Hi, my little chickens! I'm Syd, and unfortunately, I'm a chronic under-eye-bag sufferer.
I've always been insecure about my eye bags. I feel like they're the first thing people notice about me, and I've even resorted to Venmoing my little sister like $2 to edit them out on FaceTune*.
In the past, I've tried SO MANY different under-eye products that I honestly can't even remember them all, but after never seeing any results, I wrote them off as scams (LOL) and gave up trying to find one that actually worked.
It's called the Instant FIRMx Eye Temporary Eye Tightener, and in the TikTok, it appears to make Trinidad's eye bags disappear — in real time!!! — in UNDER. THREE. MINUTES!!!!!!!!
LIKE........?!!?!?!?!!
It costs $38, so it's a tad expensive...but maybe worth it???
I would've done this review a lot sooner, but this product was literally back-ordered for MONTHS. But alas, after waiting for many, many moons, I finally got my hands on it!!!
Obviously, I RACED to try it!!! For your viewing pleasure, here's my before pic, sans makeup and fully letting my puffy ol' baggy boos breathe:
The instructions on the bottle said to shake well, apply sparingly, and "remain expressionless" for 3–7 minutes. Easy!
Keeping the term "sparingly" in mind, I applied about this much to each eye bag. IDK if this is too much or too little, but whatever! We're just gonna go with it!!!
I started applying it like so, lifting upward a little:
Then I fanned my face just to ✨speed up the process✨ a wee bit.
Then after about five minutes, VOILÀ! Here's the result!!!
Here's a little before-and-after action for you all:
And a cheeky lil' closer look 😌😌😌:
Yeah, I was pretty pumped about the results!!!
My only issue with the eye tightener is that — fulfilling the directions' ominous prophecy — it leaves a slight bit of residue. It's like chalky and white...? I'm not sure how well you can see the texture of it in this invasively close-up pic, but it's grainy and a little flaky.
According to its Amazon reviews, this is a VERY common problem and usually means you've used too much.
Since the directions on the bottle said to try mixing the stuff in with my concealer, I decided to give it a fair shot and see if that actually worked better.
NOPE. Immediately no, IMMEEEEDIATELY no. This made it worse.
In the video, she explains how this product works, and why it tends to get crusty — it's apparently all because of this ingredient called ✨sodium silicate✨.
"Sodium silicate can be a little powdery or chalky-feeling, so if you use too much, it won't look good," Yara explained. "And also if you anything with water in it, it completely goes away."
She went on to say that because of sodium silicate's opposition to water, any sort of moisturizer, serum, or even foundation will break it down and stop its tightening effect. (And this then leads to the white, crustified residue.)
And since this product has been soooo back-ordered, she even went on to suggest some other more readily available sodium silicate-based products, including a bottle of just plain sodium silicate that you can put directly on your face!
Obviously, the idea that this product dissolves under foundation and concealer is a bit of an issue, especially for someone like me who has some redness going on.
Even with this disclaimer, I knew I had to trudge on and do me (aka apply copious amounts of color-correcting concealer).
Honestly, I didn't think it looked so bad under my makeup.....?
And as for how long it lasts? I'd say a couple hours. I found myself reapplying it midday, and by night, there was very little lift left. :////
So, what's the verdict?
Overall, I'd have to say that even with the slight crusty residue, I think the Peter Thomas Roth Instant FIRMx Eye Tightener *is* worth trying.
