Sunscreen: check; antioxidant: check; gentle cleanser: check; night cream: hmmm… do I need one? You’re following good skin care principles during the day, but are you carrying them through at night?
Whether you need a night cream or not depends on your skin type. It may also be influenced by the time of year along with other products in your skin care regimen. Despite what you may hear, there is little scientific proof that skin repair ramps up at night. However, like many of the body’s organs, skin can tell the difference between day and night via ‘time-sensitive’ clocks. Whether this has any impact whatsoever on applying a night cream is up for discussion. Skin responds 24/7; it maintains a balance of protecting itself from stressors and repairing damage. And, it can juggle more than one thing at a time. However, there are some reasons why you’d want to apply a night cream (or nighttime treatment)at night, as opposed to during the day:
Night creams don’t need to be layered under make-up or sunscreen. They are often applied directly after washing and/or exfoliating so they have a clean, prepped surface, which may help with their absorption, especially important if active ingredients are included.
Ingredients that degrade upon exposure to sunlight or increase your risk of sunburn are best used at night. This includes retinoids (as in Green Cream) and many skin lightening preparations.
Skin temperature rises and water loss increases so your skin can end up feeling drier. This holds particularly true during the fall and winter when lower temperatures and lower humidity contribute to the problem. A good moisturizing night cream can help here. I’m loving La Roche Posay Hydreane right now.
Some studies show that blood flow to the skin increases at night, which can help with the absorption of topically applied ingredients.
While skin doesn’t wait for nighttime to repair, there are good reasons to apply a night cream and three I consider most important:
1. My skin tends to dry at night so I like slathering on a moisturizer.
2. I always apply an antioxidant serum (our top seller and my favorite is apothekari antioxidant serum ) to help repair at night. During the day, antioxidants do battle against free radicals; at night they help to boost collagen production and more.
3. My love for retinoids. You know how important I think retinoids are in any anti-aging skin care regimen. Because they are light sensitive and can be degraded by UV exposure, night time is the perfect time to apply one. I love using Green Cream, which contains a healthy concentration of retinol .
For more information regarding night time treatments, see our blog post 5 Reasons to Apply Skin Treatments While You Sleep.
