Sensitive eyes following retinol

[PlainJaneSuperBrain99]

I have a skincare SOS!

I decided to treat myself to new skincare. Plan: retinol at night, vit c in morning.
I decided on Elizabeth arden retinol capsules for face, retinol eye cream (followed by normal night cream on face) at night, then Elizabeth arden vit c capsules and ceramide capsules in morning (followed by normal spf).

My research said to build up retinol use gradually, but all the info I read on the Elizabeth arden retinol said it is gentle enough to be used nightly.

Anyway - first night and day with new skincare was all fine. 2nd night felt fine too. 2nd morning initially felt ok, but an hour or so in to my day, my eyes started feeling sore and were watering a lot. I removed all makeup and gently cleaned my face. Went to remove eye make up with micellar water and - by christ - it felt like my eyes were on fire. I've now ceased all new skin care for the past 2 days but my eyes are still suffering. The skin around my eyes is so tight, sore, dry etc im sparingly using my original gentle eye cream because I feel I need something to soothe the dryness but the skin is so sore still. My eyes have finally stopped watering, but (ill attach a poor quality photo) the skin around my eyes is swollen, very dry and kind of puckered. Those lines in the photo aren't usually there (as in, i don't have wrinkles there) that is newly rippled and puckered skin.

Wtf do I do? I'm gutted I spent a lot (for me) on skin care that I can't use but also what can I use to soothe my sore skin until it heals?

Help!

Bumping

The skin under your eyes just looks very dry.

Stop your retinol for now, try a really gentle but rich moisturiser - I like Bioderma Sebium Hydra (this is recommended by Skin + Me for their Tretinoin customers) - and focus solely on hydration. When everything has settled down reintroduce your retinol very slowly, every 2 days or something. You MUST MUST MUST be using a dedicated good quality facial SPF every day, even when you’ve not used your retinol the night before, even in winter, even on dull days (and check your current one is fresh and in date and hasn’t been opened for longer than the packaging says it should be).

You can also try buffering, so a very thin layer of a normal moisturisers and then your retinol on top. I also use lubricating/moisturising eye drops morning and night while ever I’m using Tretinoin because it does make my eyes feel very dry and gritty.

Elizabeth Arden can say what she wants about her gentle formula, clearly this was too fast for your skin and it hasn’t liked it.

Potent vitamin c treatments can also be irritating, so it may that it’s just too much for your skin all in one go.

When I’m using tret I don’t use anything else other than a gentle cleanser and moisturisers. I’m also very careful with removing make up and cleansing, nothing abrasive, so my Liz Earle wash cloths and reusable cotton rounds stay in the cabinet and I just use my hands and cleaners. Absolutely no face wipes as they make my tret skin so sore.

OK, thank you both. That is really helpful.