DAYTIME VS NIGHT-TIME SKINCARE ROUTINES

 

Do you know that your skin has somewhat different skincare needs at different times of the day? These skincare needs alternate with rising and setting of the sun, i.e. your daytime skincare routine should be a bit different from the night-time skincare routine. Why is it so, and how do daytime and night-time skincare products vary? Let’s find out.

Your daytime skincare routine preps the skin for makeup, sunlight, pollutant onslaught and activity hours.  In contrast, the night time skincare routine is meant to aid skin repair, nutrition replenishment and skin regeneration. 

Some skincare needs are common to both day and night. For example, your skin needs 24x7 moisturizing and hydration – day time or night time. It also needs continuous free radical neutralization.  

First, let’s look at day-time and night-time skincare steps and products:

Morning/ day-time skincare routine steps and products

Cleanse Skin- Use a soap-free/sulphate-free skin cleanser.
Apply toner- Use an alcohol-free toner.

Apply day cream or face moisturizer- Use one without parabens and mineral oil.
Apply sunscreen- Use a broad spectrum sunscreen with appropriate SPF value and natural anti-sun actives.

Evening/ night-time skincare routine steps and products

Remove makeup- Use a micellar makeup remover.
Twice a week, exfoliate skin with a face scrub. Use a scrub with natural exfoliants and cold pressed seed oils.

Cleanse skin- Use a soap-free/sulphate-free skin cleanser.
Apply toner- Use an alcohol-free toner.
Apply face serum- Use one with vitamins and hyaluronic acid.
Apply night cream- Use one with anti-aging peptides and hyaluronic acid.

Day-time skincare & night-time skincare: Differences and similarities

 

Makeup removal – Makeup is for waking hours. As you don’t sleep wearing makeup (if you do, your skin will rebel sooner or later), makeup removal is for night-time. 

Cleansing – Day or night, your skin needs cleansing. So this step is common to both night and day routines.

Exfoliation – This step is for removing dead skin cells and drawing out hidden impurities from within pores. You don’t need to scrub your face every day though. We recommend using an exfoliating face scrub twice a week as part of night-time skincare routine.

Toning – Cleansing and/or exfoliation open skin pores to draw out hidden impurities. These open pores need refinement or tightening post-cleansing. For that, you need a toner. As we cleanse morning as well as evening, toner is a part of both the routines.

Face serum – A serum gives your skin concentrated nutrition including antioxidants, hydration agents and vitamins. Think of it as a rich dose of hydrating and skin repair actives that penetrates deep into skin for visible benefits. We recommend applying face serum as a part of your night-time skincare routine. 

Face cream/ moisturizer – For mornings, you need a day cream or day moisturizer with high concentration of hydrating, anti-blemish and sunscreen actives; like hyaluronic acid, vitamins, and botanical extracts etc.  Its purpose is to reduce under-skin melanin formation, minimize UV damage, and repel pollutant particles. Day creams are thinner and quick-absorb.

For night-time care, you need a specialist night cream. A night cream is thicker and slower in absorption. It is meant to give your skin sustained dosage of actives for anti-aging repair and intensive moisture. It should have anti-aging bioactives like matrixyl peptides (3000 and synthe 6) for skin repair work, especially to reverse collagen loss that’s chiefly responsible for fine lines and wrinkles. 

As day creams are fast-absorb formulations, your skin soaks it all in quickly and is ready for makeup application (we all know how precious a few extra minutes are in the morning!). Night creams are meant to work slowly and gradually as you take your 8-hour beauty sleep.

Both night cream and day cream may have some common ingredients like hyaluronic acid, cold pressed seed oils and nut butters like shea and cocoa. 

Sunscreen – As sun protection is needed only to counter UV sun radiation which is an issue only during the sunlight hours, sunscreen is a part of the daytime skincare routine.  If you plan to step out in the sun, use a broad spectrum sunscreen of suitable SPF. If using makeup, you can consider a sunscreen spray as well. If you are out in polluted environs you can opt for an anti-pollution skinscreen that gives double benefits: protection from sunrays and shielding from pollutants.

Do note that all your skincare products – daytime or night-time – should be totally free of sulphates, parabens, PEG, propylene glycol, polysorbate, or mineral oils. Your products should also have cold pressed oils and botanical actives.

We recommend WOW Skin Science that offers a complete range of micellar water, face washes, face toners, face serums, moisturizers and face creams, night creams, sunscreens, anti-pollution sunscreen, and face scrubs to help you tailor the perfect regimen suited to your skin type.