Onsen Basic Series Smoothing Eye Serum

I bought this Onsen Eye Serum quite a while ago from OzSale* and it cost me $28. I bought it after I'd bought something else, so I did get free shipping - always a bonus! I'd seen the Onsen products a few times and had wanted to try them (for no good reason other than something new and different!).

Obviously, OzSale's price is heavily discounted - a similar product on OnsenSecret will set you back over $US200!

[UPDATE - I think I was originally comparing to the wrong product and that the usual retail on this product is more like $US100.]

The first thing I noticed about this product was the ridiculously large packaging. My 25mL of eye serum comes in a receptacle which is LONGER than my mobile phone! I compared it against several other products lying around my bathroom and trust me - the packaging is insane.

You might think that this isn't much more than a cosmetic issue, but in reality, what it means is that about day 2 into using this product and you start to struggle to get eye serum out. I've had to prop it up for AGES now. It's very frustrating and, on that alone, it would put me off buying it again.

To be honest, things didn't improve when I started using it. The serum has the slick texture that many of the blur creams have. That's because (according to the back label) its main ingredients are cyclopentosiloxane and dimethicone. Both of these are silicones that aid in spreading and act as barriers (they repel water) and conditioners, and also have the property of filling in fine lines. That's why they're used in the various blur creams. And, in an eye cream, they'll give it the appearance of doing something - but they're not exactly active ingredients. Ingredient number three is collagen, so there's some plumping and moisturising (and presumably it's trapped in by the barrier-like silicones) but again - not so much in terms of anti-aging action.

I had a chat to my beautician about the silicone-heavy ingredients list and she couldn't really understand it - except that perhaps the idea is to trap the moisturising ingredients against the skin.

Either way, I didn't see any change or improvement in my eyes while using this product (OK - I didn't take before or after photos - I'm going to do that with my next product which is currently on its way to me!). That, combined with my dislike of the slick silicone texture and the ludicrous packaging, means that I most definitely was NOT in love with this product.

I might give other Onsen products a go in future (provided I can pick them up cheaply AND can suss out the ingredients list prior to purchase ... if I remember!) but ...

Would I buy this product again? NO.

This post is part of Ingrid's Monday Madness Makeup Link Up over on Fabulous & Fun Life.

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