The Ordinary and Ace & Tate publish an eye care guide on UV, screens and ageing alongside a new eye cream

Key Takeaways

• Skincare brand The Ordinary and Dutch eyewear brand Ace & Tate have teamed up on an educational guide to the relationship between optical health and skin science.

• The partnership coincides with the launch of The Ordinary's Lacto-PDRN* 4% + B9 Eye Cream, which the brand calls its first under-eye cream and which joins a three-strong eye care line-up.

• The guide covers UV damage, screen use and dry indoor air, the eye area as we age and Ace & Tate's eye tests.

• It lives on the Ace & Tate website, where readers can move straight from the advice to booking an eye test or shopping glasses and sunglasses.

The Ordinary and Ace & Tate have joined forces on a collaboration that puts education ahead of selling, with the skincare brand and the Dutch eyewear label producing a guide that explains how looking after your eyes and looking after the skin around them are closely connected subjects. The pairing arrives as The Ordinary launches its Lacto-PDRN* 4% + B9 Eye Cream, so one brand brings the science of the delicate eye contour while the other brings optical expertise and opticians who carry out eye tests in its stores.

The campaign takes the form of a guide into the relationship between optical health and skin science hosted on Ace & Tate's website, which opens with the line "Eyecare also includes the eye area." From there the page walks readers through UV exposure, the environments we spend our days in, how the eyes change with age and the technology behind modern eye tests, offering tips on caring for the eyes inside and out.

The guide is built around advice and not around a co-branded product, and the page itself never mentions the eye cream, so the collaboration rests on both companies explaining their science in plain language. That arrangement puts The Ordinary in front of Ace & Tate's customers just as its first under-eye cream arrives, while giving Ace & Tate a new setting in which to talk about the eye tests and optical expertise that sit behind its frames.

The Ordinary and Ace & Tate guide links UV damage, screen strain and ageing to the Lacto-PDRN eye cream

The guide is split into four themes, beginning with the effects of UV light, where Ace & Tate warns that "Prolonged exposure and absorption of UV light can cause irreversible damage to your eyes" and explains that UV also contributes to photoageing of the skin around them. The second theme looks at how screens, air conditioning and dry heating are linked to eye strain and to dehydration of the thin skin around the eyes, while the third presents routine eye tests, sun protection and mindful screen use as habits for long term eye health as we age. The final section on everyday innovation explains that Ace & Tate's advanced eye tests show the overall health of the eyes as well as the prescription, and the page closes with calls to book an eye test, shop sunglasses and blue light glasses or explore more eyecare, alongside the shared statement "Together with The Ordinary, we believe that quality, knowledge and innovation should be accessible to everyone."

The product sitting quietly behind the guide is the Lacto-PDRN* 4% + B9 Eye Cream, which The Ordinary describes as its first under-eye cream and which uses a vegan Lacto-PDRN made by fermenting the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus alongside vitamin B9 to support hydration and the skin barrier. The brand says that in its own testing on 32 panellists using the cream twice daily for eight weeks, visible fine lines under the eye were reduced by 18%, and it also notes that the formula is ophthalmologist tested, which is a reassuring detail to put in front of an eyewear audience.

According to Elleni van Leuven, PR and influencer marketing specialist at Ace & Tate, the partnership began when The Ordinary approached Ace & Tate in search of an audience aligned with its own, and she said "We started talking and realised that we have very similar brand values." She explained the creative gap the brands were trying to fill by saying "Skincare is obviously very popular now, especially on social media," and that "eye care hasn't always been the most exciting topic for people to discuss," which is why they saw an opportunity to share their knowledge together. Joe Basham, senior manager, scientific communications at The Ordinary, said the three-strong eye care line-up lets people find "something specific to what your needs are" and added "Because we incorporate new technologies via innovation, we have more options to ensure that we can personalise for each person's skin care regimen."

Ace & Tate uses The Ordinary partnership to put eye tests and opticians at the centre of its marketing

For Ace & Tate, the collaboration is part of a deliberate shift in how the brand talks about itself, and van Leuven was candid about it when she said Ace & Tate plans to make its eye care offer more explicit in its marketing. She said "We've been in the game for 13 years" and "We started out as an industry challenger, a bit of a disruptor," before adding "I think we've matured since then, and our audience has matured, too." Her most revealing line was "Perhaps we've been a little too modest about that and it's what we're communicating now," which she linked to the brand's in person care by saying "I think in-person care is really important to our business." The Ordinary, which is owned by The Estée Lauder Companies, has a track record of questioning beauty hype, most visibly when it launched Slowvember in November 2024 with full page newspaper ads urging shoppers not to rush into Black Friday buying.