for you.

If you'd like to try it for yourself, you'll find it at Boots, the usual department stores, and online at Estee Lauder's website, where a 15ml pot will cost you £35.

What do you think?  Have you tried this product?  Would you like to?