When you think of ingredients in skin care—eye creams in particular—you likely think of plumping and hydrating hyaluronic acid, de-puffing caffeine, line-smoothing retinol, and darkness-diminishing vitamin C. What you likely don’t think of is a literally out-of-this-world ingredient researched on the exterior of The International Space Station. Alas, here in 2023, we’re learning to never be surprised, so when we caught wind of the new Delavie Sciences Aeonia Eye Refresh ($75)—not to mention the news that it sold out within three hours of launch—we knew we needed to learn more.
Aeonia Eye Refresh is formulated with some of your typical eye cream ingredients, including caffeine, dimethicone, shea butter, and a number of UV-fighting antioxidants.
“Caffeine constricts blood vessels reducing redness and leading to a tighter appearance of skin around the eyes—it’s one of my top ingredients in an eye cream,” says Claire Wolinsky, MD, a board-certified dermatologist and clinical instructor of dermatology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Meanwhile, she says that as dimethicone and shea butter hydrate the delicate skin surrounding the eyes, effectively plumping the area and minimizing the appearance of fine lines, ferulic acid and resveratrol help protect skin against environmental damage and work to help reduce darkness and repair past photodamage.
The cream also contains polyglutamic acid, which Wolinsky says works as a humectant to draw water into the skin to provide hydration and prevent water loss. Additionally, it’s infused with hepta peptide 7, which is a peptide that’s said to “help support and stimulate collagen production,” Wolinsky points out.
As beneficial as all of these ingredients can be, they’re not the stars of Aeonia Eye Refresh—Bacillus Lysate is.
According to SpaceFoundation.org, Bacillus Lysate is a commercial ingredient for UV protection in personal care products. “Using a unique biological isolate, obtained from a national space exploration agency, Delavie Sciences has developed an ingredient that demonstrates significant UV absorption profiles,” the site reads. “Researched on the exterior of The International Space Station, Delavie Sciences enhanced the efficacy of the isolate by an average of 50 percent and 40 percent respectively against UVA and UVB.”
With this new powerhouse ingredient for photoaging under its belt, Delavie Sciences aims to launch a number of UV-fighting products—Aeonia Eye Refresh was among the first two and it was met with huge success, selling out within just three hours of launch.
Luckily for us, we were sent a sample to test and had the privilege of checking out this star-bound eye cream firsthand. While the cream looks and feels much like any other eye cream when squeezed out of the tube, we found that it does work especially well to hydrate, plump, and review tired-looking under-eyes. I used it after getting just five hours of sleep and you would have never guessed how sleep-deprived I felt.
That said, I’ve only used the product for the past week, so I’ve not noticed any long-term benefits—yet. Still, considering it doesn’t pill over moisturizer or under SPF—and since it’s quite soothing to apply thanks to the innovative metal massage tip—it’s earned a spot in my daily line-up, and I’m hopeful that it keeps me looking bright-eyed for the longhaul. After all, as board-certified dermatologist and founder of Russak Dermatology Clinic, Julie Russak, MD, sees it, in combination, the ingredients in this eye cream “help to protect the skin from environmental stressors and improve its overall health.” Sounds good to me!