Make Your Nighttime Skincare Work For You

Fact: Beauty sleep is real and we all need it. If you’ve ever pulled an all nighter or spent far too many hours drinking wine with your friends, you know the power of a restful night of sleep—and the struggle when you don’t get one. And while sleep itself can do wonders for your skin, the nighttime skincare products you apply go into overdrive as you rest, repairing and improving your skin literally overnight.

What happens to skin while you sleep? You may know about your body’s circadian rhythm—or the internal clock that tells your brain when it’s time to wake up and go to bed. Listening to that rhythm is important for your health for so many reasons. And your skin has its own circadian rhythm that keeps you looking gorgeous and glowing. Basically, when you’re awake, your skin senses that it’s day time. So it goes into protection mode, fighting off environmental dangers like sun and pollution—that’s why wearing sunscreen and antioxidants is so important during the day. But at night, your skin lowers its defenses and goes into repair mode, so all of the ingredients you put on top of it before bed have the best chance of penetrating and benefiting your skin.

Do you really need a separate daytime and nighttime routine? There are plenty of products that you can use both morning and night. But more potent, active ingredients like retinol and glycolic acid can make your skin sensitive to the sun, so they should be reserved for nighttime. This is also when your skincare’s ingredients are most likely to travel deeper down into your skin and do their job the best, so you’ll get the most out of active ingredients when you use them at night.

These are our EVER nighttime skincare super heroes:

This best selling serum is truly a powerhouse when it comes to repairing skin from the damage it endures all day. Our anti-aging complex, LSR10, is formulated with Honokiol, which is an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory derived from magnolia bark which is one thousand times more potent than vitamin E. Use it as your first step after cleansing to wake up with less skin damage than you fell asleep with. The serum’s quattro-peptide complex boosts elasticity and firms skin while fading fine lines and wrinkles. And red algae calms redness and amps up your skin’s circulation.

Retinol is the ultimate nighttime skincare ingredient. It encourages your cells to turn over faster to help stimulate new cell growth and shed the old, dead skin cells. The skin around your eyes is often the first area you’ll notice wrinkles and fine lines, you’ll want to focus your energy there. It is important to note that retinol can dry skin out if you use too much too quickly. So start by applying just a tiny amount a couple of times a week, then gradually increase your use to nightly. Added hyaluronic acid and aloe vera in this eye cream hydrate and counteract sensitivity while caffeine diminishes dark circles.

Your skin loses the most water at night, so locking it in with a good moisturizer is necessary. This cream is formulated with microcapsules of hyaluronic acid to help draw moisture into the skin from the air for maximum hydration and smoother skin. As that works, antioxidants like ergothioneine and vitamin C help repair environmental damage from the day.

A face oil is a must for sealing moisture into your skin overnight. Think of it as the lid on your skincare routine, keeping all of the active ingredients on your skin so they can do their magic. Even if your skin is naturally oily, an oil can help replenish hydration without increasing oil production. Plus, this formula contains retinol for faster cell turnover and firmer skin. Tetrapeptides diminish the look of fine lines and make skin look tighter.