Kelly Driscoll

Did you know I really love history? Like I totally geek out over it, and I really love when history and my other passion, skincare, collide.

Like how Cleopatra used sea salt as a body scrub — ancient exfoliation! Or how Catherine the Great liked to bathe in a concoction of almond milk and rose water!

But one of the women from history that really captures my attention is Empress Josephine Bonaparte. She is one of those enigmatic women that continues to fascinate us even 200+ years after her death. The charming and beautiful wife of that most famous megalomaniac, Napoleon. You know, they say he still loved her passionately even after divorcing her and marring a princess.

Josephine was actually 6 years older than Napoleon. It was something of a scandal when they were married, and he even altered their marriage certificate to make her younger and him a bit older.

So it’s no wonder she had a complex beauty routine. She had to keep up the appearance of being younger, and of course, hold onto the love of the Emperor himself.

So what does this history lesson have to do with this week’s blog post?

Well, being the beauty buff that she was, and with some high stakes involved, Josephine enlisted the help of the dermatologist wonder of the Austrian Empire, Dr. Byrne Victor. Victor had created the “ageless mystery” and Empress Jo wanted what he was selling.

Fast forward to the 1940s. The “ageless mystery” is still a highly guarded secret by the Victor family. But Byrne Victor VII decided he was going to continue the family legacy of bringing this “ageless mystery” skincare to those who wanted it. Thus VIIcode was born.

So is this T2 Oxygen Eye Cream the “ageless mystery” we’ve been waiting for?

(Receipts: Post sponsored by VIIcode)

Packaging, Scent and Texture

First of all, let’s talk about this packaging. How beautiful is this little jar? So sleek, and I love the contrast of the translucent plastic against the slightly metallic royal blue! Fit for an Empress!

This also comes with its own carrying pouch, which I wasn’t sure I would use until I realized this also comes with an activation strip. This crescent shaped plastic is supposed to be used before applying the cream for better absorption.

This cream is a very thick, luscious, opaque white and smells very elegant. I would describe the scent as a light floral with a hint of herbs and fruit.

Superstar Ingredients

Some star ingredients of this cream include chamomile, which is a potent anti-inflammatory ingredient and is able to reduce skin irritants by neutralizing free radicals.

Another interesting ingredient is avocado, which is chock full of alpha-carotene, lutein and vitamins C and E. These antioxidants help protect the skin from environmental damage which can show up as wrinkles on our skin.

This formula also contains other collagen boosting antioxidants as well as hydrators like jojoba oil, aloe, hyaluronic acid and squalene. This also has one of my favorite ingredients, rice bran, which is a potent anti-aging ingredient known for its ability to reduce wrinkles.

Application

As I mentioned before, I love the packaging of this eye cream. Having this on my shelf makes me feel so special and really elevates the experience of using this cream. Plus, I can pretend I’m an Empress.

The first step in application is to “apply the unique crescent activation strip along the curvature of the eye to instantly activate cell vitality and clear the eye meridians…” uh, yeah okay.

I was quite confused about the use of this, and I wished there was a video showing me how to use this! I tried every angle, every side and just never felt totally comfortable using this (plus the points of the crescent were kind of sharp). I believe the idea was to gently release the possible fluids that can get stuck in our skin, causing a puffy appearance.

In the spirit of testing this properly, I still pressed the crescent into my under eye area before application, but also added a little light massage on the area to encourage fluid drainage (this can be done with a light essence and your fingers or a facial roller).

Now, this jar is tiny. Very tiny. In fact, I can only get one finger in this jar to pick up the product. I applied this cream with my ring finger to avoid any unnecessary skin pulling. I do wish this came with a spatula, as I found myself picking up way too much product with my finger. Did I mention this is tiny? Once I started to use the points of the crescent as a spatula, I didn’t feel like I was wasting so much product.

A little bit goes a long way with this cream, and it spreads across the skin easily and sinks in quickly. Even though this cream feels rich and moisturizing to the skin, it always played beautifully with my other skincare layers, sunscreen and makeup.

Results

This cream is part of the “ageless mystery” and claims to leave the skin silky, minimize the look of fine lines and dark circles will be “ever so-slightly less notable.” (direct quote from their website!)

Now, these aren’t outrageous claims for an eye cream to make. In fact, I rather respect VIIcode for keeping it real.

This cream does make my eye area feel silky. This cream is very moisturizing and really plumped up my eye area (in a good way) and my skin felt very nourished and protected. All without feeling heavy or oily on my skin.

I don’t really have dark circles under my eyes. I do get a reddish discoloration under my eyes that gets worse with lack of sleep. At the start of this testing period I was getting terrible sleep and that redness was very noticeable. After using this cream I did notice an improvement in my eye area. In fact, on days I know I didn’t get enough sleep and should expect that redness, I didn’t see it in the mirror while using this cream.

And now the big one, fine lines. I have to admit that I have been noticing more lines around my eyes recently. Its actually been a concern for me and I have been trying to adapt my routine to address the lines on my lower eye lids as well as some general loss of volume on my face.

So I really was excited to see what this cream could do. And I honestly felt like I did see results. I have tested this for almost 5 weeks in my morning and night routine. I started to notice a difference after two weeks in the visibility of my fine lines. I also believe this helped with the volume loss I mentioned.

The first picture was taken about two weeks before I started using this cream. You can see the reddish discoloration (even under my makeup) as well as the two deep lines that I attribute to volume loss. Unfortunately, the camera couldn’t catch my super fine lines but you get the idea.

The second pic was taken about 2-3 weeks into using this cream. You can see the discoloration is gone, and the eye area looks so much healthier. You can also see that the deep lines have become less noticeable and less deep!

The Bottom Line

Does this cream live up to its claims? Yes. It really surprised me how well it worked. It’s not a miracle worker or the fountain of youth, but it really did make a difference in my eye area, and I can’t say many products have been able to do that for me. I believe that with continued use, I would see an even bigger positive result.

But, there is always a but with something this good. This is pricey. My 5 ML jar retails for $99. And after five weeks of twice daily use, is nearly gone. As of writing this, it looks like VIIcode is only offering this cream in a 15ML jar for a cool $199.

So it’s pricey, but it really works. I’ll leave that one up to you.

I have enjoyed my time pretending to be the Empress of my bathroom while using this totally luxe eye cream, and, of course, I loved getting a taste of the “ageless mystery!”

^Sponsored Post

VIIcode T2 Oxygen Cream Website (15ml size)

Buy on Amazon* (5ml size)

*Indicates use of affiliate links that provide a small commission to help run this blog