The Eye Mask Edit: Under-Eye Patches for Puffy Mornings and Long Flights

The Eye Mask Edit: Under-Eye Patches for Puffy Mornings and Long Flights

An eye mask for skincare is a soaked patch that sits under the eyes for a few minutes to hydrate, cool or plump. Here are the retinol, peptide, gold and cryo versions I would reach for, and what each does best.

Under-eye patches went from a backstage trick to something people wear on planes, and the skincare eye mask is now its own small category. Peter Thomas Roth, who started his brand as a hobby in a small Rockefeller Center office in 1993, makes the Water Drench patches with hyaluronic acid, the ones I would pick for hydration before makeup and for dark circles that come from a short night. Peace Out was founded by Enrico Frezza, who worked in cybersecurity until he tried hydrocolloid wound dressings on his own breakouts, and its 360 patches carry encapsulated retinol and peptides for fine lines. Hourglass, founded by Carisa Janes in 2004 and fully vegan since 2020, makes Equilibrium, a gel eye mask you smooth on with your fingertips to plump and reduce the look of puffiness. Shiseido, the Tokyo company that started as a Western-style pharmacy in Ginza in 1872, makes the Benefiance retinol version for visible wrinkles. Next to those, SWEED's Peptide Ice patches are a cooling peptide gel, Dr. Barbara Sturm's Everything Eye Patches are the one I save for a flight that lands at dawn, Augustinus Bader's Eye Patch is a single hydrogel sachet that slips into a carry-on, and the MEDIHEAL Retinol Collagen Eye Ampoule Patch is the easy retinol option. Keep retinol patches for the evening, and if your eyes are sensitive, try them on your jaw first. Any eye mask works better cold, so keep a pack in the fridge.

Twelve boxes on a pale grey page, one for each product in this edit, each with its brand and name printed below: Peace Out 360° Eye Mask Patches With Encapsulated Retinol and Peptides For Fine Lines & Wrinkles, Peter Thomas Roth Water Drench Hyaluronic Acid Eye Mask Patches for Hydration and Dark Circles, Hourglass Equilibrium Instant Plumping Eye Mask, Shiseido Benefiance WrinkleResist24 Pure Retinol Express Smoothing Eye Mask, Wander Beauty Baggage Claim Gold Eye Mask 6 Pack, 111Skin Cryo De-Puffing Eye Mask 8 Pack, JLo Beauty That First Take Define & Depuff Eye Mask, Mutha Eye Maintenance 6-Peptide Eye Mask Prisms 6 Pack, Rhode Peptide Eye Prep Depuffing Eye Patches, MZ Skin Hydra-Bright Gold Eye Mask, goop Beauty GoopGenes Lift + Depuff Eye Masks and Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare DermInfusions Lift + Repair Eye Mask.
Eye mask

Under-eye treatments I reach for first

Gold, cold and peptides

The second row is for mornings after. Wander Beauty was started in 2015 by Divya Gugnani and the model Lindsay Ellingson after a survey of 100 women told them there were too many products and too little time, and Baggage Claim is the travel-friendly gold patch. 111Skin comes from the London plastic surgeon Dr. Yannis Alexandrides, who made his first formula because clinical products were too harsh for his patients, and the cryo patches cool and de-puff. JLo Beauty builds everything around olive oil, which Jennifer Lopez's mother treated as an all-purpose remedy, and That First Take defines and de-puffs. Mutha's founder Hope Dworaczyk Smith, an esthetician, moved up the launch of her peptide prisms because she wore them everywhere. Kat Burki's KB5 Eye Recovery Mask comes as a single sachet, Joanna Vargas's Bright Eye Firming Mask is the firming one, Jillian Dempsey's Eye Mask is a gel mask in a box, and M3's 24K Gold Under Eye Patches are a second gold option next to Wander.

More patches, and the skip

Rhode, Hailey Bieber's brand named for her middle name, makes peptide patches that the brand says improve puffiness right away. MZ Skin was founded by Dr. Maryam Zamani, a London oculoplastic surgeon, which makes her gold mask the one designed by someone who operates around eyes for a living. goop's version lifts and de-puffs, and Dr. Dennis Gross, a dermatologist and former skin cancer researcher, makes a mask to lift and repair. The long list below is for trying one at a time, and I would start with Hero Cosmetics' Mighty Patch for Tired Eyes, Abib's Jericho Rose jelly patch and Charlotte Tilbury's Immediate Eye Revival Patches. What I would skip is leaving patches on overnight or longer than the box says. They dry out and stop helping. Ten to twenty minutes is plenty.

Even more eye masks and patches

Getting the most from them

Apply to clean skin, press the patch down from the inner corner out, and lie back for ten minutes. Pat the leftover serum in instead of wiping it off. Follow with eye cream if your skin is dry. Save the cooling ones for mornings and the retinol ones for night, and never reuse a patch.