The 11 Best Vegan Eye Creams: Clean, Cruelty-Free & Loved by Users
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If I’m being radically honest, I’m still on the fence about eye creams. Their efficacy remains a pretty hotly debated topic in the beauty world, and I’m in favor of powerful but simple skincare routines. On the other hand, the skin under our eyes is among the most delicate and prone to showing age, so it does feel worth pampering. Not wanting to regret my choices years down the line, I have settled, for now, on using a high-grade eye cream morning and night. If you find yourself in the same boat—or if you’re a strong believer—here are 11 clean, vegan eye creams that are loved by users.
Whether you’re looking to combat signs of aging, brighten, hydrate, soothe, or reduce dark circles and puffiness (or all of the above!), this post will help you find the best vegan eye cream for your goals.
What Makes These Vegan Eye Creams Stand Out?
There’s no shortage of eye creams on the market. So much so that it can be overwhelming! This post was carefully curated to feature only products that are:
- Highly reviewed: each with a minimum 4.2 / 5 star rating.
- Good for all skin types: hooray, sensitive skin-havers!
- Clean: quality ingredients with no nasties. Scroll to the bottom of this post for more details.
- Cruelty-free and vegan: always. Fully vegan brands are denoted with a (V).
The Best Vegan Eye Creams Under $25
It can feel like anything in the ‘clean beauty’ realm is automatically expensive. To some extent it’s true that higher-grade ingredients, cruelty-free status, and more eco-friendly packaging come with added costs, but some brands still manage to offer all that at a great price. Do you have to hunt a little harder for highly-reviewed but still affordable vegan eye creams? Sure do. But they’re out there, and they’re glorious. Enjoy.
1. Holy Hydration! Eye Cream
e.l.f. SKIN (V)
A beloved vegan eye cream that seriously hydrates
Talk about a vegan eye cream that checks all the boxes: e.l.f.’s Holy Hydration! is infused with hyaluronic acid for hydrating and plumping, has 4.5 / 5 stars across almost 6,000 reviews, and costs only $10. What’s not to love?
Price: $10 || Size: 0.53 oz
Hero Ingredients: Hyaluronic acid, peptides
Reviewers Love: Hydrating, plumping, smoothing; great value for money; helps with fine lines
2. Revive Eye Serum
Beauty of Joseon
A luxurious but affordable ginseng + retinal eye cream
Beauty of Joseon rose to fame for good reason—they blend traditional Korean herbal medicine ingredients with luxury-quality formulas, all at an affordable price. Their lightweight eye serum (which feels more like a cream) is a perfect example of all these perks. Note that theirs is the biggest size on the list—1 oz versus .5 oz—so it’s actually the most affordable per ounce.
Price: $16 || Size: 1 oz
Hero Ingredients: Ginseng, retinal, niacinamide
Reviewers Love: Hydrates, smooths, brightens; visibly reduces puffiness and fine lines over time; melts in and leaves no sticky residue; a little goes a long way
3. Revitalizing Dew Snow Mushroom Eye Gel-Cream
WELL PEOPLE (V)
A lightweight gel eye cream perfect for sensitive skin
This gentle, featherlight gel-cream melts in like a dream, hydrating deeply as it goes. It’s loved by those with sensitive skin. Gel creams are a great option if you prefer a lighter and more refreshing feel versus a traditional cream.
Price: $18 || Size: 0.5 oz
Hero Ingredients: Aloe extract, broccoli seed oil, snow mushroom, and niacinamide
Reviewers Love: Lightweight gel texture that absorbs well; moisturizing; great for sensitive skin; a little goes a long way
4. Revitalizing Eye Cream
Cocokind
A refreshing option with a cooling metal tip applicator
Ooh, you’ve got to love the cooling effect of a metal tip applicator. This somewhat thicker-than-average vegan eye cream from Cocokind uses unique ingredients like Persian silk tree to fade dark circles and (alongside the metal tip) de-puff.
Price: $19 || Size: 0.5 oz
Hero Ingredients: Persian silk tree, hibiscus flower acids, oat extract
Reviewers Love: Lovely, refreshing applicator (especially when stored in the fridge); de-puffs eyes; great underneath concealer
5. Eye Cream
Mad Hippie (V)
A potent but gentle formula with peptides and antioxidants
Powerful peptides for rejuvenation, niacinamide for anti-aging, and kakadu plum for brighting? Yes, please. All that goodness, and reviewers still love this clean eye cream for being super gentle.
Price: $21 || Size: 0.5 oz
Hero Ingredients: Peptides, niacinamide, licorice, kakadu plum, caffeine
Reviewers Love: Visible reduction of dark circles and puffiness; great value for the money; very gentle and great for sensitive skin
The Best Vegan Eye Creams Under $50
This next section is devoted to vegan eye creams that range from $25 to $50. You’ll find a range of benefits, premium hero ingredients (like organic kakadu plum and glacial marine mineral water), and sustainable packaging, making these especially lovely gifts for yourself or your favorite beauty lover.
6. One Perfect Plumping + Firming Eye Cream
Knours
An EWG Verified®, active-packed, hormone-conscious eye cream
Knours products were made in collaboration with dermatologists and herbalists in Korea, and designed to be free of hormone-disrupting ingredients. Their eye cream is full of active ingredients that do it all—brighten, smooth, firm, plump, and hydrate—with a soothing metal tip to boot.
Price: $28 || Size: 0.5 oz
Hero Ingredients: Hyaluronic acid, ceramide, niacinamide, shea butter, fruit + flower oils
Reviewers Love: Ease and comfort of application thanks to the ceramic tip; brightening, tightening, and plumping effects
7. First Light Vitamin C + Caffeine Eye Cream
Three Ships (V)
A gentle, soothing formula to brighten and de-puff with a ceramic tip applicator
Three Ships is a lovely brand that makes a lot of beloved products. Their eye cream works to de-puff and brighten skin through its hero ingredients and ceramic tip applicator. Many reviewers also comment on its fine-line-reducing effects, which is no small feat!
Price: $30 || Size: 0.5 oz
Hero Ingredients: Acerola cherry vitamin C, caffeine, squalane
Reviewers Love: Cooling applicator depuffs eyes; works well under makeup and doesn’t pull; visibly diminishes fine lines; lightweight consistency that feels great on the skin
8. Mineral Eye Cream
NENA (V)
An EWG Verified® eye cream made with nutrient-rich glacial marine mineral water
Glacial ocean mineral water, sugar maple, green tea?! Yes please. This loaded vegan eye cream from NENA uses unique ingredients to correct dark circles, reduce puffiness, and boost collagen production. Why glacial marine mineral water? Unlike regular distilled water, it is rich in magnesium, calcium, potassium, zinc, copper, and selenium.
Price: $32 || Size: 0.5 oz
Hero Ingredients: Glacial oceanic mineral water, sugar maple, Canadian berries, probiotics, green tea, pomegranate, caffeine
Reviewers Love: Silky and moisturizing; depuffs and brightens effectively; good for sensitive skin. (Note: This product doesn’t have a ton of reviews. It was, however, a finalist for two beauty awards.)
9. Brightwave – Brightening Eye Cream
Kinship
A vitamin C formula with major brightening effects
The majority of reviewers who used Kinship’s Brightwave eye cream marveled at its effectiveness in brightening dark circles. And look at that sunny jar—it’ll brighten your mood, too.
Price: $40 || Size: 0.5 oz
Hero Ingredients: Vitamin C THD ascorbate, red algae, chaga mushroom
Reviewers Love: Brightens and lightens dark circles; fast-working; velvety; the container lasts a long time
10. Herban Wisdom® Eye Cream
Humanist Beauty (V)
An EWG Verified®, full-spectrum whole hemp formula packed with actives
Humanist Beauty uses hemp to create this lush eye cream that balances skin’s stress response, offers anti-aging benefits, and increases luminosity, elasticity, and resilience.
Price: $40 || Size: 0.5 oz
Hero Ingredients: Full-spectrum whole hemp, adaptogens, medicinal mushrooms
Reviewers Love: Rich, buttery texture that’s still lightweight; soothing CBD; absorbs readily; has won over even eye cream skeptics
11. Berry Bright Firming Vitamin C Eye Cream
KORA
A refillable, certified organic, firming and brightening eye cream
As I do every time KORA is featured on Florah, I’ll call out that Miranda Kerr is behind this brand. And her wholesome, effortless glow and commitment to organic ingredients just intrigues me. This pretty, pink, EWG Verified eye cream comes in a refillable glass jar, and is loved for its all-day hydration and brightening effects.
Price: $48 || Size: 0.5 oz
Hero Ingredients: Kakadu plum, vitamin C, cloudberry, red ginseng
Reviewers Love: All day hydration; brightening effects; beautiful, refillable jar; rich and thick texture
Vegan Eye Creams By Price
Many options in this post are premium by virtue of their higher-than-average-quality ingredients and ethics. For ease of comparison, here are the eye creams in this post listed by price. All are 0.5 oz except Beauty of Joseon, which is 1 oz (this is noted below).
- Holy Hydration! Eye Cream [e.l.f. SKIN]: $10
- Revive Eye Serum [Beauty of Joseon]: $16, but for 2x amount of product vs. other options
- Revitalizing Dew Snow Mushroom Eye Gel-Cream [WELL PEOPLE]: $18
- Revitalizing Eye Cream [Cocokind]: $19
- Eye Cream [Mad Hippie]: $26
- One Perfect Firming + Plumping Eye Cream [Knours]: $28
- First Light Vitamin C + Caffeine Eye Cream [Three Ships]: $30
- Mineral Eye Cream [NENA]: $32
- Brightwave – Brightening Eye Cream [Kinship]: $40
- Herban Wisdom® Eye Cream [Humanist Beauty]: $40
- Berry Bright Firming Vitamin C Eye Cream [KORA]: $50
Q’s & A’s
What are clean vegan eye creams?
“Clean beauty” is a term that gets thrown around a lot, and it can be confusing to try to understand what it means in any given context. It’s a key topic of discussion ’round these parts, so head to this post for a detailed explanation of what products qualify as “clean” on Florah. Or you can read the TL;DR list here:
- Cruelty-free and vegan, always
- Made by transparent brands that are forthcoming with their ingredient philosophy, sustainability efforts, and values as a brand
- Checked against third party sites dedicated to a) providing information and rankings of clean products, like EWG’s Skin Deep database and/or b) selling products that meet high cleanliness standards, like Credo Beauty, Petit Vour, and The Detox Market
- Checked against review sites to ensure their efficacy and quality
What does “EWG Verified” mean?
EWG (Environmental Working Group) is a nonprofit whose mission is, in their words, “To empower you with breakthrough research to make informed choices and live a healthy life in a healthy environment.” They work in several areas, including food and water, farming and agriculture, and, relevant for our purposes here, consumer products.
EWG Verified® products meet high standards around: excluding various ingredients known or suspected to be bad for us, limiting the use of various ingredients for the same reason, and providing full transparency into ingredients. The EWG stamp is a good indication that a product claiming to be clean is actually clean.
What’s the difference between eye creams and eye serums?
No judgement if you find yourself asking this question because I, too, realized I wasn’t entirely clear on it as I wrote this post. If you’d like an in-depth answer, this article is helpful.
Essentially eye serums, like other facial serums, are highly concentrated and potent products. Think: more dramatic and faster results. Serums also tend to be thinner and not necessarily focused on moisturizing, but more on targeting specific concerns (like fine lines). Eye serum comes before eye cream in your routine, assuming nothing on either package suggests you shouldn’t use both in close succession.
There’s a commonly-touted but apparently false idea that the reason serums come before creams is because of molecular size. The myth goes thusly: serums have smaller molecules, so they go on first to ensure that they don’t get ‘blocked’ by the larger cream molecules, which go on second. It turns out (thanks, science) that there’s space between molecules, so that concept doesn’t really make sense. However, the “thinnest to thickest” product rule is still a good standard because it means you’ll typically be going water-based product to oil-based product, which is what you want for best absorption.
Whew!
Next comes eye creams. They can also have very potent ingredients for specific benefits (like anti-aging), but their primary purpose tends to be providing a boost of luscious moisture. As such, they’re often thicker and, why yes, creamier.
How do you find the right eye cream for you?
I decided to include this questions after reading hundreds of reviews for different eye creams while compiling this post. What started to stick out to me was how vastly people’s experiences differ with any given eye cream. What is the holy grail, finally-found-the-perfect-one-and-never-going-back eye cream to one person may be a 2-star, “Meh, didn’t really see any difference,” to another.
My guess is that this boils down to a) expectations and b) the uniqueness of being a person with skin. It seems that some people think that an eye cream will be totally transformative and when it’s not, they’re disappointed. I can understand the feeling, but I also think we have to temper our expectations against time and gravity and genetics, to an extent.
Then there’s the fact that people are just so individual. Skin can be sensitive to so many different things, vary in thickness, and have completely different needs depending on factors like age, hydration levels, and even sleep quality. What works wonders for one person might irritate another’s skin or do absolutely nothing at all.
So, how do you find your perfect eye cream? The best approach seems to be a mix of managing expectations, understanding your skin’s specific needs, and a little bit of trial and error. Look for ingredients that target your concerns—like caffeine for puffiness, peptides for fine lines, or ceramides for hydration—and pay attention to how your skin reacts over time. And most importantly, give it time! No single product is a magic fix, but the right one can make a noticeable difference with consistency.
What’s your favorite clean, vegan eye cream?
Leave a comment below! I would love to know your go-to products.
