Nighttime Beauty Routine for Healthy Skin
How you take care of your skin before you go to bed is crucial to it’s healthiness and glow. If you leave makeup on or don’t wash your face, all of that dirt that has built up during the day will wreak havoc on your skin. Having a good nighttime routine will help you to make sure you do it everyday and your skin will thank you for it, especially in the long run. Here are some things I do and some tips from Oprah, Fitness Magazine, WebMD, and She Knows so you can have healthy skin.
Make sure to wash your face. This will get rid of the dirt build-up so you won’t break out or stretch out your pores, leaving your skin looking younger.
A tip for getting eye makeup off is to rub a pea-sized amount of Vaseline or petroleum jelly on your eye lids. This will help to liquify the mascara, eye line, and eye shadow. Then you just rub with a damp cotton pad until the makeup is all off. Don’t rub too hard, because you want to keep some of the Vaseline there, so it will hydrate your skin.
Putting eye cream under your eyes will help to keep the skin looking more youthful and keep bags from appearing. Or if you have a serum containing either Vitamin A, E, K, or C, that would work as well, and this will help to repair the skin.
Add a Retinoid to your routine, or a Vitamin A prescription. This will help to stimulate new collagen so you’re less prone to wrinkles later, and it will exfoliate pores and encourage cell turnover. This is a great way to help your complexion while you’re sleeping and prevent wrinkles, which are caused when your skin stops producing collagen.
Brushing your teeth, while it doesn’t help your skin, is also important to do before you fall asleep. If not, all the bacteria in your mouth is spending those 8 hours or so breaking down your enamel and rotting your teeth, which won’t look good later when your teeth are falling out.
Exfoliate your skin to get rid of dead skin cells. Use a damp warm wash towel and rub circles on your face. This will leave you with a healthier glow.
Make sure to use a moisturizer on your face, and on the dry spots on your body like elbows or legs, before you go to bed. This will help to rejuvenate your skin and since your skin is drier and more prone to irritation, and by applying moisturizer, you are avoiding this problem. And by moisturizing the rest of your dry areas, you are allowing the skin to repair overnight. For especially dry hands and feet, you can apply Vaseline and then put on gloves or socks.
Try and sleep on your back as much as possible, because this will reduce the amount of fine lines on your face caused by your pillow. If you notice that you’re sleeping on one side of your body, try to switch sides, so that even if you do roll over, you’re spending more time on the other side so you won’t get too many lines on only one side.
Try and wear comfortable clothing, and get a good night’s sleep. Wearing clothes made from cotton are probably the most comfortable thing you can wear to bed. It will also help decrease feelings of being cold while you sleep and is thought to increase the hydration of your skin, so it won’t be as dry. And getting sleep is always good for you, as this helps to rejuvenate both your mind and body.
In terms of hair, don’t sleep with your hair in a ponytail, as this promotes breakage. Sleeping in braids (if you’re not planning on washing your hair in the morning) is a great way to get a cute hairstyle when you wake up without any effort.
Having healthy skin is a big signal to others that you take care of yourself and that you are healthy in general, so be sure to take care of it before you go to sleep.
