This Brightening Eye Cream Is Like A Booster For Your Concealer

I definitely don't get enough sleep, but it's something I've come to terms with because staying up late to watch reruns of The Office brings me joy. (Maybe Marie Kondo would approve?) Drinking one or two glasses of red wine as an 11 p.m. night cap also brings me joy, but I always end up tossing and turning through the night. Cutting to the chase: I can't live my life without coffee.

While caffeine kickstarts my energy levels, there's no running away from the dark circles under my eyes the next morning. No matter how much concealer I pile on, there's still some sort of darkness that peeks through. This Farsali Haldi Eyes product is meant to help with just that. It's supposed to brighten darkness over time and serve as a base for makeup. After opening the jar and seeing the bright yellow color, I was intrigued.

Off the bat, I found the formula to be super light, which is ideal when I'm layering concealer and setting powder on top. I dabbed a small speck of the cream under each eye and gently tapped the product in from the inner corner outwards. There was a bit of the yellowish color left behind from the star ingredient in the formula: turmeric.

“Turmeric has many amazing benefits. It has anti-inflammatory properties; it helps reduce dark circles; and it gives the skin a brightened complexion," Farsali founder Sal Ali tells Refinery29 in an email. Turmeric has also been an important ingredient in Ayurvedic practices for thousands of years, which is also significant for Ali. "As a South Asian myself, I really wanted to bring some of our culture to Farsali — like east meets west, skin care meets makeup."

The turmeric gave the product a color-correcting effect similar to the yellow pigments of a banana powder. I also saw an immediate plumpness thanks to the caffeine that's in the product. Once my concealer was set, my undereye area was clearly brighter and smoother than when I wear the concealer alone. You can definitely see the difference in photos, too — it's like I'm walking around with a smoothing filter on.

While I still have a couple weeks before I'm able to see if this eye cream will make a long-term difference — despite my horrible sleeping habits — I'm already impressed with how it works under makeup. Before this product, I never thought to use primer for my under-eye area, but this has definitely earned a spot in my makeup bag for as long as Michael Scott keeps making me laugh and the red wine keeps pouring.