St. Ives Eye and Face Stress Gel Review (UPDATED 2024): Don’t Buy Before You Read This!

Expert rating: stars-icon     By Natalie K (Senior Reviewer) November 28, 2023       Advertising Disclosure

User Rating:

44%

stars-icon + -

St. Ives Eye and Face Stress Gel is a calming eye gel that works to hydrate and soothe skin. This product is made from gentle ingredients like cucumber and elastin that minimize blotchiness or tired-looking eyes.

St. Ives Eye and Face Stress Gel is a versatile lightweight gel, made to reduce dark circles and brighten skin. It has a cooling effect—thanks to the cucumber making it perfect for reducing heat on a hot day.

Kremovage is an eye cream that firms and lifts sagging or loose skin. This eye cream through the use of a unique botanical blend, reduces the appearance of crow’s feet, age spots, dark circles, and more. Click this link to read more about the many ways Kremovage can improve your under-eye skin.

Do You Know the Best Eye Creams of 2024 ?

St. Ives Eye and Face Stress Gel Ingredients and Side Effects

St. Ives Eye and Face Stress Gel is made from a collection of plant extracts and hydrolyzed elastin, along with a number of filler ingredients. As per the description on Amazon, here is a look at the active ingredients used to make this product:

Cucumber Extract Chamomile
Hydrolized Elastin

Cucumber Extract: Cucumber extract is used to reduce irritation and provide a calming effect on the skin. This ingredient, though primarily made of water, contains vitamin C, antioxidants, and a substance known as caffeic acid, which helps eliminate water retention that leads to puffiness under the eye.

Chamomile Extract: Chamomile is rich in antioxidants and works to reduce the appearance of age spots and dark circles. This herb is thought to protect the skin from free radical damage and may also help fight breakouts and inflammation.

Hydrolized Elastin: A form of the critical skin protein, collagen, this ingredient is used to help improve the overall structure and elasticity of the skin.

Check out our list of reviews — our experts share their thoughts on the most popular eye creams of 2024.

St. Ives Eye and Face Stress Gel Quality of Ingredients

St. Ives Eye and Face Stress Gel was made by the company, St. Ives. It seems that the product has been discontinued, though we’re not sure why.

Based on our look at the ingredient profile, we’re not really sure why someone would choose this product over an eye cream with more benefits—even if they’re purchasing for the soothing action exclusively.

Chamomile and cucumber are well-known for their ability to give the skin a soothing effect with use. This product was designed to reduce irritation caused by tiredness or allergies, and to de-puff under-eye bags. But, for something made to soothe, this product has some not-so-clean ingredients standing behind it—St. Ives uses dyes and perfumes in this formulation, which might cause redness or itching in consumers with sensitive skin.

The product also contains hydrolyzed elastin, which suggests that the formula was partially designed to have an anti-aging effect on the skin, but it’s unclear whether there’s enough of this ingredient to make a difference.

See our guide to skincare ingredients to learn which ones you should be including in your daily routine.

EDITOR’S TIP: Combine this product with a proven eye cream such as Kremovage for better results.

The Price and Quality of St. Ives Eye and Face Stress Gel

St. Ives Eye and Face Stress Gel appears to be off the market. And has been for at least a few years at this point.

Other St. Ives products are relatively low-priced, so we can imagine that this gel was, too.

That said, it seems that there are a handful of smaller websites that sell this product. One website is offering the gel for less than $4 a pop. Amazon has a listing posted, but the product is no longer available.

Most of the reviews and customer comments written about this product are from several years ago. We’re talking all the way back to 2006-2024. So, anyone selling this product on auction sites or smaller third-party reselling platforms likely will be receiving a product well past its expiration date.

Based on the ingredient profile, there’s nothing about this product that suggests it’s worth tracking down.

Our expert reviewers compare and contrast popular eye creams on today’s market—click to see the ones they found most effective.

Business of St. Ives Eye and Face Stress Gel

St. Ives Eye and Face Stress Gel is made by the personal care company, St. Ives. Here is a little background about St. Ives:

Phone: 866-912-9867

St. Ives is probably best known for their body washes and that popular apricot facial scrub. They make a number of face washes and body products, but it looks like the company has discontinued the eye gel in question.

St. Ives is a well-known drug store and supermarket staple, making affordable products inspired by nature. We say “inspired” as, shoppers can expect to find a number of additives in the formula. But, at a few dollars per product, it’s hard to fault them for not having the cleanest formula.

St. Ives is one of the many brands owned by Unilever, and they don’t sell their products direct to consumers. Rather, the site functions as a portfolio of sorts, showcasing their offerings. Shoppers may visit the website to learn more about the products available at the major chain stores in the area, or read their collection of articles.

Overall, while consumers aren’t getting a high-end product when they buy St. Ives, they are receiving a product made by a large, global company, meaning the level of testing is far more involved than say, that tiny skincare boutique down the street.

Customer Opinions of St. Ives Eye and Face Stress Gel

Despite being discontinued, this product still has a lot of reviews posted online. Many of these suggest this product was fairly beloved at one point, if only for its cooling abilities—but not so great as an eye cream.

Here are some of the comments we encountered during our research:

“Not bad for eliminating puffiness around the eyes. It has a tightening effect and feels nice and cool. It doesn’t do much for fine lines, but for giving you a more awake feeling.”

“This was an okay eye gel, given that it’s about 4 bucks. I wasn’t super impressed with its long-term effect on the skin (hint—it’s not much), but I liked the way it felt upon application. For the price, not bad.”

“Like most drugstore gels and eye creams, this product fails to deliver any meaningful benefits. It smells nice and feels cool upon application, but nothing special.”

“This was great for eyes suffering from seasonal allergies. I’m bummed they discontinued this one—it was my cheap little secret.”

The comments about St. Ives Eye and Face Stress Gel are all pretty much the same. People felt this product cooled their skin—soothing tired under-eyes and even helping reduce the discomfort of seasonal allergies.

That said, no one mentioned that this product was a good tool for anti-aging. Cucumber brings some nice benefits to the table, but its diluted with fillers, dyes, and fragrances—which makes this formula lose some of its appeal.

Learn which eye creams protect the skin from UV damage, address lines and wrinkles, and more. See our eye cream reviews here on our site.

Conclusion – Does St. Ives Eye and Face Stress Gel Work?

The main issue we had with St. Ives Eye and Face Stress Gel is that it’s hard to find. The eye gel has been discontinued and has few things written about it within the past decade.

With that in mind, it’s clear that any leftover product is likely well past the expiration date, canceling out any of the potential benefits it might have had in the first place.

The formula doesn’t look great. It contains a ton of filler ingredients and no known anti-aging components. There’s truly no need for this product to have dyes or scents included in the mix—these elements give off the impression that this is not a high-quality product and that it might irritate the skin.

There are other eye gels like this one, too. For example, the brand, Yes To makes something quite similar, but their version has a better ingredient profile—it doesn’t have a bunch of filler ingredients or dyes.

Again, it’s hard to recommend a product that has been discontinued and has mediocre reviews. St. Ives Eye and Face Stress Gel is not worth tracking down the remaining stock, as the product was lacking in potency to begin with.

Kremovage continually provides consumers with key benefits—protection, hydration, and skin-firming action. The formula is made from high-quality ingredients like Matrixyl 3000, hyaluronic acid, ocean-based retinol and plant oils—which come together to give users a more youthful appearance.

Kremovage has been subject to several rounds of quality testing. The product is safe for sensitive skin, and is free from parabens and petroleum products, in addition to being cruelty-free. To read up on the formula behind Kremovage, click the link provided.

14 Responses to St. Ives Eye and Face Stress Gel Review

Ann Marie says:

i loved the st ives eye gel.i have extremely sensitive eyes and it was the only eyegel that did not irritate my eyes.
it was cool and calming to my eyes and it also kept my eye area moisturised.i cannot get anything to replace it as yet!!!

Mahfoodha says:

Hi

I would love to buy this product..Where can I get it ?

Anonymous says:

I hope they bring it back!! I absolutely love this ptoduct!

Shirley Cramer says:

This is the best product I’ve ever used. It’s Ashame A few people say bad things about A wonderful product and ruins it for everyone. I used it it for yrs am 67 yrs old people think I’m 40. Love this stuff. There is nothing
Better

ian says:

how can i order this? thanks

SandyB says:

I cannot imagine why St. Ives would discontinue this gel. I’m 51 years old and I still have a bottle that I’ve been sparingly using now for about ten years. I have genetic bags under my eyes which get way worse with allergies and lack of sleep. I dab a tiny bit on those bags and there’s a SIGNIFICANT difference that I can see almost immediately. I’ve tried expensive brands looking for something that works this good and haven’t found any. Again, WHY would they discontinue it???

kim says:

I’ve been doing exactly the same with my own last bottle! A couple years ago my mom found another in her closet and now I have two that I am trying to make last as long as possible. Whether it is my dry eye condition or allergy season or just not the best night’s sleep, this gel is the only thing that wakes my eyes right up to face the day.

Debbie Walton says:

I absolutely loved the cucumber eye gel! I still look for it each time I go to the store, in hopes they have brought it back on the market. I hope oneday they will.

Lee Ling Ling says:

Hi i Malaysians where can I bought this st. Ives cumcuber eye and face stress gel?

Maria Bustamante says:

Please bring back the St. Ives Eye and Face Stress Gel for us. I cannot find another replacement, such as the St. Ives Eye and Face Stress Gel. It truly did make my skin look better, glossier.

Moreover, as an animal lover it is even an Incentive to purchase this gel

Bj House says:

Trying to find this product please help

NK Hart says:

I LUUUVVVVEEEDDD THIS FACE GEL… best I have ever had I loved it so much I couldn’t find it a couple of years back and I had to call the company and that’s when they told me they DC’d it. IM STILL CRYING

Anonymous says:

I’ve used this and it really reduced my puffiness. I can’t imagine why they discontinued it. I wish they would bring it back.

Freedom says:

Wonderful!!

Leave a Reply to SandyB Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *