Beauty bible

Celia Walden’s bedtime rituals

I’M NOT SURE when I became so fetishistic about sleep. Probably around the time I stopped being allowed any. The sleep-averse infant was one thing, but then my husband took a job that meant getting up at 3am, forgetting to press ‘snooze’ (those four words will be cited in the divorce papers), putting on his shoes and tap dancing around before slamming our front door with such force, the flap falls off the letter box.

In the face of these nightly assaults, I have started preparing for bed as I would a long-haul flight. I pop Gabriela Peacock’s Calm Me (£9.99, gpnutrition.com) – a potent blend of vitamins aimed to facilitate a restorative night – with supper, followed by a Heath & Heather Organic Night Time Tea chaser (£2.99, heathandheather.co.uk).

After a bath I rub Better You Magnesium Oil (£12.20, betteryou.com) on my chest, douse my side of the bed with This Works Sleep Plus Pillow Spray (£26, thisworks.com ), a somnolent mix of vetivert and camomile, and before I don my Iluminage Skin Rejuvenating Eye Mask (£25, currentbody.com), I embark on an insanely protracted skincare routine that has become my nightly staple.

Caudalíe’s Premier Cru The Serum (£90, caudalie.com) – formulated in partnership with Harvard Medical School and powerful enough to give you visibly firmer skin in a week – goes on before the first bedtime story. Then I take a short break to apply Estée Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair Eye Concentrate Matrix (£49, esteelauder.co. uk) – an eye cream in a long leather Carrie-anne Moss coat, in kick-ass terms. And, after Green Eggs and Ham, comes the most important layer: a night cream that allows you to fall asleep with the hope of being reborn the following morning, and actually delivers.