3 Mom-Approved Anti-Aging Eye Creams From $6

Although my mom celebrated her 43rd birthday a few weeks ago, she looks a decade younger and routinely gets asked if she’s my sister. While good genes are definitely a factor, I think she can credit some of those compliments to her excellent skin care routine.

Her main skin care concern is her eye area, which she’s constantly trying to smooth out and depuff. Since she’s tried plenty of eye creams in her day, I asked her to share her top three favorites that actually work; lucky for us, they’re all under $25 on Amazon.

Mom-Approved Eye Creams on Amazon

Good Molecules Yerba Mate Wake Up Eye Gel

Along with being one of my mom’s holy grail products, the Good Molecules Yerba Mate Wake Up Eye Gel deserves a shoutout for its $6 price tag alone. The formula is aimed at reducing puffiness, brightening dark circles, and smoothing fine lines. It contains hyaluronic acid to help the skin absorb water, and caffeine, which can alleviate puffiness. My mom confirmed it makes her eyes look “less tired,” while other fans have noted it makes theirs “visibly less puffy” and “minimizes crow’s feet.”

TruSkin Longevity Eye Cream

A similarly rejuvenating option, the TruSkin Longevity Eye Cream is another one of my mom’s go-to’s. The $25 cream contains bakuchiol, which is a natural alternative to retinol. “In skin care, [bakuchiol] acts similarly to retinol and has been shown to upregulate and stimulate collagen—it also works as an anti-inflammatory and an antioxidant,” board-certified dermatologist Dr. Dendy Engelman, MD previously told InStyle. It’s no wonder that a shopper who called the cream a “game changer for tired eyes” saw “reduced dark circles and puffiness” after a few weeks of use.

The Inkey List Caffeine Eye Cream Duo

My mom has been using the Inkey List Caffeine Eye Cream for years, but it wasn’t until recently that I learned how affordable it is; a two-pack is just $22. As the name suggests, the cream contains caffeine as one of its main ingredients. Dr. Natalie Aguilar, a celebrity aesthetician and dermatologic nurse, previously told Byrdie that caffeine has “vasoconstrictive properties, which can help reduce the appearance of puffiness by constricting blood vessels and reducing swelling.” In just a week of using the cream, one fan saw “an improvement in fine lines” and their dark circles started “fading away.”