NuVela 21 Eye Cream

This is a horrible product. I can't believe there's not more negative reviews. My eyelids are raw, my eyes are swollen, and they itch. Can't believe I fell for the bull. Once again, if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

Does it work? The short answer is no, not at all in my case (I must be the 1 in 10 it didn't work for ;^). Despite my misgivings about 'miracle creams', I was willing to be a guinea pig and test Nuvela21 out, fully accepting that it might be too good to be true and a waste of money. I'm posting this review to counter the saturation advertising Nuvela21 puts out, so others can make a more informed choice in regards to this expensive product.

Nuvela21 supposedly has highly effective, quality ingredients such as retinol, green tea and retinyl palmitate (vitamin A), although whether that's true and in what concentration is impossible to verify. Nuvela21 claims on the product label that it is:

1. "clinically proven and dermatologically tested to diminish the appearance of wrinkles, dark circles and bags that form under the eyes"

2. "decrease dark circles by up to 78.5%" (80% is stated on the nuvela21 website, but what's a few percent between friends?)

3. "increase firmness & (diminish bags) up to 65% in less than one month" (70% is stated on website - again, charity must begin in the home webpage)

4. 9 out of 10 (or 90%) people tested had significant and noticeable improvement in all of these symptoms

Nuvela21 contains no scent or perfume which was one thing in its favour, as I'm allergic to perfumes. The packaging is modest to say the least; not that I'm into expensive, wasteful packaging, but these kinds of eye creams in tiny bottles often come in fairly elaborate dispensers and boxes; Nuvela21 didn't spend much on this aspect. This is potentially good news; Nuvela21 must spend less on packaging so they can spend more on product quality right? ...if only.

It completely failed to reduce dark circles, puffiness and fine wrinkles around my eyes after 48 days of twice daily application (as per the poorly printed, micro fine label instructions) which involves gently tapping in the cream under the eyes for about five minutes. There was simply no detectable improvement at all; if anything, the puffiness might have got slightly worse, but at least it didn't give me a rash.

There's no underlying reason this cream wouldn't work for me as I am in my early 40's, healthy weight, never smoked, vegetarian, drink plenty of filtered water, take no medications, meditate and exercise almost every day, and most people believe I'm around 30 based on my general skin condition. However, I started to develop puffy, dark circles under my eyes about five years ago and it got to the point where I thought I'd investigate ways to reduce or even reverse these symptoms despite being dubious of the many ridiculous claims made by the many skin cream companies around and their worthless money back guarantees. Tell tale signs that I was taking a big risk buying Nuvela21's "Best Eye Cream" include:

• Nuvela21's claim that their product is clinically proven and results in a pronounced reduction of dark circles, puffiness and wrinkles in 90% of people tested WITH ZERO INDEPENDANT EVIDENCE/STUDIES REFERENCED TO SUPPORT THIS STATEMENT

• unconvincing testimonials/pictures (I never trust site testimonials as every company has too big an incentive to, at best, only select the most favourable genuine testimonials, and at worst, make them up along with photo-shopping pictures)

• postage much higher than actual cost

• a draconian return policy which effectively prevents or makes returns impractical at best

• the old, 'buy lots and get one or two free' trick (which I definitely didn't fall for)

• don't even bother to offer a flimsy guarantee despite claims of clinically proven results (* I tried it knowing there was no money back guarantee and hence haven't attempted to get a refund)

• poor customer service that disregards or ignores queries; a common complaint of these sorts of companies, especially after you've paid.

My conclusion: based on the ONLY genuine evidence I could find (ie my own experience), this has all the hallmarks of yet another rubbish wonder eye/skin cream. Further confirmation that price in this market seems to have little to do with efficacy and much more to do with profits. Hope this review helps many others make a more informed choice.