I‘ll tell you this — I felt like a complete tool sliding a silicone-y vibrating wand over my eye area. It does not feel conducive to a brighter, more awake pair of eyes. I felt that I may as well have been patting my eye area with one of those new stylishly sleek (ahem) “personal massagers”. But the FOREO IRIS, designed increase absorption as well as reduce the look of puffy eyes, dark circles, and fine lines, really does work.
The device claims to combine the motions of fingertip eye massages with sonic pulsations (same technology used by the FOREO LUNA and the Clarisonic). You can see that it has a curved silicone oval ring at the end of it. When you hold the device over your eye contour, the oval ring wiggles and buzzes — motion is exactly like rapidly yet gently tapping or drumming with two fingers. It’s quite hard to tell what difference it does make to the eyes immediately after use, though — it cannot diminish anything in mere minutes and anti-ageing isn’t going to make a noticeable difference in the short-term.
I had a bit of play with the FOREO IRIS — about 2 weeks — using it morning and night with my eye treatment (a blend of argan oil and Kuramoto Bijin’s Komeyu). While it didn’t do a thing for dark circles (I have no fine lines or eye bags), it worked wonders for puffiness! I’m often plagued by puffy eyes and I find that a lot of the eye de-puffers are just useless — roller serums that are as effective as rubbing a wet marble on my eye contour, eye creams that are just glorified bland face creams. It does a fantastic job at quickly ridding unsightly puffy morning eyes from late nights out, overindulgence, or crying! I use it at bedtime to counteract and in the morning to reduce. It doesn’t seem to be doing a lot as I’m using it, but the final results can’t really be argued with. Eyes look bigger, brighter, and more awake.
One other great thing about it is that one charge lasts for ages! I charged mine up over 2 weeks ago — took less than an hour — and it hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down, even though I’ve been using it twice a day! (I charged my FOREO LUNA months ago and the battery is still going strong too.) No need to keep it plugged into the outlet or lug the USB charger about with you. It’s also very hygienic and you don’t need to buy any attachments or what have you. It’s not cheap — US$139 — but nothing will ever need replacing on this. Of course, there’s always the reusable eye-roller or your fingertips, but that’s like comparing Hondas to Bentleys. I do find FOREO IRIS to be a very nice luxurious hi-tech addition to my daily skincare routine! Much nicer if it was about half the price and available in a dark muted colour…