It has been more than two years since Elite Eye Serum first came on my radar.  Since then, it has had a makeover including a revamped formula and a new name – Elite Eye Syringe - giving a clue to its radically new packaging. Back in March of this year, I was sent some samples and after testing Elite ($89.95) for about five weeks, I am mostly pleased with it, with a couple of caveats that I’ll come back to later.

Elite Serum is a light gel that absorbs very easily. I found its effects to be smoothing and lifting. It gave a firmness to my whole eye area, particularly lifting the lids, my under eyes became less puffy and fine lines receded.

The bad news was that after several days of consecutive use, I found it drying and had to take a few days off while resorting back to a more moisturizing cream. After going back to it for day time use, I used an eye cream in the evening and that combo still seems to work for me. If you are someone who is prone to milia from rich eye creams and have been looking for an anti-aging gel, then Elite would be worth experimenting with.

The new formula (compare to the old one here), is dominated by seaweed extract. Chondrus crispus is known as Irish moss although it’s actually a red algae. It is mostly here because it forms a gel from one of its components, carrageenen. So first off, its good to see that there are no silicones creating Elite’s texture.

Most importantly, this serum is all about peptides.  There’s Matrixyl (palmitoyl oligopeptide) and Matrixyl 3000 (palimtoyl oligopeptide, palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7), which are both potent collagen producers. Puffy eyes may be helped by dipeptide-2, believed to improve lymphatic circulation. It is also, due to its molecular structure, considered to be a an NMF (natural moisturizing factor).  Then there’s palmitoyl tripeptide-5, otherwise known as SYN-COLL and supposed to be an even more powerful collagen booster than Matrixyl. For good measure, there’s a couple of peptides that inhibit expression lines.

Dark under eye circles are potentially treated with N-hydroxysuccinimide, about which there isn’t much research, Hesperidin Methyl Chalcone, a capillary strengthener, and chrysin.

With so much to like, I feel churlish having to report that there is something that I really don’t like about Elite Serum Syringe: the damn syringe. The packaging is a big plastic tube that is supposed to look and function like a syringe – I presume to give it a clinical aura. Well (with apologies to Mr Elite, who has probably spent considerable resources on the new design), I find it annoying on every level: it is too big and awkward to handle (at least for my small paws); the tip/applicator fell off on day two, refused to stay on ever since, and I have to resort to squirting the serum into a cupped palm and then dipping a finger to dab it on my eye; it squirts too much no matter how careful I try to be; and it is an unapologetic landfill!

There’s loads left of the 14ml, and I’ll be stuck with this syringe for some time. Since the serum itself is really rather good, that’s probably not such a bad thing after all.

Ingredients: Chondrus Crispus, (Seaweed) Extract, Purified Water, (Aqua) Hyaluronic Acid, Acetyl Hexapeptide-8, Glycerin, Steareth-20, N-Hydroxysuccinimide, Chrysin, Palimtoyl Oligopeptide, Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7, Hesperidin Methyl Chalcone, Dipeptide-2, Butylene Glycol, Carbomer, Polysorbate-20, Palmitoyl Oligopeptide, Acetyl Octapeptide-3, Caprylyl Glycol, Palmitoyl Tripeptide-5, Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexyglycerin