Index / Beauty of Joseon / Revive Eye Serum: Ginseng + Retinal
Beauty of Joseon

Revive Eye Serum: Ginseng + Retinal.

Beauty of Joseon Revive Eye Serum: Ginseng + Retinal
Eye Care

About this product

A lightweight eye serum combining retinal and ginseng designed to address fine lines, dark circles, and puffiness while being gentle enough for sensitive under-eye skin.

Best for

Sensitive skinMature skin
Eye Care

The Guru Index verdict

90%

Approved

Approved · 90%
Guru Certified
Broad expert consensus
12Reviewers
11Approved
1Mixed
0Skip
#1 in Best Eye Care

What the gurus are saying

Gurus overwhelmingly praise this as an effective yet gentle retinal option, especially for sensitive skin or those new to retinoids. The consensus highlights its lightweight gel-like texture, generous 30ml size, affordability, and versatility for use across the face and neck. One reviewer found it ineffective for dark circles after months of use, a notable outlier. Most appreciate that it delivers retinal benefits without typical irritation or dryness.
Synthesized from 12 expert reviews

Key actives & flags

RetinoidNiacinamideHyaluronic acidVitamin ECeramidesPeptidesFragrance-freeAlcohol-free

Full ingredients

Water, Panax Ginseng Root Extract, Glycerin, Dipropylene Glycol, Caprylic/​Capric Triglyceride, 1,2-Hexanediol, Pentaerythrityl Tetraethylhexanoate, Niacinamide, Butylene Glycol Dicaprylate/​Dicaprate, Cetearyl Alcohol, Sorbitan Olivate, Cetearyl Olivate, Butylene Glycol, Hydrogenated Lecithin, Tromethamine, Carbomer, Glyceryl Stearate, Macadamia Ternifolia Seed Oil, Adenosine, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Extract, Dextrin, Cholesterol, Polyglyceryl-10 Oleate, Retinal, Brassica Campestris (Rapeseed) Sterols, Phytosteryl/​Behenyl/​Octyldodecyl Lauroyl Glutamate, Silica, Sodium Hyaluronate, Tocopherol (Vitamin E), Aluminum/​Magnesium Hydroxide Stearate, Potassium Cetyl Phosphate, Pentaerythrityl Tetra-Di-T-Butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate, Ceramide, Palmitoyl Tripeptide-5, Disodium EDTA, Ethylhexylglycerin

Every take, in full

What the gurus are saying.

Every take we've logged from this product's reviews across YouTube. Click any row to watch the moment they said it.

All takes Approved only Skip only Mixed only Hide sponsored
Approved
"This is a really nice affordable retinol for under the eye. If you're somebody that uses a high potency retinoid, maybe a prescription strength or a high dose over the counter on your face, but you can't tolerate it under the eye because of the dryness and the sensitivity, use this. It's designed to be gentle for the under eye, but it still packs the punch. So you're still getting that crow's feet reduction. You're still getting all that great pro-collagen benefit, but in an eye-conscious way. They've really thought about how delicate the under eye is, and they formulated a product that can deliver, but without sensitizing. If you have very sensitive skin that can't tolerate retinoids, then you can actually use this all over the face. It's great as an eye cream, but you can use this all over the face. If you have sensitive skin, it's great for beginners. It ticks a lot of boxes, and that I absolutely love."
All 4 takes from Mad About Skin
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"This is the Beauty of Joseon Revive Eye Serum. This is retinal, my favorite form of over-the-counter retinoid, and ginseng. Ginseng is great for energizing the skin. It's got some great anti-inflammatory properties, too. If you have dark circles, you have puffiness under the eye, you got the emergence of crows feet, this is a super gentle option. The under eye area is the thinnest part of our face in terms of skin thickness. It's also one of the most sensitive. So if you bulldoze it with heavy actives, you're just going to get sensitivity, hyperpigmentation, and irritation. Treat the under eye with the love, the kindness, and the respect that it deserves. And I think this is a great option to do it. Because this is super gentle, if you're somebody that doesn't tolerate high strength retinal, you can actually use this all over the face. You get a lot of product. I think this is 30 ml, which is quite a large size for an eye cream and allows you to use it across the whole face. This is a great gentle anti-aging option for retinal in those delicate areas. For me, it's under the eye. And I also use this on the neck."
Its Over For Retinol - TOP 5 ANTI AGING SERUMS (Better Than Retinol)
"Beauty of Joseon Revive Eye Serum uses a low-dose retinal to give you some great long-term results while being mindful of minimizing side effects and irritation. The lower dose of that retinal means it's so friendly to sensitive skin or to beginners. Most people will start with this and then probably graduate to one of the higher strength options, which is fine, but honestly if this is all your skin can tolerate it's still a wonderful product and will absolutely give you some game-changing anti-aging results in the long term. You can use it across the whole face, it's absolutely fine. It's budget friendly because it doesn't break the bank, and I like the fact that we have a low-dose yet hyper-effective option on the market for beginners or for those with sensitive skin."
TOP 20 BEST SKINCARE PRODUCTS 2023 - Part 1 of 2
"If you're struggling to find an anti-aging eye cream that doesn't irritate, doesn't sensitize, this might be a really great option. It's affordable, it's flexible, it's ticking a lot of boxes."
No1 KOREAN SKINCARE BRAND 2026 - Best K-Skincare Ever
"This is a really nice affordable retinol for under the eye. If you're somebody that uses a high potency retinoid, maybe a prescription strength or a high dose over the counter on your face, but you can't tolerate it under the eye because of the dryness and the sensitivity, use this. It's designed to be gentle for the under eye, but it still packs the punch. So you're still getting that crow's feet reduction. You're still getting all that great pro-collagen benefit, but in an eye-conscious way. They've really thought about how delicate the under eye is, and they formulated a product that can deliver, but without sensitizing. If you have very sensitive skin that can't tolerate retinoids, then you can actually use this all over the face. It's great as an eye cream, but you can use this all over the face. If you have sensitive skin, it's great for beginners. It ticks a lot of boxes, and that I absolutely love."
Approved
"This is a cream that I love around the eyes. It is by Beauty of Joseon. It has a retinale. So it's not only going to help with the look of fine lines, but it's also gonna hydrate."
All 2 takes from Dr. Shereene Idriss
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"This is a cream that I love around the eyes. It is by Beauty of Joseon. It has a retinale. So it's not only going to help with the look of fine lines, but it's also gonna hydrate."
Best Skincare Under $25 from a Dermatologist! | Dr. Shereene Idriss
"Beauty of Joseon has a Revive Eye Serum with ginseng and retinal, which is stronger than retinol. So if you are nervous, I would start with this. If you are a little bit more accustomed to retinols and retinoids in general, I would then move on to something else. It has retinal, like I said, that's stronger than retinol, and ginseng, which is a powerful antioxidant. The texture is lightweight and creamy, and I like this a little bit more in the sense that it has easier control in terms of the ability of the product to hold its shape."
Approved
"I'm still on this eye cream. It is one of the best eye creams ever. This has to be my sixth or seventh. I kind of lost track now. I use a few different eye creams, but this is always like, a go to. I just love that one."
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All 2 takes from Robert Welsh
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"I'm still on this eye cream. It is one of the best eye creams ever. This has to be my sixth or seventh. I kind of lost track now. I use a few different eye creams, but this is always like, a go to. I just love that one."
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"This is the best eye cream I've ever used. I use it in the evening and in the daytime as well. This is beautiful under eye makeup. It's a serumy, lightweight texture. Not quite a gel, not quite a cream, but it just has the best balance and level of hydration for the eye area, for concealer under the eye and eyeshadow on top. It's not too over hydrating that it's going to interfere with my eyeshadow. It's not too over hydrating that it's going to make my under eyes almost oily or greasy. But it's enough hydration that the skin isn't textured or dry or flaky on my lids. And it's the right amount of moisture that my under eyes are being hydrated, which makes that product under the eyes last a little bit longer and gives that little bit of a plumpness under the eye so that any fine lines are smoothed out and creasing doesn't happen as fast as it usually would."
Approved
"The revive serum is a combination of ginseng and snail mucin. Ginseng is that traditional K beauty ingredient. It is a strong antioxidant. It supports skin elasticity. It supports skin circulation. So it actually brings a really nice evenness to the complexion. Snail mucin is an ingredient that promotes healing, wound healing on the skin. It also brings antioxidant content. It is also something that supports a very gentle well-aging process on the skin. It's a very supportive well-aging formula."
All 5 takes from Kelly Driscoll
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"Beauty of Joseon Revive Eye Serum contains retinol dehydrogenase as well as ginseng. Even though it's called an eye cream, it can be used on other parts of the body or the face because it has this really beautiful gel-like consistency, so it's really light. It's one of my favorite products for neck and chest care because it does contain retinol dehydrogenase, we're getting collagen stimulation here as well as brightening and skin cell turnover, and it just supports all the things associated with our skin aging and helping to slow that process down. I really like this because it's gentle. It is formulated first for the eye area but second as a much more gentle retinal experience for other parts of the body."
BEST and WORST K-Beauty at Sephora PT 1 | Aestura, Beauty of Joseon, Innisfree, Dr. Jart
"The revive serum is a combination of ginseng and snail mucin. Ginseng is that traditional K beauty ingredient. It is a strong antioxidant. It supports skin elasticity. It supports skin circulation. So it actually brings a really nice evenness to the complexion. Snail mucin is an ingredient that promotes healing, wound healing on the skin. It also brings antioxidant content. It is also something that supports a very gentle well-aging process on the skin. It's a very supportive well-aging formula."
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"The revive serum focuses on ginseng and snail mucin, which is a really interesting combination that first and foremost offers that antioxidant support. This serum is really focused on that well-aging journey, skin elasticity and firmness, and both of these ingredients can support that journey. They're not collagen stimulating ingredients but they are definitely beneficial additional ingredients to add alongside your collagen stimulation."
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"I'm going to be using the Beauty of Joseon Revive Eye Serum. This has ginseng as well as retinaldehyde as well. And I'm actually going to be putting this on my neck and chest. This is an amazing treatment for the neck. It's incredibly gentle. It really doesn't bring the retinal scaries to that area which I find my neck and chest can be a lot more sensitive than my face. You don't want peeling skin on your neck like that's not cute. But this definitely helps with collagen stimulation. It can also help with brightening. Sometimes I get hyperpigmentation on my chest if I get a pimple there. But it is a really great preventative while aging type of formula."
11/10 ⭐ Skincare Empties I Recommend!
"This is the Beauty of Joseon Revive Eye Serum, 10 out of 10. I have had multiple empties of this throughout the years because I reviewed this back in 2022, and this has been in my routine on and off since then because I really do like this one. It is a retinal-based eye serum and truly it's an eye serum, not a cream, because it has more of a gel-like consistency so it actually absorbs into the eye area really nicely. I do use this on my under eye; I don't really go on top of my lids because it can cause a little bit of irritation for me personally if I go up top too many times. I did stop using this on my under eye when fall rolled around because I've been getting very dry under my eyes during the winter time. I love this, it's so great for the eye area, it's very brightening especially with the ginseng in here, and it's great for anti-aging goals. I love the multi-use and the bigger size of this so I often use this a lot on my neck and chest to help stimulate collagen there and fight the fine lines and wrinkles and the loss of skin firmness. This is a really great multi-purpose type of product."
~Mixed
"It features a retinoid, and retinoids can be really powerful not only for helping to fade hyperpigmentation and darkness on the under eye area, but for targeting premature aging, fine lines, and wrinkles. Looking at the ingredient list alone, I was like, 'Yes, this is going to work so well.' I finally found my eye cream. I really gave this a long shot. I think I went like four or five consecutive months using this every single night. I really, really tried. But unfortunately, this really just did nothing for my dark circles, which makes me really sad because every other Beauty of Joseon product I'm obsessed with. Is it a nice serum? Yes. Is the formula amazing? Yes. And does it work for a lot of other people? It seems to appear so. But from me, it just wasn't enough. I like everything about it. I just wish I saw more from it."
All 2 takes from Hyram
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"I saw some incredible before and after videos of this formula. It not only has ginseng but it also has retinal, which is a very effective ingredient for reducing premature aging, dark circles, discoloration, sun damage. It's a powerful form of retinol. I've been using this on just the inner parts of my eyes. I don't even know how much I love it yet. I've been using this for like a week now and obviously it's going to take longer to see results for the under eye area, but the way that I have seen people rave about this product is next level."
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"It features a retinoid, and retinoids can be really powerful not only for helping to fade hyperpigmentation and darkness on the under eye area, but for targeting premature aging, fine lines, and wrinkles. Looking at the ingredient list alone, I was like, 'Yes, this is going to work so well.' I finally found my eye cream. I really gave this a long shot. I think I went like four or five consecutive months using this every single night. I really, really tried. But unfortunately, this really just did nothing for my dark circles, which makes me really sad because every other Beauty of Joseon product I'm obsessed with. Is it a nice serum? Yes. Is the formula amazing? Yes. And does it work for a lot of other people? It seems to appear so. But from me, it just wasn't enough. I like everything about it. I just wish I saw more from it."
Approved
"Beauty of Joseon has a mild retinol plus caffeine plus niacinamide. This is a very different formula. And if you ask for me personally what I prefer and what works for me, RoC forever."
All 3 takes from Nipun Kapur
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"If you're looking for a new retinol eye cream I highly recommend trying it. It's a drinking and retinal eye cream with vitamin in the formula to see really good results, and it's two in one."
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"The Revive Eye Serum, which is the dark colored one, has snail mucin and ginseng. This is their version of snail mucin, their version of an anti-aging hydrating revive serum."
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"Beauty of Joseon has a mild retinol plus caffeine plus niacinamide. This is a very different formula. And if you ask for me personally what I prefer and what works for me, RoC forever."
Approved
"Beauty of Joseon Revive Eye Serum is really nice and really affordable and this one contains retinal in here retinal to help with skin cell turnover and smooth the texture on the eye area. I love this stuff, probably my tenth or twelfth bottle. You can use it on other areas of your skin too, so sometimes when I travel if I'm kind of lazy I don't want to bring the big tube with me, I'll just bring this and use it on certain areas."
All 2 takes from No BS Beauty
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"Beauty of Joseon Revive Eye Serum is really nice and really affordable and this one contains retinal in here retinal to help with skin cell turnover and smooth the texture on the eye area. I love this stuff, probably my tenth or twelfth bottle. You can use it on other areas of your skin too, so sometimes when I travel if I'm kind of lazy I don't want to bring the big tube with me, I'll just bring this and use it on certain areas."
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"The Beauty of Joseon ginseng and retinol eye cream is really wonderful. It's got retinol, ginseng, and adenosine, and it's got a peptide in there. It's marketed as an eye cream but it's more of an all over cream. You can certainly use it around your eye area, but the bottle is large so you don't have to feel like you should only use it around your eye area because it's 1 oz, the same as all these other ones."
Approved
"One of my all-time favorite retinal topicals is from the brand Beauty of Joseon, it is their Revive Eye Serum with Ginseng and Retinal. Retinal is just sort of shorthand for retinaldehyde. In addition to retinaldehyde, this has niacinamide, so it's a great ingredient for addressing the needs of the moisture barrier alongside a form of topical vitamin A. Retinaldehyde is a pretty gentle form, generally well tolerated, but having barrier supporting, moisturizing, hydrating ingredients in this formula really makes it an excellent option for a retinaldehyde in the drier winter months. It also has ceramide, that's going to help with the needs of the moisture barrier, and it has palmitoyl tripeptide-5, that is a peptide which can help improve skin firmness and elasticity by improving moisture in the skin. This product is marketed as a serum for around the eyes, which is excellent because a lot of people are looking to use this ingredient around the eye to improve the appearance of fine lines, for example, but a lot of forms of topical vitamin A end up being irritating to the overall formula for delicate eyelid skin. This one is safe enough to use around the eyes."
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Approved
"Beauty of Joseon's Revive Eye Serum Ginseng and Retinal is made to target fine lines that help stimulate collagen and elastin production, can help a little bit of hyperpigmentation, and also includes niacinamide to help with under eye skin tone and texture in general."
Approved
"This is their Revive Eye Serum, it's a ginseng and retinal, again not a retinol with an O, retinal with an A. This is one of the most potent K beauty products that I've ever used, but the good news is that it goes on sale and it works. The color of this is super bright, that's the vitamin A, aka the retinoid in here, it's really doing the work. Now this is intense and they call it an eye cream, yes it'll be great for fine lines and wrinkles around the eyes, but put it on your smile lines, put it on your blemish prone areas, put it on your nose if you literally want to help get rid of the oil production and even tighten up the skin to help reduce the appearance of pores. This is intense but this is going to do it."
Approved
"The one that I've been loving is from Beauty of Joseon, retinal eye cream that contains ginseng. It's just a really nice rich cream. I'll dab this on my eyes, and it's very nourishing and hydrating, has a nice slip to it, spreads nicely, it's fast absorbing, it's not sticky at all. This would be a great one if you are looking for a retinol based eye cream that targets fine lines and wrinkles that you can use around the eyes."
Approved
"This has 0.02% retinal, which makes it a very gentle formula and great for those with hypersensitive skin or even beginners. This also has ginseng extract in it, which is known for its restorative abilities, and you don't get really more concentrated antioxidants than you get in ginseng root. It's been a fantastic well-aging treatment for my extremely sensitive neck area. The texture is light and silky, it absorbs fast so you don't feel like it leaves anything on the skin. A little bit goes a long way, it spreads like silk, this fully absorbs, it dries down, and it's just really been working well. There's definitely a lot less guilt at such a great price."
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