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Many people believe that when they’re asleep at night, their skin rests too. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth…
Instead, while you’re in slumberland, your skin cells are hard at work. Oxidative damage control, protein production, cell regeneration…all of this peaks while you’re asleep, which is how the term ‘beauty sleep’ came about.
This is why a good evening skincare routine is so important. Not only will using the right products ensure that your skin cells feel supported and boosted as they go about their nightly tasks, but it will also speed up the rate at which you see noticeable improvements in your complexion.
What does a ‘good’ skincare routine entail? Read on as VouPre talks you through the steps that you should be following…
Cleanse the Day Away
Just about every dermatologist out there will agree on the importance of cleansing the skin each evening. After all, your skin has just spent the day coming into contact with dirt, pollutants, bacteria, sweat, and more. Tiny particles from all of these end up settling onto the surface of the skin, slowly working their way through the skin’s layers. Once inside, they’ll cause huge amounts of damage, hindering the work that your skin cells are attempting to do each night.
It’s all very well to use high-quality serums and moisturizers each night, but if you’re not cleansing your skin first, then all you’ll be doing is pushing all of those impurities even deeper, exacerbating the damage.
So, what’s the best cleanser for an evening skincare routine?
Dermatologists recommend going with gentle formulas, with VouPre’s Radiance Facial Cleanser being the perfect example. It’s a sulfate-free cleanser that’s brimming with plant proteins to leave the skin feeling energized and stronger. It will clean your skin without stripping away its precious protective barrier, making it ideal for a nighttime skincare routine.
Rebalance With a Toner
Once you’re done cleansing, it’s time to apply a toner. Why? Because a toner will rebalance the pH on the surface of your skin, something that cleansing agents tend to throw off kilter. Rectifying this will help to keep the appearance of many visible skin concerns at bay while also leaving your skin feeling more receptive to the other products that you apply.
Many toners are also fantastic at hydrating and soothing the complexion. Again, this will help to prep your skin for the rest of your skincare routine.
So, how do you find a toner that does all of this?
Simply click over to VouPre’s Hydrating Toner. Its short but sweet ingredient list really packs a punch in terms of what it offers to the skin. Between aloe vera leaf juice, cucumber fruit extract, and chamomile extract, it will do all of the above while giving your skin a plumper and more radiant finish.
For best results, apply your toner while your skin is still slightly damp after cleansing, rather than allowing your skin to fully dry first. This will enable your toner to trap in all of those extra water molecules sitting on your skin’s surface, further ramping up hydration.
Power Up With an Antioxidant Serum
As mentioned earlier, one of the tasks that skin cells undertake each night is to repair some of the damage that it has encountered over the course of the day. Much of this comes from free radicals, which are formed when the skin is exposed to UV radiation, pollution, and more.
When you’re young, your skin cells are more than capable of getting this job done with ease. However, as you age and cell functions decline, your skin cells would benefit from some extra support.
How can you give them this?
With antioxidants. Antioxidants are molecules that have been proven, time and time again, to neutralize the appearance of free radical damage. With free radicals causing everything from accelerated wrinkles to discoloration, the use of antioxidants can go a long way in keeping your skin looking and feeling healthy.
So, which antioxidants should you be using?
Pretty much every derm will recommend the three most game-changing vitamins; A, C, and E. You’ll find this potent trio in the VouPre Vita C Serum. This silky solution also boasts antioxidants from grape stem cells, olive, jojoba, coconut, and avocado. It will give your skin cells the antioxidants that they need to feel capable of functioning to their full potential…and more!
Double Up With a Hydrating Serum
You’re probably aware of how important moisture is for the skin. Every cell in the body needs moisture to function properly, and this includes all of your skin cells. If they don’t have enough moisture overnight, they’ll struggle to do what they need to, leaving you waking up to skin that looks dull, rough, and lackluster.
However, keeping your skin hydrated at night isn’t as easy as it may seem. Studies confirm that transepidermal water loss, which is when your skin loses moisture to evaporation, is at its highest overnight. If you want your skin to retain more moisture than it loses, you’ll need to give it several layers of hydration.
This is why, in addition to using a hydrating toner and the vitamin C serum we’ve recommended above, which also contains hydrating ingredients, we would advise adding an additional hydrating serum to your evening skincare routine. Look for one that offers a blend of hydrating ingredients, like the Perfecting Facial Serum from VouPre’s Thermal Collection. It’s full of humectants, ingredients that bind moisture to the skin. This enables it to instantly bump up moisture levels to leave the skin looking plump and radiant.
Quench and Moisturize
The final step in your evening skincare routine should be to moisturize. This serves a few different purposes, with the first being to add another layer of hydration. Moisturizers also form a thin barrier over the surface of the skin. This helps to slow down transepidermal water loss. As a result, rather than losing so much moisture to evaporation, your skin cells will have access to the moisture that they need.
Of course, the right moisturizer will also benefit your complexion in other ways too. The Cannabis Silk Cream from VouPre’s Cannabis Collection, for example, will work to even out your skin tone and lighten the look of discoloration. It’s perfect if you’ve been struggling with the appearance of hyperpigmentation. Meanwhile, the Aqua Nano Cream, which you’ll find in the Aqua Collection, is a much richer formula. It’s a superstar at leaving dry skin feeling softer and more supple.
Weekly Extras
The skincare routine that we’ve shared above is one that you can follow each and every night. However, once or twice a week, there are a couple of extra steps that you need to add in:
Exfoliate For a Deeper Glow
We’ve already talked about the importance of cleansing away the impurities that your skin has picked up during the day. However, chances are that by the time you cleanse, some of those impurities will have already sunk into your pores. Your cleanser won’t be able to reach them, yet if you allow them to stay, they’ll only trigger free radical damage.
This is where an exfoliator comes in. It works on a deeper level of the complexion than a cleanser, pulling debris out from within the pores. In addition to clearing away environmental impurities, it will also make sure that your pores don’t end up blocked with sebum, dead skin cells, or anything else.
While chemical exfoliants have their merit, using the wrong acids, or even the wrong concentration of the right acid, could spell disaster for your skin. This is why dermatologists often recommend starting off with a physical exfoliator. This means that rather than harnessing the power of acids to dissolve dead skin cells, they physically scrub them off the skin.
Of course, some physical exfoliators have gotten a bad rep for being overly harsh. For best results, you’ll need one that makes use of very small and fine abrasive granules. This is why we created the VouPre Deep Renewal Facial Peel. It provides a thorough exfoliation yet it’s gentle enough to ensure that the skin barrier remains intact and undamaged.
Use this exfoliator after cleansing, before you apply your toner, and you’ll see a big difference in how smooth and soft your skin looks!
Mask Up
Although face masks aren’t considered to be essential in the way that some other skincare products are, they’re still capable of making a huge difference to your complexion. They’re usually filled with a high concentration of active ingredients, many of which will benefit your skin cells while they’re hard at work at night.
While some prefer to use a face mask in the morning, let’s not forget that the skin is more permeable at night. This means that products and ingredients absorb to greater effect at night. While a morning masking session may give your skin a glow for the day, using a face mask in the evenings will bring about the deeper changes in your complexion that you’ve been hoping to see.
What sort of face mask should you be using?
This all depends on your skin goals. If your skin often feels congested and greasy, a clay mask, such as the VouPre Detoxifying Thermal Mask, would be great. On the other hand, the Aqua Melting Mask is a leave-on formula that works beautifully on dry skin.
If sheet masks are more your thing, check out the Hydra-Glow Revitalizing Facial Mask. It’s a hydrogel mask that provides an instant burst of hydration. We even have a similar mask for the neck and chest, allowing you to give your delicate décolletage the same TLC.
Creating the Perfect Evening Skincare Routine With VouPre
While your morning skincare routine should be aimed at keeping your skin feeling protected from environmental damage, your evening routine should be all about helping your skin cells to repair the appearance of damage. The products that you use each night should leave your skin cells feeling their very best, so that they can then go on to carry out all of their vital tasks without running into any problems!
