While it’s hard to dispute the benefits of using a cream at night, there seems to be mixed messages from beauty experts as to the necessity (or non-necessity) of using a specifically-targeted night cream. To get to the bottom of the debate, beautydirectory tracked down some of the country’s top skincare experts to find out what exactly a night cream does, the differences between day and night creams, and whether it’s truly essential to use a night cream.
While you were sleeping
It’s called beauty sleep for a reason - as you’re catching up on your precious zzz’s through the night, your skin is hard at work. The skin reaches its maximum hydration level in the evening. During the night, skin cell renewal is at its peak and blood microcirculation is enhanced, creating a slightly different skin micro-environment for skincare product applications,” explains Dr. LeWinn's innovations manager Teresa Hryniewiecka. According to head of education Australia Jai Harvey-Yin, in the evening there are less environmental distractions such as touch, pollution and make-up that hinder the best absorption. At night, your skin is relaxed and ready to receive!” says Harvey-Yin.
Bioelements head of education USA Teresa Stenzel offers a further explanation. She says, Trans epidermal water loss (TEWL) increases, causing the skin’s protective barrier to weaken, allowing for greater penetration of active ingredients.” Night time also sees the skin’s own natural antioxidant levels increase and stress hormones decrease, creating the optimum conditions for skin to repair itself. In addition, the hydro-lipid barrier weakens and oil production is two times lower than during the day. Skin repairs itself from the day’s skin damage from exposure to environmental aggressors such as UV rays, smog, nicotine, etc and rejuvenates itself,” explains Stenzel.
Day and night
Beauty experts agree skin behaves differently during the day than at night, but they seem to disagree on whether consumers should be using a different day cream to night. On the ‘pro night cream’ side of the ring is national skincare trainer Iola Ciavarra, who believes it is important to use a different cream for day and night. While historically night creams were seen as an ‘upsell’ for product junkies to buy an additional product, advances in technology means it is now understood there is merit in targeting the skin at night with specialised ingredients that are designed to work synergistically with night time skin functions,” says Ciavarra.
education manager Emma Hobson believes the skin benefits from using a night cream in the evening as people are more easily able to layer serums and moisturisers when their skin is free from make-up and SPF. Also, people tend to prefer using more active products while they sleep, choosing to avoid them in the daytime due to skin sensitivity issues. Many vitamin A derivatives can react with sunlight and make them less effective, so by using them at night you get maximum effect,” explains Hobson. She suggests looking out for ingredients such as argan oil, rosehip seed oil, carrot seed oil and jasmine.
and are on the opposite side of the ring, both believing it is not essential to have both a day and night cream. While Gatineau Paris stresses consumers just need to find the right moisturiser for their skin, Dr. Hauschka says people should be looking to use only water-based preparations overnight. We don’t agree with the use of oil-based preparations at night because they impede the natural night time processes. In our experience, use of a night cream also exacerbates dry, blemished, combination or unbalanced skin. A night cream, which is usually a heavy, expensive, occlusive substance, impedes your skin’s normal night time process,” says Dr. Hauschka’s Janet Southern.
In offering a diplomatic approach, Harvey-Yin believes there are benefits to having both as they generally do specific jobs but if budget constrains you, then you are better having a quality day cream that you can wear at night. It depends on your concerns – but hydrated skin is healthy skin.” Hobson adds, The most important thing is you moisturise day and night. If that happens to be with the same moisturiser that your skin likes and benefits from, then just one product is great. Many moisturisers are now formulated to be used day and night, making them easy products to use as well as more affordable.”
Key differences
The main difference between a day and night cream is protect versus repair. Think protection when you look for a good day cream - antioxidants and SPF to protect against free radical damage. Think repair when you sleep at night - a cream that contains soothing, hydrating ingredients like hyaluronic acid and emollient-rich properties like shea butter and jojoba oil to rebalance,” says skin expert Ingrid Seaburn. founder and managing director Kati Kasza agrees, explaining, Our day creams work to protect with hydration and antioxidants and the overnight creams work to feed the skin with hydration and vitamin-enriched plant actives.”
As well as protecting the skin from environmental aggressors and delivering hydration, day creams are normally light in texture, contain sunscreens and sit well under make-up,” says Hobson. Night time products tend to be more active, richer in moisturising properties and have a thicker consistency. An effective night cream also works synergistically with the skin’s process of regeneration and can even include skin-mimicking peptides that help to replenish and strengthen the skin from within, according to Ciavarra.
Using the wrong cream
There is no real damage caused from using a night cream during the day, or vice versa. No harm will come from using a night cream in the day, though you will not be getting the maximum benefit from it. You may also find a night cream richer than your day cream and therefore find it feeling too heavy in the daytime, especially under make-up and in warmer weather,” says Ciavarra. While Harvey-Yin agrees, she says using a day cream at night may not deliver any long-term skin benefits other than hydration. If you have major concerns, like pigmentation, treating your skin at night is often a really effective way of targeting those,” explains Harvey-Yin.
Another important thing to note is that night creams and sunlight are sometimes not the best of friends, with night creams providing no protection against UVA and UVB rays. One must be aware that sun protection needs to be addressed, especially when outside. Also, some products may contain active ingredients, like alpha hydroxy acids for exfoliation, that can make skin more sensitive to sunlight,” warns Hryniewiecka. It’s essential that your night creams don’t contain SPFs. The only thing you must ensure is that [your night cream] doesn’t contain sunscreens as these shouldn’t be on the skin overnight. They always need to be cleansed off at the end of the day,” says Hobson.
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Image: Miss Masquerade.