Mastering Your Nighttime Skincare Routine
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Our nighttime routines have tremendous power! They can calm our minds, help us practice gratitude and set us up for success the next day. An important piece of those PM routines is taking care of our skin. As we sleep, our skin is still hard at work repairing and renewing itself, but it needs a little help to be successful the same way we do. Applying skin-care products designed to target your concerns and boost your skin’s productivity overnight is a must for great skin, anti-aging, our health and even our sleep quality. They don’t call it “Beauty Rest” for nothing!
Over the years, I’ve tried more products than I care to count and have seen the negative effects of not caring for my skin at night. Now that I’ve learned the do’s and don’ts of nighttime skincare, I want to share these tips and products with you so that you can also master your nighttime skincare routine in just under 10 steps!
Step #1 - Remove Your Makeup
First things first, take your makeup off!
Cardinal Rule #1 of Skincare: NEVER go to sleep with your makeup on!
Not only should you take your makeup off, but double cleansing at night makes all the difference in setting the perfect base for your skincare routine. The best method for completing this step is using an oil-based cleanser followed by a water-based cleanser.
Estèe Lauder Advanced Night Micro Cleansing Balm works to remove oil-based impurities on your skin’s surface so that when you use the water-based cleanser you can get a really deep clean into your pores and skin’s natural barriers. The goal is to not go to sleep with any build up underneath your skin, which is best achieved with double cleansing.
Use a pea-sized dollop of the Cleansing Balm on each of your temples and lightly massage it into your skin until it turns to oil and visibly removes your makeup, then remove with warm water.
This Cleansing Balm is sensitive enough to remove your eye makeup as well, but I still like taking my mascara and eyeshadow off with Bioderma's Sensibio H2O Micellar Water before removing the rest of my makeup.
Step #2 - Cleanse Your Skin
Now that you’ve got your makeup off, you can use your water-based cleanser to remove deeper impurities and excess sebum — an oily substance from sebaceous glands in our skin that protects and hydrates it, but leads to oily, clogged pores, and acne if excess is not removed.
La Roche-Posay is one of the best skincare brands and most dermatologist-recommended. Don’t let the fact that it’s a drugstore brand fool you. The French don’t play around when it comes to their skincare. Their drugstore skincare products are some of the best you will ever find!
Their Toleraine Purifying Foaming Cleanser is a great daily cleanser for normal, oily, and sensitive skin types for your morning and nighttime routine. It’s formulated with a prebiotic thermal spring water, niacinamide, ceramide-3, and cleanses without stripping the skin of its natural barrier or pH levels.
Step #3 - Toner
The Holy Grail of Toners! I started using Thayer’s Witch Hazel Rose Petal Toner probably 7 years ago and if they ever stop making it I think I will actually cry. Their formula is alcohol-free, organically harvested from a family farm in Connecticut, cruelty-free, and extremely soothing. There are very few products I’ve used that show off their skills after the very first use but this one has never disappointed!
Step #4 - Retinol
Retinol is that magic ingredient for anti-aging! There’s nothing I love more than a good Retinol for rejuvenating my skin overnight. Before adding this into my routine, my nighttime skincare was a solid B+, but once this came into play the results were amazing!
Fun Fact: Retinol is the only FDA-approved ingredient for anti-aging…it’s that good!
Retinol — a form of Vitamin A — promotes your skin’s cell turnover and allows it to basically age backwards. It can be a little irritating at first to skin that’s never experienced Retinol, which is why using high-quality products gradually is very important. This what I love most about La Roche-Posay’s Retinol: it’s curated with top notch ingredients (like Vitamin B3 to help soothe and restore your skin) and is designed to gradually build and grow with your skin.
If you’re someone who has drier skin, a good option would be using a Retinol Cream like Eau Thermal Avène RetrinAL 0.1 Intensive Cream. Instead of a serum, this Retinol product is formulated as a moisturizing cream containing Vitamin E, peptides, and antioxidants that aren’t as harsh on dry skin types.
For best results, you should use Retinol first, then apply your Hyaluronic Acid right after to lock in moisture. This allows the Retinol to sink more deeply into your pores and be as effective as possible.
Important tips:
Don’t forget your sunscreen in the morning! Using a Retinol can make your skin more susceptible to the sun’s UV rays — this is also the reason Retinol should only be used in your nighttime routine, NEVER in your morning routine!
Speak with your doctor before using Retinol if you are pregnant or nursing. There have been links to birth defects by using oral retinol, but research is still being done on the effects of topical retinol use. Just to be safe, always check with your doctor when you’re unsure of the health effects during certain times in your life.
#5 - Hyaluronic Acid
Hyaluronic Acid is easily one of the most popular ingredients used in today’s skincare routines and for good reason…it’s worth the hype!
It helps our skin retain water, reduces dry & scaly skin texture, plus it’s easily accessible and affordable. You can find this ingredient in serum form which gives you the strongest content and effects, but it’s also an added ingredient in many toners and moisturizers to help them take hold. There’s even a bit of Hyaluronic Acid in most Retinol serums to reduce the drying effects of the ingredient if it were used alone.
Estèe Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair Serum is my favorite nighttime serum that uses Hyaluronic Acid as its power player but is packed with even more anti-oxidants. This serum always makes my skin feel moisturized and fresh and stays active in my skin through the next day to protect my skin from multiple environmental elements. It can be used in your morning skincare routine as well, however, I prefer to use a pure Hyaluronic Acid like the La Roche-Posay Hyalu B5 Pure Hyaluronic Acid Serum for my morning skincare routine.
Step #6 - Eye Serum & Cream
Our under-eye area is the thinnest layer of our skin and very sensitive, hence the reason you notice bags and discoloration under your eyes before you notice other trouble areas. Treating them carefully is a must for helping them with anti-aging.
Similar to the rest of our skin, the way to achieve best results is to treat with serums then lock everything in with a moisturizer. My go-to eye serum is Lancôme’s Génifique Yeux Eye Illuminator, but another top performer is The Ordinary’s Caffeine Solution 5% + EGCG. Both are great for reducing dark circles, puffiness and contouring the eye area!
Pro Tip: Be sure to pat lightly with your ring finger. This is the finger that uses the lowest pressure of all & again, you want to be gentle with this area.
Once you’ve let the serum dry (should only be about 30 seconds if you use the right amount), you can seal everything in with an eye cream that helps keep the area moisturized and silky smooth. I’ve been using the Lancôme Rénergie Lift Multi-Action Ultra Eye Cream for years and will sometimes experiment with others, but nothing gives me the results I need to see like this cream does. It’s infused with Hyaluronic Acid, Linseed Extract, Caffeine & Cocoa Seed Butter, providing the most amazing creamy formula that melts right into my skin, yet is light enough to soothe a very delicate area.
Step #7 - Nighttime Concentrate
I’m obsessed with using Kiehl’s Midnight Recovery Concentrate each night before my moisturizer. It’s jam packed with amazing essential oils for the skin and has that perfect lavender scent, sending my senses right into relaxation mode. You only need to add 2-3 drops to your fingers then press it into your skin so the bottle will last a long time!
Step #8 - Moisturizer
Let me introduce you to The Absolute Best Moisturizer EVER! I can’t say enough good things about the Lancôme Rénergie Lift Multi-Action Night Cream & Anti-Aging Moisturizer. It’s a bit pricey, but it lasts between 1-1.5 years and has provided results that are simply untouchable by all others! I’ve let my mother, aunts, and friends try this out and they’ve all become die-hard fans of it, as well. After just 2 weeks of use I noticed my skin was more contoured, moisturized and positively glowing.
I also use it on my neck — an area I didn’t give much love until my late 20’s & now deeply regret ignoring. We all know that it’s easier to combat the signs of aging before they show up, but reversing them isn’t as easy. This moisturizer came in and kicked those anti-aging signs to the curb! My neck looked so much better after just 2 months, my mother and aunt who live in Florida and spent years letting the sun control their skin looked years younger after just one bottle. It’s literally magic in a jar!
Step #9 - Décolletage & Body
Last, but not least, do not forget to show the rest of your skin some love. Your entire body can benefit from good skincare, but often it goes untreated and we only focus on our facial areas.
Use a nourishing moisturizer before bed, but don’t stop there. Give your moisturizer a boost by adding a Retinoid in the mix. As you will remember from Step #4, Retinol is a key player in our skin’s anti-aging process…well, Retinoid is Retinol’s big sister. Think of it as Retinol on steroids. It’s not recommended for daily facial use since it’s playing with a much higher content, but the skin on the rest of your body is much thicker and stronger than your facial skin. It can handle higher content and actually craves it after all we put it through day after day.
CeraVe’s Daily Moisturizing Lotion is the perfect product to mix your Retinoid with! Mixing a Retinoid with AHA/BHA, Vitamin C or Benzoyl Peroxide is a big no-no and CeraVe’s lotion doesn’t contain these ingredients, but does come with that Hyaluronic Acid we raved about in Step #5 — yay for an extra boost!
With each pump you apply to your legs, arms, décolletage (chest and base of your neck area) you can add one pump from your Retinoid’s glass pipette dropper, mix it all together then massage it into your skin.
You’ll likely run through the bottle faster than you would for all your other skincare products since you’re using more for larger areas, but it should still last you at least 4-6 months. Yet another reason I love using The Ordinary’s Retinoid…it’s cheap, but extremely effective. I don’t want to be shelling out $60+ every few months for one product so having a trustworthy product that’s only $15 is a big plus for me.
Now that you know how to complete the perfect nighttime skincare routine you are ready to grab some fabulous new products and start seeing results that will have everyone complimenting your beautiful skin. I hope this has been helpful and you enjoy mastering your nighttime skincare routine as I have.
Thanks & We Wish You the Best,
Let’s Do BetterTogether!