Wake Up Fresh Faced - Nighttime Skincare Tips

1. Cleanse your face nightly - Touching your face all day long makes your face one of the dirtiest parts on your body. It’s important to clean the skin at nighttime to avoid the spread of acne bacteria that can cause increased blemishes. In addition, your skin repairs itself at night, so removing makeup gives your skin a clean palette for applying your night time performance products for maximum absorption. It definitely takes discipline and effort to perform your nighttime skin care routine, especially when you’re exhausted. But, you really must do it. Too tired to wash your skin at night? Perform your nighttime skin routine at 7:00 or 8:00. Earlier is better than never.

2. Always use moisturizer at night – Some people avoid using night cream to let their skin “breathe.” Avoiding night cream offers no positive skin benefit. In fact, when your skin is bare, the moisture evaporates right out of your skin resulting in dry skin cell build up making the skin look dull and tired. It’s really important to use a moisturizer (one suited for your skin type) because at night when your skin is at rest, the skin’s permeability is at its highest therefore allowing the action ingredients of a moisturizer to absorb deeper within the skin.

3. Use products with performance ingredients – During the day your skin requires environmental-protecting ingredients but at night when your skin is regenerating, look for repair, exfoliating and anti-inflammatory ingredients.

4. Change your pillowcases frequently – Why? Bacteria and oil may get reintroduced into the skin when you sleep so it’s always suggested for acne-prone skin to have a fresh, clean pillowcase to sleep on.

5. Avoid applying eye cream too close – It’s important to avoid applying eye cream too close to the lash line as the product will actually end up in your eyes, picked up by your eyelashes. Every time you blink the hairs will lift microscopic amounts of product and it can eventually deposit into your eyes.  Anything that enters the eyes can be an obvious irritant and cause unnecessary puffiness.

6. Sleep with your head elevated – Keep your head elevated by sleeping on two pillows at night to reduce under eye puffiness. This helps to reduce fluid retention in the eye area so you’re less puffy in the morning.

7. Get your beauty sleep – There is no doubt that getting enough sleep every night can offer many skin benefits. Sleep can reduce dark circles because a lack of sleep compromises your body’s circulatory system and you get stagnant blood in the vessels under the eyes because it hasn’t properly drained. Lack of sleep also causes the skin to look pale and tired because the circulation has been impaired. In addition, it’s important to get a good night’s sleep because sleep deprivation also causes stress, which can aggravate all skin conditions, including acne, eczema and psoriasis.