Beauty sleep isn’t the only way to improve your looks at night! In this week’s post, we’ll be giving you advice on how to craft your very own night time skin care routine!
Step 1: Skin Cleanser
Cleansers play a major role at night. They remove from your face and neck: makeup, sunscreen, dirt, oil and products that have accumulated throughout the day, leaving your skin clean.
At night, you may even want to double cleanse: start with an oil-based cleanser, then follow it up with a water-based cleanser. The old based cleanser breaks down products on the surface of your skin (makeup and sunscreen), while the water-based cleanser removes leftover residue, dirt and excess oil.
Cleansers come in different forms, such as liquid, bar and balm. If you use a medicated cleanser in the morning, you’ll want to consider a gentler alternative (one that is free of exfoliating or drying ingredients) at night because it may be too harsh on your skin.
Step 2: Toner
If you are looking to further hydrate or exfoliate your skin, you may want to consider a toner.
This is a completely optional step, but it is great for providing your skin with another round of ingredients to help cleanse and prep the skin for future steps.
If you decide to use an exfoliating toner in the morning, consider a hydrating one at night and vice versa.
Step 3: Serums (Including Retinol)
Serums are especially great to use at night because they’re reparative and restorative. Common nighttime formulas have hyaluronic acid to hydrate the skin or chemical exfoliants, like glycolic and lactic acid, to penetrate your pores, remove dead skin cells and unclog pores.
Other popular serum formulas have retinol. Retinol, which can minimize the appearance of fine lines and increase collagen production, is highly irritating when mixed with other actives – so it is usually best to avoid it when also applying vitamin C, glycolic or lactic acid.
Step 4: Eye Creams
Eye creams are specific moisturizers for the eye area that help brighten or smooth the fine lines.
The best way to apply an eye cream is to gently pat the product around the eye from the innermost to the outermost areas. When done right, it helps moisturize the thinnest and most delicate part of your skin.
Step 5: Moisturizer
Moisturizers (which prevent water loss and lock in the products from your previous steps) should be one of the last steps in your nighttime skin care routine.
You can use the same moisturizer day and night, though nighttime specific options tend to have a thicker consistency (which is ideal since that’s when skin loses the most water).
Conclusion
When building a skin care routine, the general rule of thumb is to go from lightest to heaviest (in consistency), gradually layering on heavier products, like creams and lotions, as you go.
This is because the skins absorbs lightweight products quickly, allowing you to layer on more products easily.
For many people, your morning routine will look similar to your nighttime routine. However, certain products, like sunscreen, are most beneficial in the morning because they set you ip for your day by protecting you from environmental factors.
The goal of a nighttime skin care routine is to clean your skin from any product or debris that piles up throughout the day and to add hydration that will last your through the night.
Nighttime routines also help promote cell turnover (which replaces dead skin cells with healthy ones) and stimulate collagen production (to maintain the structure of your skin by keeping it firm).
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