Peep Club Sees a Future in Eye Wellness

Tired-looking eyes and crow’s feet have been skin concerns for ages. Solutions come from the beauty industry, where formulators craft topical products to address these unwanted visual indicators of age. Other eye issues, however, like dryness, are treated with a spate of OTC products that are much more utilitarian in feel.

Peep Club is focused on both categories with a range that elevates eye wellness as perhaps the newest category in longevity.

The UK-based brand was created by two childhood friends, an optometrist and brand strategist, who, like millions of consumers, struggled with chronic dry eyes. The duo melded their expertise to create products that would support eye health and fit into modern-day self-care rituals.

Peep Club’s range is designed for those who suffer from dry and sensitive eyes, stemming from hormonal changes, increased screen time and environmental stressors. The collection includes topical sprays, wipes and balms as well as a device.

Eye Rescue Lidstick is an overnight treatment formulated to tackle dryness, visibly brighten the eye area and calm and soften the skin. Its Soothing Coconut Eye Balm protects and nourishes the eye area, including eyelashes, with a formula that contains raw virgin coconut oil, chamomile extract and cureberry. It can be used to take off eye-makeup or as nourishing cream. A patent-pending eye wand has five modes designed to enhance eye hydration and comfort including red, green and amber LED light therapy.

More recently, Peep Club added Super Omega Eye Vitamins to address dry eye symptoms and support overall eye longevity. Hero ingredients include sea buckthorn berries, which are naturally rich in Omega 3, 6, 7 and 9, as well as lutein and zeaxanthin.  

The products feel more like a treat than a treatment, assert the founders.

Happi caught up with Peep Club Founder Nicola Alexander-Cross to learn more about the brand, which is now available in the US, and the future of eye wellness. 

 Happi: Why do you think eye health has been an overlooked area of wellness?

Alexander-Cross: I think eyes have always, quite rightfully, been considered medical territory versus wellness. But like many other aspects of health—for example, the gut—our eyes are well deserving of wellness first of all because of how much stress modern life puts them through, but also because we’re now so much more aware that longevity and long-term health is created today not down the line. 

Happi: Do you believe this is an area that is gaining more interest as more attention is being paid to the hormonal link? Can you speak to this from a clinical and consumer perspective.

Alexander-Cross:  Absolutely. I think the growth of the conversation around menopause has had a halo effect on so many aspects of health, including eyes. Dry eyes or sensitized eyes (often the same root cause) is one of the most common side effects of menopause, statistics vary, but around six in 10 women experiencing perimenopause or menopause are experiencing dry eye symptoms. And I think menopausal women are demanding better solutions now versus the traditional eye drop, which is just pure symptom relief. I think there has also been a huge surge in interest in eye health as consumers have started to dabble in more eye cosmetics—the rise of false eyelashes, eyelash growth serums, colored contact lenses and even general eye makeup and eye cosmetics has really created demand for eye care products since eyes are much more irritated than they used to be. 

Happi: There are some novel products in your line in terms of benefits and delivery. Can you talk more about Eye Rescue Lidstick?

Alexander-Cross: We only ever create products where we see a real problem that we can address. In the case of the lidstick, we saw that a lot of our customers were desperate to help address issues with the periorbital skin (dark circles, fine lines, dryness) but were using products that were not designed specifically for this highly delicate and vulnerable skin.

The area around the skin is much thinner than the rest of the skin on the face, so it can’t tolerate a lot of product or rich formulas, which is why many people experience milia or periorbital dermatitis. The lidstick delivery system allows a perfectly and easily dosed formula to avoid using too much product. 

Happi: What about Instant Relief Eye Spray. Was it complicated to develop a formula that was both safe for the ocular area but also for spray?

Alexander-Cross: This is an amazing formula because it delivers both hydration and occlusives to the tear film, and also the delicate skin around the eyes, using hero ingredients of sodium hyaluronate, glycerin and wild-harvested Nordic Sea buckthorn. It must be manufactured under extremely strict sterile conditions to stay safely preservative-free. 

It’s incredibly hard to develop our formulas—we have our own manufacturing facility in the UK for many of our products (although the spray is not made there) and multiple patents on manufacturing methods to be able to achieve eye safe formulas. This is one of the reasons we feel there is such a gap in the market—cosmetic labs have typically been created around skincare products which mean that they need preservatives etc. but the litrature (specifically the TFOS DEWS studies) have shown how damaging many of these ingredients that are well tolerated by the skin, are not suitable for eyes. 

Happi: As this line is for the eyes, your preservation technologies had to paramount during product development. Can you talk about the importance of using preservatives for consumer safety and health?

Alexander-Cross: Yes absolutely. It’s a nuanced conversation because as a company we are not ‘anti-preservatives’ for the sake of it. I’m an eye doctor and I follow the literature—preservatives have been shown to be highly irritating and, over the long term, toxic, to the eye. This isn’t fringe or ‘woo-woo’ it’s just that the eye does not have the same levels of defense compared to the skin for example, which makes it harder to tolerate certain ingredients, but especially preservatives and alcohols. We have spent six years developing safe systems for being able to make products safely and hold multiple patents on manufacturing methods and packaging to be able to develop products to these standards. We have collaborated with some of the top UK universities and even had EU grants to be able to clinically study our products and get them to this point. Even a product as simple as our Soothing Coconut Eye Balm, which has only ingredients has to be double micro-filtered and is tested at every stage to ensure customer safety. It’s hard to create products this simple!

Personally, I am very proud that our products have been embraced so wholeheartedly by the British optometry community and by optical thought leaders—it goes a long way to show how critical it is to avoid these irritants around the eye. 

Happi: This range covers consumables and devices–was it complicated to find a contract manufacturer to work with? Do you have more than one?

Alexander-Cross: We have a complex supply chain, but we’ve built amazing collaborative relationships with core suppliers over the years and wherever we can, we vertically integrate our supply chain – which is how we have our own UK lab. 

Happi: The look of the packaging leans into beauty, moving away from perhaps what is the more medicinal area of eye care. Was this your intent and what does it signal to consumers?

Alexander-Cross: Our mission statement from day one was to be ‘a treat, not just a treatment’ and conveying that through packaging was critical. A lot of our products are designed to be used daily; which I think is only a reasonable thing to ask of a customer if the packaging is worthy of their bathroom countertop!

Happi: The brand is now DTC in the US. Do you see expansion to brick and mortar as a possibility in the near term?

Alexander-Cross: We’re exploring brick and mortar in the UK right now first with an incredibly exciting opportunity—brick and mortar in the US is absolutely on our radar but no timeline yet!