Sleeping beauty
Your grandma wasn’t lying – beauty sleep is not a myth. Yes, when we’re asleep, our skin goes into repair mode, undoing damage caused during the day. In fact, science shows that our skin – a living organ – regenerates a whole three times faster at night than during the day.
As we approach bedtime, specifically around 9pm to 11pm, our skin winds down just as we do. It shakes off the defence mode it’s been in all day, protecting itself from pollutants etc, and gets ready for a night of restoration and repair.
This means that skincare products penetrate better in the evening than at any other time of the day – and this is something to take advantage of to give your skin a helping hand before you head to bed.
A MOMENT OF MINDFULNESS
Taking just one minute to massage in a night cream (after an initial minute to cleanse your skin of the day, of course) is a relaxing and worthwhile habit to get into.
In those 60 seconds, massage in your chosen cream or serum, sweeping your fingers from the centre of your face outwards to drain any toxins and puffiness.
Your new bedtime besties are a dream come true.
Nuxe Nuxuriance Global Anti-ageing Night Cream, £55 (uk.nuxe.com) is a potent line-buster checking off all the Rs as it revitalises, renews, and resurfaces, containing alfalfa extract, hyaluronic acid and hemerocallis. fulva.
Curel Replenishing Night Cream, £25 (Boots) is like a tall glass of water for parched skin on the sensitive side, with glycerin and squalane to deeply hydrate and replenish skin as you sleep.
Bare Minerals Ageless 10% Phyto Procollagen Firming Sleeping Mask, £46 (John Lewis) is a real workhorse, plumping, hydrating and smoothing the skin with its hero ingredient, hibiscus flower.
Nip+Fab Ceramide Fix Overnight Cream 12%, £29.95 (nipandfab.com) is – as the name suggests – packed with ceramides to repair the skin barrier, which in turn protects against water loss and helps defend against environmental aggressors.