Benefit It’s Potent Eye Cream // Sample Sunday

Your peepers are important. Not only do they let you do the seeing of things, but they’re also a massive tattle tale. If you’ve been up all night watching Netflix instead of going to bed at a reasonable hour, they’ll tell on you. If you’ve had a bottle of wine on a school night, they’ll tell on you. They’re kind of annoying like that, aren’t they?

Even though our eyes can be tell-tales, we should still love them and look after them properly.

There are plenty of potions and lotions on the market to help prevent extra baggage occurring around your eyeballs. Eye creams promise to reduce dark circles, smooth fine lines, depuff bags, and generally make you look more awake and youthful. But do they actually work?

I tested Benefit It’s Potent eye cream back in 2015, and I wanted to share my honest thoughts on whether it lived up to its claims.

What Is Benefit It’s Potent Eye Cream?

Benefit It’s Potent eye cream is an anti-ageing eye treatment from the popular cosmetics brand Benefit. It’s positioned as a brightening and line-smoothing eye cream designed to target the common signs of ageing around the delicate eye area. 

What does Benefit claim it does? According to Benefit, It’s Potent eye cream:

• Fades dark circles
• Helps to smooth fine lines and wrinkles
• Gives you brighter, younger-looking eyes
• Restores elasticity and firmness
• Protects the skin from free radical damage

It comes in Benefit’s signature cute packaging – a pink and cream pot that looks lovely on your dressing table. The full-size product is 14.5g, though samples are often given out at Benefit counters and beauty events.

What’s Actually In It?

The key active ingredients in Benefit It’s Potent eye cream include: 

Peptide Complex: Peptides are chains of amino acids that can help support collagen production. The peptides in this eye cream (including Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7 and Dipeptide-2) are meant to help restore elasticity and firmness. 

Botanical Extracts: The formula contains various plant extracts including:

• Linseed (flax) extract for hydration
• Oat kernel extract for soothing
• Sweet almond extract for nourishment
• Althaea officinalis (marshmallow) root extract for moisturising

Loquat Extract: This is meant to help protect the skin from free radical damage. 

Hyaluronic Acid: A hydrating ingredient that can hold up to 1000 times its weight in water. 

Optical Diffusers (Titanium Dioxide): This is basically a light-reflecting ingredient that helps to instantly brighten the under-eye area by bouncing light around. It doesn’t actually reduce dark circles; it just makes them less noticeable immediately after application.

Looking at the ingredients list, it’s a fairly standard eye cream formula with some nice additions. However, the optical diffusers are doing a lot of the heavy lifting for the “brightening” effect rather than the treatment ingredients.

How to Use Benefit It’s Potent Eye Cream

Application method:

• Use morning and evening after cleansing
• Take a small amount (about a rice grain size) on your ring finger
• Gently pat around the eye area, focusing on the orbital bone
• Don’t apply too close to the lash line or directly on the eyelid
• Pat gently rather than rubbing or pulling the delicate skin
• Allow it to absorb before applying makeup

Why use your ring finger? Your ring finger applies the least pressure compared to other fingers, which is important because the skin around your eyes is incredibly thin and delicate.

What Does It Feel Like?

Benefit It’s Potent eye cream has a creamy, medium-weight texture. It’s not as thick as some eye creams I’ve tried, but it’s not a lightweight gel either. 

Upon application:

• It spreads easily without tugging the skin
• There’s a slight cooling sensation
• It absorbs within a minute or two
• Leaves a subtle sheen on the skin
• No strong fragrance, though there is a light scent

The texture is pleasant enough – not sticky or greasy, but not particularly remarkable either. It sits well under makeup and doesn’t cause my concealer to slip or crease.

My Honest Experience With Benefit It’s Potent

I tested this eye cream for about three weeks, using it morning and evening as directed. Unfortunately, I have to be honest – I can’t say I rate this much. 

What I hoped it would do:

• Reduce the appearance of my dark circles
• Help with fine lines starting to appear
• Make me look more awake and refreshed

What actually happened:

• Immediate brightening effect lasted about 30 minutes (this was just the optical diffusers, not actual treatment)
• No noticeable reduction in dark circles after three weeks
• No visible difference to fine lines
• The hydration was fine but nothing special
• No depuffing effect on morning eye bags

I was hoping for at least some improvement, but I genuinely couldn’t see any difference. My eyes looked exactly the same at the end of the three weeks as they did at the start.

It’s particularly disappointing because I’ve read some glowing reviews about this product. Perhaps it works better for some skin types than others, or maybe my expectations were too high. But for me personally, it just didn’t deliver.

The hydration was adequate, but you can get that from much cheaper eye creams. I was looking for actual anti-ageing benefits, and I didn’t see them.

Is Benefit It’s Potent Eye Cream Worth the Money?

Benefit It’s Potent eye cream retails for around £28-32 for 14.5g. That works out to roughly £1.93-£2.20 per gram. 

Is it expensive? 

It’s definitely at the higher end for a drugstore/Boots-level eye cream, though it’s cheaper than luxury department store brands. For comparison:

• The Body Shop Vitamin E Eye Cube: Around £15 for 30 applications
• Olay Eyes: Around £20-25 for 15ml
• CeraVe Eye Repair Cream: Around £10-12 for 14ml
• Kiehl’s Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado: Around £32 for 14g

Given my experience where I saw no noticeable results, I don’t think Benefit It’s Potent offers good value for money. You’re paying for the Benefit brand name and cute packaging more than actual effectiveness.

Better Eye Cream Alternatives I’ve Found

Since trying Benefit It’s Potent eye cream in 2015, I’ve tested many other eye creams. Here are some that have actually worked better for me: 

The Body Shop Vitamin E Eye Cube (£15): As I mentioned in my original review, I much prefer this. It’s a solid stick that you glide around your eye area. It’s cooling, hydrating, and whilst it doesn’t perform miracles, it does actually help with morning puffiness. Plus it’s nearly half the price of Benefit’s offering. 

CeraVe Eye Repair Cream (£10-12): This is my current go-to. It contains ceramides and hyaluronic acid, is fragrance-free, and actually hydrates really well. I’ve noticed my under-eye area looks more plump and less crepey. It doesn’t claim to do anything miraculous, but it does what it promises. 

The Ordinary Caffeine Solution 5% + EGCG (£6): For dark circles and puffiness, this is brilliant and ridiculously cheap. The caffeine helps with puffiness, and whilst it won’t eliminate dark circles completely, it does make a noticeable difference if used consistently. 

Olay Eyes Brightening Eye Cream (£20-25): This has niacinamide which actually does help brighten the under-eye area over time (unlike the temporary optical diffusers in the Benefit cream). It’s still pricey but I’ve seen actual results from this.

All of these alternatives have either worked better for me, been cheaper, or both.

Who Might Benefit It’s Potent Work For?

To be fair, not every product works for everyone. Whilst it didn’t work for me, Benefit It’s Potent eye cream might be suitable for:

• People in their early-to-mid 20s with very minimal eye concerns
• Those looking for basic hydration rather than serious anti-ageing treatment
• People who love Benefit products and want matching packaging
• Those with no sensitivity to fragrance in eye products
• Anyone wanting an instant brightening effect (just remember it’s temporary)

However, if you have:

• Genuine concerns about dark circles
• Noticeable fine lines or crow’s feet
• Morning puffiness
• A limited budget

There are better, more effective, and often cheaper alternatives available.

Final Thoughts: Should You Buy It?

After using Benefit It’s Potent eye cream for three weeks in 2015, and having tried numerous better alternatives in the years since, I still can’t recommend this product. 

The pros:

• Nice texture that absorbs well
• Sits well under makeup
• Cute packaging
• Instant (but temporary) brightening from optical diffusers

The cons:

• No noticeable results on dark circles
• No visible improvement to fine lines
• Expensive for what it delivers
• Better alternatives available for less money
• The “brightening” is just an optical illusion, not actual treatment

If you want a basic moisturiser for your under-eye area and you love Benefit’s packaging, you might enjoy this. But if you’re looking for an eye cream that actually delivers on anti-ageing claims and offers good value for money, I’d recommend looking elsewhere.

The Body Shop Vitamin E Eye Cube, CeraVe Eye Repair Cream, or The Ordinary’s Caffeine Solution are all better options that either work better, cost less, or both.

Have you tried Benefit It’s Potent eye cream? Did you have a different experience to mine? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Benefit It’s Potent Eye Cream FAQs

Does Benefit It’s Potent eye cream work?

In my experience, no. I used it for three weeks and saw no noticeable reduction in dark circles or fine lines. The “brightening” effect is temporary and comes from optical diffusers that reflect light rather than actually treating the skin. Other reviewers have had better results, but I found it ineffective.

What does Benefit It’s Potent eye cream do?

Benefit claims it fades dark circles, smooths fine lines, restores elasticity, and protects from free radical damage. It contains peptides and botanical extracts. However, I found it mainly just hydrated the area with a temporary brightening effect from light-reflecting particles.

Is Benefit It’s Potent eye cream worth it?

At £28-32 for 14.5g, I don’t think it’s worth the money given my lack of results. You can get better results from cheaper alternatives like The Ordinary Caffeine Solution (£6) or CeraVe Eye Repair Cream (£10-12).

What are better alternatives to Benefit It’s Potent?

The Body Shop Vitamin E Eye Cube (£15), CeraVe Eye Repair Cream (£10-12), The Ordinary Caffeine Solution 5% + EGCG (£6), and Olay Eyes Brightening Eye Cream (£20-25) have all worked better for me than Benefit It’s Potent.

Does Benefit It’s Potent help with dark circles?

It didn’t help with my dark circles at all. The temporary brightening effect you see immediately after application is from titanium dioxide (an optical diffuser) that reflects light. It doesn’t actually treat or reduce dark circles; it just masks them temporarily.