Sleeping beauty: your best nighttime skin care routine
Ladies, if you play your skin care cards right at night and you may your chances of enjoying glowing, radiant skin during the day. Turns out, sleep isn’t just crucial for your body but also essential for your skin and face. That’s because while you’re counting sheep your body cells go into overdrive to repair and regenerate your skin to its best self by the time morning comes. While you don’t have to do anything for this restorative process to occur, as your skin does that naturally, you do have the opportunity to optimize what your skin can work with during the night. Here’s a list of products and procedures you should follow to wake up, of course, flawless.
Step One: Get Rid of The Grime
Yes, you’ve heard this before but you absolutely need to cleanse your face before you go to sleep. The good news is that there are a variety of options to choose from; you can go full soap and lather, use cleansing milk or if you want to make things really easy why not use a micellar water which you can pat on your skin and don’t even need to wash off! Follow these instructions depending on your skin type:
Normal Skin
Use lukewarm water and a gentle face cleanser to massage off dirt and oil that has accumulated on your face throughout the day. Once you’ve gotten rid of build up you will have clean skin to nourish during the night.
Oily Skin
The right nighttime skin care routine can really make or break whether oily skin will look greasy the next day. By getting your skin super clean you can regulate oil production and also reduce the appearance of large pores. Make sure to use a cleanser that takes out all potential impurities out of your pores.
Dry Skin
Use a gentle cleanser to enhance your skin’s natural barrier, you definitely don’t want to use anything too harsh as it will make your skin even drier.
Sensitive Skin
Too many ingredients will make your skin flare up. Use a milky, non-comodegenic cleanser specifically for sensitive skin.
Step Two: Hydrate or Tone
This next step plays a huge role in the effectiveness of your nighttime skin care routine as it can treat and remedy specific skin issues unique to your skin.
Normal Skin
While your skin doesn’t suffer from symptoms such as redness, irritation, oiliness or flakiness, you likely still have a skin issue you would like to hone in on such as fine lines or large pores. Make sure to find a mask that can work overnight to address these.
Oily Skin
Now is the time to use a pro-retinol which will manage oil production in your skin.
Dry Skin
You can lock in extra hydration into your skin by using a moisturizing serum or sleeping mask. This is like a glass of water for your skin and the absorption will help leave your complexion glowing.
Sensitive Skin
While retinoids work wonders for most other skin types it can have a negative reaction on sensitive skin. Instead reach for Vitamin C which has antioxidant properties but won’t irritate your skin.
Step Three: Lock in Your Skin for the Night
Moisturizing before bed can act as a seal to steps one and two. The result? Glowing skin.
Normal Skin
Choose a nighttime moisturizer that contains retinol, peptides or Vitamins A and/or C.
Oily Skin
You may or may not want to use a very light moisturizer depending on how oily your skin appears after applying pro-retinol.
Dry Skin
Depending on how rich your application of serum or a mask was you can stop at step two. If you feel like you would like to put an extra layer of protection on your skin use a light nighttime moisturizer.
Sensitive Skin
The moisture of a mask is your ally in the fight against flakiness and dryness. Make sure to apply one a few times per week.
Step Four: Take Care of Your Eyes
The key to looking fresh in the morning might be showing up to work bright-eyed. Definitely incorporate eyes into your nighttime beauty routine as the skin around the eyes is very delicate. Use a cream or gel to make sure this delicate area is supple and hydrated.
And there you have it, the perfect nighttime skincare routine. Make sure to get your skin ready before you hit the sack to help wake up with your skin looking perfect. Also make sure to catch 7-8 hours of sleep to feel and look well-rested when you wake up!
