Liz Earle Eyebright

Liz Earle's Eyebright Soothing Eye Lotion.

The Claims

"Wake up and revitalise eyes with cotton wool pads soaked in this gentle, soothing herbal lotion. Naturally active ingredients include eyebright, witch hazel, aloe vera and cornflower to help tone, cool and refresh tired, puffy eyes."

The Ingredients

(I am no longer linking each ingredient to its page, colour coding will remain, links are at the top of the page)

Aqua, Hamamelis Virginiana Water, PEG-60 Almond Glycerides, Glycerin, Decyl Glucoside, Centaurea Cyanus Flower Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Euphrasia Officinalis Extract, Phenoxyethanol, Panthenol, Benzoic Acid, Dehydroacetic Acid, Ethylhexylglycerin, Citric Acid, Sodium Benzoate, Potassium Sorbate.

The Immediate Concerns

You ever look through the ingredients list of your favourite company with your fingers crossed hoping against hope there'll be no nasties in it? I was doing that with this as Liz Earle make my favourite cleanser, which is why I'm gutted to see three fairly bad red ingredients in this product, thankfully they're all low down on the list, but I'd rather not see them at all. 

This is why;

Phenoxyethanol - can cause shut down of the central nervous system, vomiting and contact dermatitis. Harmful if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin and can cause reproductive damage. 

Sodium Benzoate - is readily absorbed by the skin and so its presence in an anti-aging cream may, ironically, actually age you faster by attacking cells' mitochondria, damaging their ability to prevent oxygen leaks that create free radicals. Also if you mix sodium benzoate with vitamin C, benzene can form, and benzene is carcinogenic.

Potassium Sorbate - is a mild skin and eye irritant, not what you'd expect in an eye lotion.

Thankfully the ingredients higher up the list are all happy little green numbers, which are actually good for you in some way or other, I just wish those three red nasties weren't there even in the low doses they are in.

How Did It Fair?

I've been using it a while now, mostly in the mornings to freshen up my eyes before I start to get ready for the day, considering it does contain a few nasties my eyes have not reacted* to it thankfully.

*(I'll explain further, the outer corners of my eyes are incredibly sensitive to all sorts of things, I've spent far too much time with red raw edges to my eyes because of reacting to one thing or another, I can't even wear eyeshadow for the simple reason my eyes don't like it.)

It has neither caused my eyes to sting nor the skin around my eyes to flare up, it feels cool and refreshing when applied with a cotton pad and does the trick of waking my eyes up in a morning.

My Conclusion

There's certainly much worse products out there than this, I'd suggest if you have extra sensitive skin and really want to use it do a patch test first.

I'm going to finish the bottle at the very least, will I re-buy it? I don't know at the moment, although I'm having no visible effects who knows what the invisible effects are from using such ingredients round your eyes will be.

Next time on the blog

Tony Moly I'm Real Aloe Mask Sheet