Monday 23 March 2015

Non invasive filling of the tear trough - natural filling substances

Today I've got for you post that took me over six months to complete.
Since always I had problems with me eyes' area - dark circles, under eye bags, wrinkles. Dark circles don't bother me anymore, coz they are nothing else but blood vessels being close to the skin surface and giving it purplish cast. Wrinkles - just getting older I suppose. The biggest problem are my under eye bags, which during past year got much worse. Colleagues at work kept asking me if I feel alright, I was looking very tired and down even when I slept 10 hours and felt great. Becoming fed up with my tired face I tried different tricks - some moves from Tanaka face massage, massaging face with ice cubes, face yoga exercises. Unfortunately none of this methods were working, I kept looking like an underdog. Eventually, completely frustrated I stood in front of the mirror for good half an hours, touching and examining skin around my eyes and I came to sudden realisation why none of the under eye bags tricks worked - it wasn't the bags that were my problem, it was so called tear through (also known as tear valley).

What is tear through?
Tear through is a lack of adipose tissue under the skin, running obliquely from inner corner of the eye toward the cheek, along the eye socket edge. It may be caused by sudden weight loss or ageing - as we age the tissue and skin loosens and slides down toward the cheek, leaving "valley" behind.

Under eye bags or tear through?
Bags under the eyes are opposite of the tear through - it's puffiness under the eyes caused by accumulation of lymph and/or adipose tissue, which may be reduced by lymphatic drainage or injection lipolysis. But even though this two problems are completely different they are easy to mix up - the tear through creates optical illusion of under eye bag, the subsidence on the eye socket edge makes skin between lash line and eye socket look puffy. The easiest way to determine if you deal with bags or tear through is to examine your eye area with your fingers. Do you feel tissue under the skin, is the eye socket edge easy to feel? This is how I recognised my tear through - skin under my eyes was very thin, the eye socket so easy to feel that I was afraid to put any pressure when touching my eye area, scared that I would bruise myself.

Filling the tear through
The most popular way of tear through rejuvenation is filling with hyaluronic acid injections. Unfortunately the treatment is quite expensive (the cheapest I managed to find was £250 for single course, but sometimes you need more than one) and it doesn't last - have to be repeated every 12-18 months.
What you can do then if you are afraid of needles or can't afford spending couple of hundreds every year?
Thanks to one Polish beauty bloger I found out about lipophilic substances, natural filling ingredients for topical use. In June 2014 I bought my first topical filler - Sidmool Pueararia Anemarrhena Elastic Essence. Essence contains extract of Pueraria Mirificia and Anemarrhena Asphodeloides. Pueraria contains isoflavones and fitoestrogen and causes the filling effect by accumulating water and fat in the application spot. Asphodeloides is plant growth factor, which stimulates production of adipose tissue, also causing the filling effect. It's a great duo for tissue loss - one substance produces fat tissue, the other one "feeds" it.


Essence is a runny liquid, which makes application a pain. The pump applicator sucked, shooting liquid in uncontrollable way, so I changed it for pipette that I had after using up some other product. On the beginning I was pouring a little bit of liquid out on my palm and gently patted into eye area, but it took ages to get absorbed, so I gave up this method. Instead I started to make compress out of it - I cut cotton pad into strips which I soaked in liquid and kept on my tear troughs until dry (about 30-40 minutes).


Unfortunately I lost my first bottle of the essence in delegation just after a month of use, so I quickly had to buy another one. Turned out I did it just in time, as in Autumn Sidmool stopped production of this essence and brought instead essence containing 70% of Anemarrhena Asphodeloides.

Old formula INCI: Pueraria Mirifica Root Extract, Water, Anemarrhena Asphodeloides Root Extract, Sodium Hyauronate, Glycerin, Fructan, Althea Rosea Root Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Avena Sativa (Oat) Kernel Extract, Zanthoxylum Piperitum Fruit Extract, Usnea Barbata (Lichen) Extract, Xanthan Gum

New formula INCI:  Anemarrhena Asphodeloides Root Extract, Water, Sodium Hyaluronate, Glycerin, Fructan, Althaea Rosea Root Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Avena Sativa (Oat) Kernel Extract, Zanthoxylum Piperitum Fruit Extract, Pulsatilla Koreana Extract, Usnea Barbata (Lichen) Extract, Xanthan Gum

I haven't use the new product yet, but there is not much change - they gave up on Pueararia extract and instead put more Anemarrhena in it.
You can buy Sidmool Anemarrhena Elasticity Essence on Tester Korea for 15300 KRW which equals about £9. I have paid for my essences about
£30 each, as I didn't know Tester Korea back then and I bought it from bloger thanks to who I heard about them.

My next non invasive filling product was Aida Wonder Eye Volume Filler. I came across it accidentally, browsing sale section on Memebox website. Product was featured in one of the boxes, but I don't know which one as I wasn't much of a Memebox fan. I can't remember exactly how much I have paid for it, but I think it was around £15-17.


Wonder Eye is a product designed to achieve "ulzzang eyes" - a little fold underneath lower lash line that is considered cute in Asia. Product contains 10% Volufiline, French patent filling substance. I thought that Volufiline is some kind of synthetic ingredient, but it turns out that it's already mentioned Anemarrhena Asphodeloides with addition of Hydrogenated Polyisobutene. 

INCI: Purified Water, Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Jimo Extract, Butylene Glycol, PEG-32, Glycerin, Glyceryl Acrylate/Acrylic Acid Copolymer, 1, 2-Hexanediol, Niacinamide, Macadamia Seed Oil, Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer,C12-14 Pareth-12, Sodium Hyaluronate, PEG-5 Glyceryl Stearate, PEG-8 Stearate, PEG-20 Stearate, PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Portulaca Oleracea Extract, Carbomer, Arginine, Xanthan gum, Adenosine, Disodium EDTA, Pomegranate extract, Ascrobic Acid

 
Thanks to pointy applicator product is easy to use and precise. It works like pen, by pressing button on one end it will pop out a bit of cream on the other end. The effects were noticeable quickly, much quicker than with Sidmool essence. I'm not sure if it's combination of this two (when I started Wonder Eye I still had some Sidmool, so I used one in the morning and the other at night) or just Wonder Eye, but my tear through has finally began to get shallower. 


Unfortunately is seems like my fillers are jinxed - I found this product only on Gmarket, but from quite along time now it's out of stock. I am not sure if it still even manufactured. As an act of despair you can try Avecko, website that offers "buying service" - you need to tell them what Korean product you are looking for, if they find it, they will buy it, add some commission and send it to you.

So far I didn't have to turn to Avecko, because I found a Polish website offering cosmetic ingredients to make your own formula and they have a product called Voluplus. This one, for a change, doesn't contain Pueraria nor Anemarrhena, but Macelignan, a substance obtained from nutmeg, that expands adipose tissue and stimulates production of new fat cells. The products comes in a plastic bottle with dropper like nose or eye drops.

INCI: Macadamia Ternifolia Seed Oil 95-96 %, Macelignan 3-5 %, Tocopherol 0,2-0,3%

Macadamia seed oil in this formulation is a carrier/solvent for Macelignan, it also offer moisturisation and softening effects.
 
Voluplus is designed to be used with other products, recommended concentration is 2-5%. Macelignan, as a lipophilic substance, likes oils so it's recommended to be added to some facial oil. I can tolearte oils on my face only in cleansing version, so I decided to go for a cream. I bought regenerating and nutritious
Dr Organic Moroccan Argan Oil Day Cream, which contains various oils: argan oil, cannabis oil, clove oil, cinnamon oil, rosewood oil etc. I mixed 50ml of cream with 5ml of Voluplus, achieving 10% concentration.


mixing cream with Voluplus
Voluplus didn't change cream's texture or smell. Cream itself has quite strong smell, which makes undereye application slightly unpleasant, but well, that's what happens when you buy cream without checking first... Cream is slightly greasy, so I use it only at night time - after cleansing my face I apply it on my tear throughs and nasalobial folds, give it some time to absorb and top up with my usual eye cream and night cream. Voluplus maintained great results that I achieved with Wonder Eye, currently I look better tired than what I looked like 6 month ago after 10 hours sleep :)

The results
The part that everyone have been looking forward to ;) here are the results after 7 months with natural fillers:


The difference is not smashing, but there is visible improvement, the tear through is more shallow and shorter. The biggest difference is the skin structure, when I touch my skin under the eyes it's no longer thin like a paper, I can feel tissue between skin and eye socket edge. I can now easily put creams under my eyes and apply some massage without worrying that I will bruise myself.

The difference is more noticable when you add some effects to photos:

Increased saturation - you can admire gorgous purplishness around my eyes :P
Black and white, no other effects
Negative - here the difference is the most obivious
So as you can see the natural filling substances work, but if you want to give them a try you need to be patient. I noticed that effects are better when you apply along the whole bottom line of eyesocket, from inner corner of the eye in semi-circle across the cheek, not only on the tear through.

Where to apply
The costs
Sidmool Pueararia Anemarrhena Elastic Essence x2 = £60
Wonder Eye - approx. £17
Voluplus - 20PLN, approx £4
Dr Organic Argan Oil Day Cream (to mix with Voluplus) - £7 (regular price is £9, but I bought it on offer)
Together approx. £88, but it didn't feel as so much, as it wasn't one off spending. My treatment isn't over yet, I still got over half a jar of cream with Voluplus, which should last good couple of months, so this £88 may be treated as a cost of year long therapy. Much cheaper then hyaluronic acid injections, but takes much longer to see the results.

I would recommend natural filling methods for peoplo who:
+ are patient and systematic
+ want to fight first signs of ageing
+ are afraid of needles and injections
+ can't afford hyaluronic acid injections
+ enjoy experiments :)

Natural fillers are NOT for people who:
- need results quickly
- have very deep tear through - the results may be unsatisfactory
- are impatient and unsystematic

Other filling products
Extracts of Pueraria or Anemarrhena can be found in many various creams designed to enlarge and firm bust. Just put "volufiline" into e-Bay search engine and many results would pop out, however if you want to use them on your face you sholud be cautious.

When it comes to filling products from trusted companies you can buy Sidmool Volufiline Ampoule on Gmarket, sometimes it shows up on e-Bay as well. Product is worth consideration because of it's very pure ingredients:
INCI: Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Anemarrhena Asphodeloides Root Extract
it's 100% volufiline!



Also well known to fans of Korean beauty products Missha has it's own firming cream with Pueararia extract, designed to be used on bust and neck. It's available on Missha's official websites (unfortunately there is no UK website) and e-Bay, for approx. £15.


Terminology
Just to clarify:
Pueraria Mirificia = Kwao Krua Kao
Anemarrhena Asphodeloides = Jimo = Zhi Mu
Volufiline = Hydrogenated Polyisobutene + Anemarrhena Asphodeloide


http://www.zs2.lubartow.pl/liceum/images/stories/jd/losyabs/ikony/ozdobnik.gif

If you struggle with tear throughs, nasalobial folds or loss of firmness I would like to encourage you to look for your own fillers. If you now any other products containing filling ingredients, please let me know! :)

12 comments:

  1. hi! Was just reading this review and found it very helpful but also very confusing because of what products you used and what products are currently on the market, also in searching voluplus couldnt read the words on the website because Im only fluent in english. My tear troughs are about the same as yours and i was wondering, if i bought wonder eye and put that on in the day along with the pure volufiline at night do you think this would achieve similar results? If not, which products would you recommend if Im searching to replenish fatty tissue in the tear trough area? And a last question, have you tried the 100% volufiline that you give a link to in the end of your article here? Sorry for the novel of questions, but this seemed to be the only thing Ive found helpful so far!! Thank you!

    Paulina (skysinger007@gmail.com) - feel free to reply to me by email!

    ReplyDelete
  2. sorry one more question, if I use the volufiline, do i need to dilute it in cream and what type would be best?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hi :)
      I haven't tried the 100% volufiline from Sidmool yet, but I heard good things about it. This product is ready to use and you don't have to dilute it with anything else. Wonder Eye + Volufiline sounds like a good plan to me! The only downside of using two products at the same time is that you won't know which one works best for you, but if you need results quickly that's the way to go I suppose.
      Good luck and feel free to ask more questions :)

      Delete
    2. thank you for your reply!! I do have just one more, did you put the wonder eye onto the dark area/trough? as opposed to on the bottom eyelid to get the effect that the box advertises

      Delete
    3. yes, I only applied it on the trough :)

      Delete
  3. Just wondering why you have to mix the voluplus or volufiline.... can it not be used on its own? :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. volufiline by Sidmool doesn't have to be mixed, as for voluplus - I was just following the seller's instructions, but I know some people use it directly on skin. I may try that next time :)

      Delete
  4. Hi I just wanted to ask have you still been using this product has it helped? like increased the volume in the tear trough area could you post an updated photo?

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  5. How about hydraulic acid or restylane based cream?

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. I am from the United States but the polish website doesnt seem to ship the the United States. Do you know how I go about obtaining voluplus?

    ReplyDelete

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