Top 25 Best Japanese Eye Creams to Buy Online 2020 - Tried and True!

We picked out 25 of the most popular products and tested them for the following: how moisturizing they were, how they felt to use, and what was inside.

Then, based on how they performed on our tests, we graded and ranked the top 25 Japanese eye creams available online.

※Japanese prices for some of the products are given; they’ve merely been converted into USD for easy viewing.

And why they didn't quite make it.

DHC Medicated Q Eye Cream scored extremely average scores across the board. It felt good but not great; it moisturized our test mushroom but not by a lot; and it took some time to blend it into our skin completely. We didn't notice a difference in our wrinkles, either, so it would be difficult for us to recommend this as a good product.

We think the best eye creams can both moisturize your eye area and reduce the appearance of wrinkles, but these didn't quite meet our expectations. Homeo Beau Eye Cream would work just fine as a moisturizer, but we didn't notice much of a difference in the wrinkles on our mushroom after testing it.

We found the same with White Label Gold Placenta Eye Cream, but at least it moisturized all the way through the mushroom and not just the surface.

On the other end of the spectrum, we found that these eye creams didn't hydrate the skin around our eyes much at all. This included Placenta Whitening Eye Cream and Eye Kirara; we were also turned off by the design of the package of the latter.

If you're all about texture, then these are some products to consider; but since they didn't pass our skincare tests, they didn't have great scores in our ranking.

Kirarie's Eye Cream 3 has a light and smooth texture that would feel great to massage into your skin and provided a decent amount of moisture, but it didn't do much for wrinkles. We found the same with Attenir Eye Extra Serum.

When it comes to eye creams, there's nothing worse than ending up with a product that you can't blend in easily or that leaves an oily residue. Cezanne Moisture Rich Essence Eye Care made our skin feel a bit slimy, and Hada Labo's Special Wrinkle Cream felt like a mask around our eyes.

Other products we tested like Nameraka Honpo's Wrinkle Eye Cream and Fancl's Wrinkle Cream were hard to blend into our skin properly and they felt more heavy than anything. Inner Signal Rejuvenate Clear Up Eyes, which took the bottom spot in our ranking, had the same texture and the addition of an unpleasant fragrance.

We put the 25 most popular eye creams through three tests, each designed to gauge a different factor. One was to judge how much it hydrated our skin, and two more were to how it felt to use and the quality of the ingredients within.

To test each eye cream's moisturizing potential, we spread a bit of each product onto a piece of dried shiitake mushroom. We let them sit overnight, then turned them over and let them absorb the eye cream for another 6 hours. Then, we judged how soft each mushroom turned off and how many wrinkles went away.

Our results showed us that certain textures don't necessarily work better for reducing the appearance of wrinkles, so perhaps it's all in the ingredients.

Four of our editing staff participated in this test. They used each product around their own eyes to gauge their texture and fragrance, as well as how easy it was to use the container. They agreed that eye creams that feel like they're penetrating into your skin feel the best.

Rather than judging the list of ingredients by what "bad" things it contained, we instead focused on how much good stuff was in it. Quasi-drugs and products that had official efficiency tests received higher scores, as well as products that had a lot of aging care ingredients.

Here are three big things to look out for.

When it comes to the sensitive skin around your eyes, you don't want to skimp on moisture. This should arguably be the most important factor when deciding which eye cream you're going to buy. Some moisturizing ingredients include ceramides (セラミド種), hyaluronic acid (ヒアルロン酸), BG, DPG, glycerin (グリセリン), and more.

You're going to want to buy something you'll want to use everyday, because your eyes deserve it. Creams provide deep care, but if you don't like heavy-texture products, you could opt for a gel or serum instead. Some eye creams also have unique applicators, so if it's possible to see or test it out before buying, we recommend doing so.

Whether or not you're worried about the appearance of wrinkles, these ingredients are especially helpful to have in your eye cream. They will smooth and firm up your skin, making it appear more supple. Aging care ingredients include retinol (レチノール); human oligopeptide-1, 13, and 14 (ヒトオリゴペプチド); platinum (プラチナ); vitamin C (ビタミンC); and more.

We rounded up members from our editing department, purchased the 25 most popular Japanese eye creams, and tested them all.

We learned that the best of the best eye creams contain both moisturizing and aging care ingredients, have an applicator that's easy to use, and absorb into skin without leaving behind a feeling of heaviness. Keep these points in mind when shopping for your perfect eye cream.

Author: Miyuki Arai/Translation: Shannon McNaught/Photos: Yuuki Inagaki