Single-product dossier / US market
One active, eleven years on the shelf, and a formula where five of twelve marketing claims do not survive the ingredient table.
A drugstore retinol eye cream that has been on the shelf long enough to accumulate 25,013 ratings, priced at $19.97 and sold in a 14 ml tube. This dossier reads the listing, the rating distribution, the 28-row formula record and eleven years of price tracking in one pass, and flags the places where those four sources disagree.
- Brand Neutrogena
- Format 14 ml eye cream
- Actives Retinol + Sodium Hyaluronate
- Capture 2026-11-01
- Currency USD, native
Product information
What the listing itself declares: identity, size, positioning and the claims the brand makes in its own copy. Read against a US delivery address, so every price in this report is native USD with no conversion applied.
What the brand promises, in its own words.
- 0.5-fluid ounce tube of Neutrogena Fragrance-Free Rapid Wrinkle Repair Retinol Anti-Wrinkle Eye Cream with retinol & hyaluronic acid to target crow's feet, fine lines & dark circles. Your Rapid Wrinkle Repair just got upgraded, now with a soothing complex
- The beginner strength fragrance-free retinol cream hydrates & moisturizes the delicate under eye area. It is formulated to help fade the look of fine lines & stubborn crow's feet & brighten & even the look of skin in the under eye area
- Anti-aging eye cream with pure retinol, a form of Vitamin A scientifically proven superior to other retinyl esters, improves the look of fine lines & dark spots & hyaluronic acid to add plumping moisture to help hydrate & rejuvenate the look of skin
- This unscented anti-wrinkle cream features a soothing complex to nourish skin & help minimize the potential for irritation. The under eye cream is suitable for daily use & is formulated without fragrance, parabens, mineral oil & dyes
- The perfect addition to a daily at-home anti-age skincare routine, this fragrance-free anti-wrinkle retinol eye cream works quickly for visible results & is the #1 retinol brand used most by dermatologists
Product rating
A 4.4 average across 25,013 ratings. The shape matters more than the number: the top two buckets hold 84% and the three-star bucket, at 10%, is the largest single non-five-star block.
The weighted check is close but not exact: 5x67 + 4x17 + 3x10 + 2x3 + 1x3 over 100 gives 4.42, which rounds to the displayed 4.4. The per-bucket counts in the table are reconstructed from the published percentages, so they are approximations of the underlying counts, not published figures. At this sample size a one-point move in any bucket is noise.
Star distribution, share of all ratings
| Bucket | Share | Ratings |
|---|---|---|
| 5 star | 67% | ~16,759 |
| 4 star | 17% | ~4,252 |
| 3 star | 10% | ~2,501 |
| 2 star | 3% | ~750 |
| 1 star | 3% | ~750 |
| Total | 100% | 25,013 |
Product ingredients
28 declared rows, of which only 8 carry a published comedogenic or irritancy grade. That ratio is the honest headline here: for 20 rows the record says nothing, and silence is not a passing grade.
Claims the formula supports
Seven claims hold and five do not. The two worth slowing down on are the ones that cut against the marketing: the formula is not pore-clogger-free (two grade-2 rows) and not fungal-acne-safe (three fatty-alcohol or ester rows). The listing's own fragrance-free and paraben-free statements are confirmed by the table, not merely asserted.
Ingredient rows by comedogenic / irritancy level
| Level | Reading | Rows |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | No comedogenic or irritancy flag | 3 |
| 2 | Low (grade 1) | 2 |
| 3 | Moderate (grade 2) | 2 |
| 4 | Elevated (grade 3 and above) | 1 |
| — | No grade published on the record | 20 |
| Total declared | 28 |
How the formula divides by functional role. Emollients and emulsifiers carry the texture; only a handful of rows carry the actives.
Rows per functional role group
Rows carrying a grade of 2 or higher, which is where the acne and irritation questions usually start.
| # | Ingredient | Function | Comedogenic | Irritancy | Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | Ceteareth-20 | Cleansing | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 6 | Stearyl Alcohol | Emollient | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| 7 | Cetearyl Alcohol | Emollient | 2 | 1 | 3 |
The complete declared list, in order. A dash means the record publishes no grade for that row — it is not a zero.
| # | Ingredient | Function | Comedo. | Irrit. | Lvl |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Water | Skin Conditioning | EM | EM | — |
| 2 | Pentaerythrityl Tetraethylhexanoate | Emollient | EM | EM | — |
| 3 | Dimethicone | Emollient | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 4 | Glycerin | Humectant | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 | PPG-15 Stearyl Ether | Emollient | EM | EM | — |
| 6 | Stearyl Alcohol | Emollient | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| 7 | Cetearyl Alcohol | Emollient | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 8 | Butylene Glycol | Humectant | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 9 | Ceteareth-20 | Cleansing | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 10 | Isohexadecane | Emollient | EM | EM | — |
| 11 | Dimethicone Crosspolymer | Emulsion Stabilising | EM | EM | — |
| 12 | Trisiloxane | Skin Conditioning | EM | EM | — |
| 13 | Phenoxyethanol | Preservative | EM | EM | — |
| 14 | Caprylyl Glycol | Emollient | EM | EM | — |
| 15 | Ammonium Acryloyldimethyltaurate/VP Copolymer | EM | EM | EM | — |
| 16 | Synthetic Wax | Abrasive | EM | EM | — |
| 17 | Polyacrylamide | EM | EM | EM | — |
| 18 | C13-14 Isoparaffin | Emollient | EM | EM | — |
| 19 | Chlorphenesin | Antimicrobial | EM | EM | — |
| 20 | Hydrolyzed Myrtus Communis Leaf Extract | Skin Protecting | EM | EM | — |
| 21 | BHT | Antioxidant | EM | EM | — |
| 22 | Sodium Hyaluronate | Humectant | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 23 | Disodium EDTA | Chelating | EM | EM | — |
| 24 | Laureth-7 | Emulsifying | EM | EM | — |
| 25 | Ascorbic Acid | Antioxidant | EM | EM | — |
| 26 | Polysorbate 20 | Emulsifying | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 27 | Retinol | Skin Conditioning | EM | EM | — |
| 28 | Sodium Hydroxide | Buffering | EM | EM | — |
The second ingredient database (COSDNA) was unreachable on the capture date: both the page reader and a real Chrome session were held at a Cloudflare interstitial, so no cross-check row exists. The analysis above rests on a single source and is not presented as a consensus between two. No near-match product was substituted to fill the gap, and no grade was inferred from brand knowledge.
What buyers say
The rating histogram above is quantitative; this section is the qualitative half. Review bodies themselves were not readable on the capture date, so what follows is the listing's own aggregation plus the aspect counts, reproduced without quotation because nothing could be verified word for word.
Customers find the eye cream highly recommended, with positive feedback about its smooth texture and ability to make skin texture noticeably smoother. Moreover, they report that fine lines are magically disappearing, and the product doesn't irritate sensitive skin. However, the effectiveness and moisturizing properties receive mixed reviews - while some say it works well and moisturizes effectively, others report no results or drying effects. Additionally, customers disagree on the product's duration, with some saying it lasts a long time while others find it doesn't last as long as expected. Moreover, several customers report severe skin reactions, including burning and irritation under the eyes.
Amazon aggregated review summary, 25,013 ratingsMentions by aspect, positive vs negative
| Aspect | Mentions | Positive | Negative | Positive share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quality | 817 | 647 | 170 | 79% |
| Effectiveness | 722 | 409 | 313 | 57% |
| Moisturizing | 538 | 356 | 182 | 66% |
| Skin compatibility | 157 | 89 | 68 | 57% |
| Skin irritation | 112 | 20 | 92 | 18% |
| Fine lines | 81 | 60 | 21 | 74% |
| Duration | 77 | 48 | 29 | 62% |
| Skin feel | 75 | 70 | 5 | 93% |
Aspect counts are Amazon's own aggregation over the review set, not a sample this dossier took. The 18%-positive figure on skin irritation is the single most decision-relevant number on this page and it sits directly against the 93% on skin feel: most buyers find the texture pleasant, and a minority find it actively irritating. Those two facts are not in conflict - they describe different buyers.
Price and price history
Eleven years of tracking, from May 2011 to the capture date. The buy box sits at $19.97, which is neither the floor nor the ceiling of this product's own history.
All-time extremes per offer type. These are the tracker's summary values, not period statistics: the chart window rescales the plotted line but never the summary numbers.
| Price type | Lowest ever | Highest ever | Current | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | $11.48Dec 28, 2025 | $26.99Jul 24, 2024 | $19.97Nov 01, 2026 | $21.28 |
| 3rd Party New | $2.99Oct 03, 2014 | $39.85Nov 13, 2022 | $19.85Oct 25, 2026 | $20.41 |
| 3rd Party Used | $7.05Oct 04, 2015 | $16.79Dec 16, 2013 | — | $13.21 |
Price comparison: lowest, highest, current and average by offer type
Read against its own series rather than against list price, because this listing publishes no struck-through list price at all - the tracker's $29.49 is a historical reference the current page never shows.
| Derived metric | Amazon | 3rd Party New | 3rd Party Used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spread (high − low) | $15.51 | $36.86 | $9.74 |
| Current vs lowest ever | +74.0% | +563.9% | — |
| Current vs highest ever | -26.0% | -50.2% | — |
| Current vs all-time average | -6.2% | -2.7% | — |
| Average vs list price | -27.8% | -30.8% | -55.2% |
Who it suits, and what to watch
Two readers arrive at this page: someone buying their first retinol eye product, and someone who has already been burned by one. They should not read the same 4.4.
Reads as a fit if
A first retinol eye product. The tube is small and cheap enough to abandon, the formula is fragrance-free, the brand explicitly frames it as beginner strength and tells you to phase it in, and 84% of a very large rating base sits at four stars or better.
Reads as a risk if
Anyone with a reactive or rosacea-prone under-eye area, or anyone who has reacted to fatty alcohols before. The formula carries two grade-2 comedogenic rows and a grade-3 irritancy row, and the only aspect where sentiment breaks negative is irritation - 92 of 112 mentions.
Flagged by the formula record
Cetearyl alcohol (comedogenic 2, irritancy 1), stearyl alcohol (2/2) and Ceteareth-20 (2/3) are the three rows that make the pore-clogging and irritation questions legitimate rather than theoretical. Retinol itself is listed by the record as a rosacea trigger and is the formula's whole point, so it cannot be designed out - only paced.
Product images
The listing's own gallery, three frames side by side.
Method and confidence
Snapshot notice. Prices, rank and review counts move between captures; two reads a day apart on the same listing routinely differ. Every figure here describes the capture date 2026-11-01. Grades are the source database's own community aggregation, not an industry or regulatory standard, and nothing in this report is medical advice.