Review: New Garnier Skin Renew Anti-Dark-Circle Tinted Roller

When I saw this at Rite Aid a little while back, I was pretty intrigued. Then CVS had a good sale with $2 tear-pad coupons on the display, so I got this for a pretty decent price. Anything that says "Anti-Dark-Circle" always gets my attention, so let's see how this worked for me.

Garnier Skin Renew Anti-Dark-Circle Roller (retail: $12.99)

The first thing I want to say about this product is that it confuses me. It's not a traditional concealer and it's not a traditional eye cream. I guess it's sort of like an eye version of a tinted moisturizer--that's the best way I can put it. If you read the copy on the box, you'll see that it suggests you apply this in the morning and then throughout the day as needed. This seemed sort of strange to me, because I don't really know a lot of women who reapply eye cream OR undereye concealer throughout the day.

Moving on, I noticed that this product contains caffeine, which is in a lot of higher-end eye creams lately. Some swear by it, others don't. I've used eye creams with caffeine before and never really saw dramatic results, but your mileage may definitely vary. There is also "lemon essence" in this product, which strikes me as odd for something you're putting so close to your eyes (have you ever felt the sting of lemon juice in the eye? Ouch!).

Also, as you can see, this product is tinted (btw, the tint comes from mineral pigments, which is a nice touch). But here's where I'm really confused. How can one shade of tint (this only comes in one shade, mind you) be universally flattering or effective in concealing dark circles on all skintones?

Let's see how it worked for me:

The "before" pic was taken right after I washed my face. I had no other concealer, moisturizer, etc. on my skin. As you can see in the "after" pic, my eye definitely looks brighter and some of the darkness has been concealed. So that's great!

But what I wasn't able to really capture in these photos is that the color of this tint is all wrong for me. In real life, this tint is somewhere between neutral and yellow-based. For my particular under-eye-darkness, I must use a peach-based concealer to counteract the purplish/reddish tone. If I use anything with even a slight tinge of yellow in it, my entire undereye area tends to look gray. Which is NOT a good look for me, I assure you.

So the longer this settled into my skin, the more gray it appeared. So, strike one, Garnier.

Strike two? The fragrance of this product smells like lemons, which is very nice, but the minute I hold the wand to my eye, it starts to sting a bit. Now, I want to be clear that the product itself has NEVER stung my eyes, but the "vapors" of the lemon make my eyes sting a little when I first start rolling the product on my skin. It does go away after a few seconds though.

Strike three? I'm afraid this product is just too sheer and fleeting on my oily skin. It looks great at first, and the formula applies very smoothly and sinks in QUICKLY. But then...it sort of just disappears completely on my skin. I was really hoping I wouldn't have to reapply it throughout the day, but if I were to continue using this, it would probably be a necessity.

Now, let's be clear that this product does not tout itself as a traditional concealer. So I feel very unfair reviewing it as such. But since I'm pretty confused about why and when to use it, I'm left to compare it how my normal undereye concealer works for me. Based on that, I can't recommend this product to anyone who has medium-to-dark undereye circles. UNLESS you use another concealer on top or underneath this product. Which brings me to my next point.

This product worked fine as a "primer" for my usual undereye concealer (Maybelline Super Stay). But do I NEED a primer for my undereye concealer? Not really. I'm very pleased with how my Maybelline concealer works on top of my regular eye cream. And honestly, the tint in the Garnier product didn't help conceal my darkness any better when layered underneath my Maybelline concealer. Using both products together achieved about the same result as if I had just used my Maybelline concealer alone.

As for this product's claims to "instantly correct dark circles and brighten" I think it failed me on the first part, but it did add a bit of brightness to my undereye area in general. However, the color of the tint is not a good match for me, and the product is too sheer to take the place of my normal concealer.

Final Verdict:

All in all, I think this product may work quite well for someone who doesn't have a lot of undereye discoloration to begin with and it might be a DREAM PRODUCT for those of you who wear tinted moisturizers and just need a tiny bit more brightness under the eye area. It absorbs into the skin almost instantaneously, it doesn't settle into my fine lines, and it does provide a brightness to the skin in the same way as something like YSL Touche Eclat.

As for my fellow full-coverage-foundation gals who need serious color-correction and a heavy-duty, long-wear concealer, I would probably skip this one. Unless of course you're just going to use it as a highlighter, in which case it might work well for you.

Have you tried the new Garnier Skin Renew Anti-Dark-Circle Roller yet? If not, do you think it might be a good fit for your needs? As always, I'd love to hear from you!