Our Rating: 4 stars

Stemulation is a skincare line born from some gorgeous woman’s struggle with “dry and sensitive skin.” It is defined as a “luxury” skincare line as it uses the latest and greatest actives.

My initial impression was one of skepticism.

I started out using Stemulation Elevate Eye Cream ($75 in the TIA shop) around my left eye and YBF Correct around the right. After two weeks both eyes looked similar, so I started using Elevate around both eyes.

This is a wonderful product that ranks right up there with Correct. It does it all. I have found it amply moisturizing without being greasy. It does not cause milia; it seems to reduce them. My lids felt lifted and smooth.

My main concern around my eyes is underneath them. That area has been getting baggy and wrinkly with some crosshatching, mainly under the right eye. The only thing that has worked so far has been Correct. I have to say that Elevate did at least as good a job as Correct, if not better, at firming and smoothing that delicate under-eye area.

Elevate also had a noticeable effect on crow’s feet. I have a Palovia I’ve been using for a few months and I was able to suspend use of it while testing Elevate and not lose any of the good (and hard earned) results.

The cream is really more of a gel. It comes packaged in a small, half ounce tube. It easily dispenses a small dot – lentil-sized was all I needed – which glides easily around the eye area. There is no odor or lingering perfume. It’s neither greasy nor sticky.

The key active ingredient is human conditioned media. The company centers all of its products around stem cell technology. There is the synthetic snake venom peptide to relax expression lines and an “herbal complex,” which includes milk thistle and maritime pine. Milk thistle is supposed to be a moisturizing free-radical tamer and maritime pine is said to increase elasticity.

I was really pleased with the ingredients until I came to the last one. Elevate is preserved with quaternium-15. This is a nasty and highly allergenic chemical. It used to be used in many baby products but was so irritating that it had to be replaced. It is used in plastic products, cosmetics and sometimes even food.

I couldn’t understand why a cosmetics company would choose a cheap irritant to preserve an eye cream, of all things. TIA staffer Valerie was in contact with the sales rep, who forwarded my question to the formulator.

The response was that the level of quaternium-15 is only 0.2% of the product. The formulator assured us that this low level of preservative is in no way harmful and that it “preserves the integrity of the product.”

The representative also said, “Stemulation is first and foremost concerned with the safety of our clients.”

I didn’t experience any unpleasant or irritating side effects. It was disappointing to find an iffy ingredient in a product I was wholly enjoying, but I do recommend it for its efficacy.