Eye eye! The importance of a good eyecare routine - and some of my favourite products

Do you have a routine when it comes to skincare for your eye area? I do and I'm quite fixed on it, thanks to sensitive eyes that stream with tears if they don't like a product used in their vicinity.

For cleansing I'm a long-time devotee of La Roche-Posay's Toleriane eye makeup remover monodoses (€15.50) and there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth heard from around here if they ever dare to discontinue them. I use Muji's cotton pads with this and I'm pretty particular about them. At €5 for 60 pads, they're certainly on the pricy side, but I love how smooth and soft they are against the sensitive eye area and as each large pad can be peeled into 4 layers, I split them and use one layer per eye, getting 2 nights of makeup removal out of each pad. And how cute is the little graphic on the package showing how to use them?

The Toleriane makeup remover is extremely gentle and as such isn't ideal if you use waterproof eye makeup (you'll need something with an oil component to it), but it works well on my usual eye makeup and leaves my eye feeling cool and refreshed. I love the monodose concept - one is always enough to cleanse both eyes thoroughly and they're also perfect for travel or a night away. To use I soak a cotton pad until it's wet enough not to drag on the skin, then I press and hold the pad over the eye for a short while to help soften the makeup, before sweeping gently down and outwards until all makeup is removed.

When it comes to moisturizing, I do like eye-specific products. I know lots of you are happy using your facial moisturiser on the eye area too, but for me the skin there is so thin that I find the rich moisturizers I use on my face are too heavy and tend to clog up the pores there.

For daytime use I usually use a serum (at present the Caudalie Vinexpert eye serum) - it's a perfect base for makeup and a small drop does both eyes. At night I prefer a hydrating cream (I've tried a few and the Caudalie lip and eye cream is still my favourite) and again only a small amount is necessary, as I find overdoing it can leave eyes looking puffy in the morning.

To apply serum and cream, I dot the product along the orbital bone above and below the eye, then pat in gently with the ring finger, moving from the inner to outer corner. There's no need to apply the product any closer to the eye than the eye socket as it will travel inwards once it starts to absorb. Using the ring finger to pat it in guarantees that you won't apply too much pressure to the delicate skin in the area - you don't want to pull or drag it. And in sweeping gently outwards from the nose you should be stimulating lymphatic drainage, which helps relieve puffiness.

Let us know what eye products you rate in the comments below!