Review: Garnier Miracle Skin Cream & Miracle Eye Cream

Garnier sent me their newest offerings to trial and I was happy because the Miracle Skin Cream sounded really promising (calling it a ‘miracle’ cream creates a lot of high hopes!). There’s a few things I want from my daily day cream – firstly, hydration (both humectant and occlusive ingredients would be fab). Secondly, anti-oxidants to help protect my skin from oxidative stress and free radicals, so ingredients like vitamin C and green tea. The other important ‘ingredient’ is sunscreen, however I don’t mind using a separate sunscreen if I have to, however if it is high enough, having it combined with a great moisturiser is a time saver (and who doesn’t want that!). What would I want my miracle cream to achieve? To make my tired skin look awake, illuminated and feel fresh!

Here is what Garnier promises to deliver with it’s Miracle Skin Cream:

A breakthrough formula with 12 patents that combines self-adjusting technology with anti-ageing benefits for an instant & long-lasting transformation. Instantly, its self-adjusting formula is enriched with micro-pigments that provide natural coverage by adjusting to match your skin tone. Skin is immediately flawless, radiant and appears visibly younger. Enriched with 7 anti-ageing actives* + SPF 15 protection, fights against the signs of ageing for lasting results. In 28 days, wrinkles and imperfections are reduced, complexion is more even and skin is firmer.

*An anti-ageing complex of 7 active ingredients: LHA, Pro-Retinol, Vitamin C, Vitamin B3, firming peptides, anti-oxidant ginger.

The cream is light and smells floral but fresh. It is quite fragranced so if you are sensitive to smell or have very sensitive skin, this cream may not be for you (fragrance is listed quite high in the ingredient list, so there must be quite a bit of it in there). What I notice very quickly with this cream is that it is tinted. I honestly don’t believe that the cream can ‘adjust itself’ to match your skin tone. I think that upon rubbing the cream onto your skin, the heat releases the pigments which are a medium warm tone, but are sheer at the same time. The tint doesn’t actually offer any coverage like a tinted moisturiser would (minimal coverage), but rather I think they were trying to add just a little bit of colour and warmth into the complexion. The problem with this is, that if you have a cool complexion or even a neutral skin tone, it can make you look a little funny. If you apply makeup over the top of the moisturiser, it isn’t very noticeable, however I just feel like it looks like a bad fading self tan whenever I wear it. I really, really dislike ‘tinted’ skincare products. I don’t think products can do 1000 different things amazingly well, so I wish they had just concentrated on 3 or 4 tasks and done those incredibly well. The eye cream is unfortunately also tinted. This makes the eye cream even tricker to use, because the pigments are encapsulated in little beads. You need to rub the cream into your skin for the beads to disappear and release colour. I don’t know about you, but I don’t ‘rub’ my eye cream underneath my eye area, I dab it on, as gently as possible. I’ve tried ‘dabbing’ this eye cream on but the pigments make the eye cream look more visible than it should be and it’s difficult to distribute the pigment evenly. Why oh why did they do this?!

Above: Garnier Miracle Skin Cream

Above: Garnier’s Miracle Skin Cream rubbed into the back of my hand a little.

Back to the day cream itself, it is great that Garnier have used some fabulous skin care ingredients like vitamin B3 (niacinamide) which you beauties know I love because it hydrates the skin, helps reduce inflammation and evens out the skin tone – and it is at the top of a very long ingredient list (a really good thing!). The cream also contains LHA, which if you remember my Acids 101 post, is a great yet gentle exfoliant, perfect for sensitive skins. What makes me scratch my head is the combination of vitamin A (retinol), salicylic acid and vitamin C, as any AHAs or BHAs (like salicylic acid) and vitamin C, degrade the ability of vitamin A (retinol) to convert within your skin into it’s active form. It makes the addition of vitamin A a little redundant. Plus, retinol can make your skin sensitive to the suns rays, so adding it into a day cream doesn’t make much sense to me. Using vitamin C in the mornings is perfect, however I want to know how much vitamin C I am getting from my products so I know if they are working to their best ability and Garnier of course doesn’t tell us how much Vitamin C is in their moisturiser. The day cream also contains an spf of 15+ which is good (better than nothing!) but not great – if you live in Australia or are a skin care fanatic, you need to use a sunscreen of at least 30+ daily. The cream hydrates my normal to combination skin well, however I don’t know that it is ‘extremely’ hydrating, so very dry skin could suffer using this day cream.

This day cream will set you back $20 in Aus. Would I repurchase it? No. I wanted to like this cream, but the tint of the cream really puts me off. If the cream lightly highlighted and illuminated the skin without any obvious shimmer, then I would love it – but the addition of a ‘skin tint’, will not suit everybody. The ingredients list isn’t terrible – it has some nice additions in there, but as I mentioned, I’d rather my moisturiser do a few tasks extremely well (like moisturise and contain anti-oxidants) rather than try and fight countless skin conditions in one go. That might be a nice idea, but it’s difficult to achieve.

Ingredients: AQUA / WATER, GLYCERIN, E T H Y L H E X Y L S A L I C Y L AT E , N I A C I N A M I D E , DIMETHICONE, ALCOHOL DENAT., OCTOCRYLENE,BUTYL METHOXYDIBENZOYLMETHANE, ISOPROPYL ISOSTEARATE, PHENYLBENZIMIDAZOLE SULFONIC ACID, BEHENYL ALCOHOL, TRIETHANOLAMINE,PHENOXYETHANOL, POLYACRYLAMIDE, PARFUM / FRAGRANCE, AMMONIUM ACRYLOYLDIMETHYLTAURATE / STEARETH-25 METHACRYLATE CROSSPOLYMER,DISODIUM STEAROYL GLUTAMATE, OCTYLDODECANOL, CETYL ALCOHOL, DIMETHICONE/VINYL DIMETHICONE CROSSPOLYMER, TITANIUM DIOXIDE [NANO] /TITANIUM DIOXIDE, MANNITOL, PEG-100 STEARATE, PTFE, DIMETHICONOL, C13-14 ISOPARAFFIN, CETEARYL ALCOHOL, TOCOPHERYL ACETATE,ASCORBYL GLUCOSIDE, PANTHENOL, ARACHIDYL ALCOHOL, HYDROXYPROPYL TETRAHYDROPYRANTRIOL, PROPYLENE GLYCOL, CAPRYLOYL SALICYLIC ACID,DISODIUM EDTA, LAURETH-7, ZEA MAYS STARCH / CORN STARCH, CARBOMER, CETEARYL GLUCOSIDE, ZINGIBER OFFICINALE ROOT EXTRACT / GINGERROOT EXTRACT, RETINYL LINOLEATE, STEARIC ACID, ALUMINA, HYDROGENATED LECITHIN, LINALOOL, SILICA [NANO] / SILICA, BENZYL SALICYLATE,LIMONENE, HYDROLYZED RICE PROTEIN, BENZYL ALCOHOL, METHYLISOTHIAZOLINONE, GERANIOL, CITRAL, [+/- MAY CONTAIN: CI 77891 / TITANIUMDIOXIDE, CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499 / IRON OXIDES].

Now onto the Eye Cream promises:

Garnier Miracle Skin Cream Eye instantly smooths, brightens, illuminates and corrects dark circles. Consistent use reduces theappearance of wrinkles, fine lines, and firms skin. Contains 7 anti-ageing actives, and provides natural coverage that adjusts tomatch your skin tone. Instant transformation: The unique self-adjusting formula of Garnier Miracle Skin Cream Eye blends upon contact with the skin. It immediately corrects the visible signs of ageing around the eye contour area. Instant visible results: Illuminates and brightens eyes. Smooths the eye contour area. Reduces signs of fatigue from morning until night. A formula enriched with:  – LHA – Pro-retinol – Vitamin E – Vitamins B5 – Firming peptides – Antioxidant ginger – Argan protein

Above: Garnier Miracle Skin Cream Eyes

The biggest plus of this eye cream for me is that it contains an spf of 20+ which is so good, as most eye cream don’t include sunscreen protection. Most facial sunscreens are generally ok to use around the eye area (unless the product specifies otherwise), however if spf is included in your eye cream, then that is one less thing to worry about! Vitamin A or retinol, is great to use around the eye area so your skin regenerates and cell turnover increases, but again, using it in the day time is risky. As the product contains sunscreen you are getting some protection to counter-act the UV sensitivity retinol can cause, however if there was a decent amount of retinol in the product, I don’t think they would have added it into a day eye cream. I can’t imagine using this eye cream at night because it is tinted, so it must be designed for day time use only. If it has a lower level of retinol, then it will only really help those with unproblematic skin which isn’t showing the first signs of wrinkles or ageing. The tint in this eye cream again is my biggest issue with the product, however it is nicely moisturising. For $20 it’s not a terrible product, however I would recommend you reach for something else if your under eye area is dehydrated or if you are showing fine lines or wrinkles. I want my eye cream to give a punch when it comes to active ingredients and moisturise like no other. Unfortunately this eye cream does nothing for my under eye circles, which is a shame as I struggle with the darkness under my eyes. Would I repurchase this product? No.

Above: The eye cream contain little white beads which hold pigment. Garnier says that the beads are invisible, which isn’t true as you can pick them up on camera (and even more so in person).

Above: Garnier Miracle Skin Cream Eyes rubbed into the back of my hand a little (you can see that not all of the white beads have yet released their pigment).

Ingredients: AQUA / WATER, GLYCERIN, ETHYLHEXYL SALICYLATE, OCTOCRYLENE, DIMETHICONE, ISOPROPYL ISOSTEARATE, PTFE, ALCOHOL DENAT.,DIMETHICONE/VINYL DIMETHICONE CROSSPOLYMER, BEHENYL ALCOHOL, PHENOXYETHANOL, POLYACRYLAMIDE, AMMONIUM ACRYLOYLDIMETHYLTAURATE/STEARETH-25 METHACRYLATE CROSSPOLYMER, DISODIUM STEAROYL GLUTAMATE, CETYL ALCOHOL, MANNITOL, PEG-100 STEARATE, ARGANIA SPINOSAKERNEL EXTRACT, DIMETHICONOL, C13-14 ISOPARAFFIN, CETEARYL ALCOHOL, METHYLPARABEN, TOCOPHERYL ACETATE, PANTHENOL, ARACHIDYL ALCOHOL, RETINYL LINOLEATE, CAPRYLOYL SALICYLIC ACID, DISODIUM EDTA , LAURETH-7, ZEA MAYS STARCH / CORN STARCH, CARBOMER, CETEARYLGLUCOSIDE, SODIUM COCOYL GLUTAMATE, ZINGIBER OFFICINALE ROOT EXTRACT / GINGER ROOT EXTRACT, HYDROGENATED LECITHIN, SILICA [NANO] /SILICA, HYDROLYZED RICE PROTEIN, METHYLISOTHIAZOLINONE, CITRAL, [+/- MAY CONTAIN: CI 77891 / TITANIUM DIOXIDE, CI 77491, CI 77492,CI 77499 / IRON OXIDES] (F.I.L. B162653/1).

Sorry my beauties, these products just didn’t work for me – however, these products could still work for you if you don’t need to much moisture (if you have oily skin for example), are on a budget and if you think the tint of the creams would work for your skin tone. I’m definitely not against drug store skin care products, I just hate tinted skin care products with a passion lol (that also includes Clinique’s Even Better Eyes Dark Circle Corrector – terrible…).

If you would like to see what skin care products I am currently using in the mornings, check out my Morning Routine Skin Care post here!

Are you a fan of Garnier skin care products beauties? I think I have only tried their makeup remover and skin care wipes, so a moisturiser from the company is a first for me. Let me know of your experiences with the brand and products!

Until next time beauties,

Beauty Bee~

Please follow and like us:

#skincarereview #GarnierMiracleSkinCream #GarnierMiracleSkinEyeCream #facialmoisturiser #dailymoisturiser #EyeCream