Eye cream goes after retinol in our routine. In the evening, smooth Collagen and Retinol Serum over a clean, dry face, away from the eye area. Rinse and dry your fingertips. Tap Active Eye Cream along the orbital bone (the bony rim around your eye), then moisturize the rest of your face. The order is ours, built from the serum's directions (a dry face after cleansing, no product near the eyes).
We make every product linked in this guide, and we don't publish the retinol percentage in Collagen and Retinol Serum.
Eye cream before or after retinol, step by step
- Cleanse. Massage Hydrating Facial Cleanser into damp skin, keeping it out of the eye area. Rinse with lukewarm water and pat your face completely dry.
- Retinol (serum evenings only). Smooth Collagen and Retinol Serum over your face, away from the eye area and the creases beside the nose.
- Clean fingertips. Rinse and dry them. Otherwise you're tapping retinol around your eyes along with the eye cream.
- Eye cream. Tap Active Eye Cream gently along the orbital bone with your ring finger, from the inner corner outward. Don't drag it, and keep it off the lash line.
- Moisturizer. Smooth it over the rest of your face, stopping short of the eye area. Hyaluronic Moisturizer is a rich cream with a fragrant oil; Oil-Free Daily Moisturizer is a light, oil-free fluid. If fragrance bothers your skin, use a fragrance-free moisturizer you already tolerate on serum evenings.
Our rule of thumb is a pea-size amount of serum for your whole face and a rice-grain dab of eye cream for each eye. These products' directions don't give waiting times between steps, so we'd move through them without a timer.
When serum evenings leave your face feeling dry, read our take on the retinol sandwich method before you put moisturizer under the serum.
Which evenings to use the serum
Start the serum on two evenings a week. We suggest Monday and Thursday. On the other five evenings, skip steps 2 and 3 and keep the rest, eye cream included.
We count stinging, tightness or flaking as overworked skin. Pause the serum at the first sign of any of them, and go back to two evenings once your skin has felt comfortable, with none of that, for a full week. After two comfortable weeks in a row, we'd add a third evening, say Saturday, and keep building gradually from there.
Pregnant, trying to conceive or breastfeeding? Ask your doctor before starting retinol, or a retinyl ester such as retinyl palmitate.
We'd leave exfoliating acids and scrubs out while you're on the serum. The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) cautions that exfoliating while using retinol products may worsen dry skin or even cause acne breakouts.
If you keep an alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) in your week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advises sunscreen, protective clothing and limited sun exposure while using it and for a week afterward, and our guide to acids and retinol has a separate-evening plan.
Why the serum goes first
The serum's directions are the specific ones: a dry face after cleansing, and nowhere near the eye area. Active Eye Cream's directions cover how to tap it on, morning and evening, but not where it falls in a routine. So the serum gets the first slot, and moisturizer still seals it at the end. The eye cream, in between, sits on skin the serum never touches.
You can put the eye cream first if you prefer, as long as the serum still stays off the eye area. Just don't count on it as a buffer against retinol. We have no study showing it works as one.
Using another brand's retinol? Its label comes first. If it says nothing about order, use ours and keep it off the eye area.
What's in Active Eye Cream
Active Eye Cream contains no retinol and no retinyl ester (a retinol derivative). It's the one product in this routine that goes around your eyes, so on serum evenings it adds no retinol there, and it stays on its morning-and-evening schedule every day.
It also contains sodium hyaluronate (a form of hyaluronic acid) and shares Firm Serum's peptide pair, listed under older names (palmitoyl oligopeptide and palmitoyl tetrapeptide-3). Firm Serum itself goes from the neck up to the cheekbones, so it stays off the eye area. A 2020 review by Ferreira and colleagues notes that the two peptides are frequently used together in the ingredient Matrixyl 3000, and says most available clinical studies on the peptides it covers were run by ingredient suppliers to generate claims and aren't usually published in peer-reviewed journals. More on that in peptides and retinol together.
In the morning
The serum sits out mornings. After cleansing, Active Eye Cream goes on the same way as at night, then moisturizer on the rest of your face. Sunscreen goes last, every morning while you're using the serum. Neither moisturizer here makes an SPF claim, and we don't sell sunscreen, so that last step is yours to pick.
Look for broad-spectrum protection rated SPF 30 or higher in a water-resistant formula, and reapply about every two hours, or after swimming or sweating. That's the AAD's sunscreen advice, and for people using retinol it also recommends shade and clothing during the day.
Near your eyes, your sunscreen follows its own label; just keep it out of the eyes themselves.
When something stings
If any product gets into your eyes, rinse them with plenty of clean water. Call a doctor promptly if pain or blurry vision lingers after rinsing.
Stinging or redness on the skin around your eyes is your cue to pause the serum and stop putting anything on that area, Active Eye Cream included. Meanwhile, use Hydrating Facial Cleanser and moisturizer on the rest of your face only if they feel comfortable, and keep both away from your eyes. While that area settles, skip sunscreen there too and lean on shade and clothing, the AAD's other sun measures, with sunscreen on the rest of your face. When the trouble only shows up on serum evenings, keep the serum farther from your eyes once you restart it.
After a full comfortable week, bring back Active Eye Cream. If the eye area stays comfortable for another week, restart the serum on two evenings a week. Keep up sunscreen every morning throughout. Irritation that keeps coming back, or doesn't settle after you stop, is one for a board-certified dermatologist.
Eye cream and retinol questions
Do you put eye cream before or after retinol?
After, in our evening routine. Cleanse, smooth LYTA's Collagen and Retinol Serum over a dry face away from the eye area, rinse your fingertips, then tap Active Eye Cream along the orbital bone and finish with moisturizer. On other evenings and in the morning, it goes on after cleansing and any serum, before moisturizer.
Can I use retinol under my eyes?
Not LYTA's Collagen and Retinol Serum. It's meant to stay away from the eye area and the creases beside the nose, so stop short of the orbital bone when you smooth it on. For a vitamin A product made for the eye area, ask a board-certified dermatologist which one suits your skin, then follow that product's label.
Does eye cream go before or after moisturizer?
Before, in the order we suggest. The directions for LYTA's Active Eye Cream say how to apply it, morning and evening, but not where it sits in a routine, so this is our call. Tap it on after any serum and before moisturizer, then smooth moisturizer over the rest of your face, stopping short of the eye area. With another brand's eye cream, follow its label if it names an order. In the morning, sunscreen goes on last.
Does Active Eye Cream contain retinol?
No. LYTA's Active Eye Cream contains no retinol and no retinyl ester, and its directions call for morning and evening use; since it has no retinol, we'd keep it on serum evenings too. If you use another brand's eye cream, check its ingredient list for retinol or a retinyl ester such as retinyl palmitate. If either is there, we'd keep that eye cream off your serum evenings.
Sources
- US Food and Drug Administration. Alpha Hydroxy Acids.
- American Academy of Dermatology. How to safely exfoliate at home.
- Ferreira et al. Trending Anti-Aging Peptides. Cosmetics, 2020.
- American Academy of Dermatology. Sunscreen FAQs.
- American Academy of Dermatology. Retinoid or retinol?
