Women often use the same moisturizer, whether it’s morning or night. This may not be the best approach to take, however. The skin has different needs, depending on whether it’s day or night. For this reason, it’s a good idea to alter the treatment to match the time of day.
Moisturizing during the day
Daytime moisturizer needs to be lightweight. A heavy, rich formula during the day can make it hard for you to put on makeup. Even if you find a way to do it, the moisturizer will likely mix with your makeup and clog your pores.
Other qualities are important, as well. It needs to be hydrating and capable of fast absorption; it also needs strong SPF (about 30), vitamins C and E, polyphenols, and antioxidants, to protect the skin from sun damage and pollution. SPF can even protect the active ingredients in your moisturizer from degradation when you’re exposed to sunshine as you go about your day. Moisturizer designed for daytime use tends to make the skin look brighter as well.
Moisturizing at night
Your skin naturally becomes drier at night. Applying moisturizers with rich formulations at this time then can be a great idea. Since the moisturizer is left undisturbed on your skin for hours at this time, your skin has plenty of time to absorb the hydration and the active ingredients in the formulation. Nighttime moisturizers also come enriched with retinol, ceramides, glycolic acid (to make the skin glow), and AHAs, and BHAs, to heal your skin cells.
These ingredients would be a poor choice for daytime moisturizers because they make skin sensitive to sunlight. With the skin’s natural production of oils tending to slow down at night, the moisturizing ingredients can be especially useful. When you wake up in the morning, you’ll have rejuvenated, repaired, and moisturized skin.
There’s an additional idea to keep in mind when applying nighttime moisturizer. If you plan to put on a night cream or topical medications, they need to go on your skin first so that they are in direct contact. The moisturizer goes on top of these applications.
The two-moisturizer plan is a good idea if you have the time and patience to plan out a moisturizer regimen. However, if it’s important to you to keep things simple, you could still go with one moisturizer for both days and nights: you would need to choose something that has SPF so that it protects your skin during the day. However, it shouldn’t have the active ingredients that help your skin heal at night because they would overly sensitize your skin to light if used during the day. Choosing a daytime moisturizer for use at night, you would give up the extra moisturizing and skin-healing functions that these ingredients would bring, but you would at least have a light formulation that worked during the day and protected your skin from damaging sunlight.
Recommended Products
L’Oréal Paris Revitalift Derm Intensives 1.5% Pure Hyaluronic Acid Serum
La Roche-Posay Hyalu B5 Serum
CeraVe Hydrating Hyaluronic Acid Serum
Neutrogena Hydro Boost Night Pressed Serum
First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream
Aveeno Calm + Restore Redness Relief Cream
Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Cream
e.l.f. Holy Hydration! Face Cream Fragrance-Free
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Women often use the same moisturizer, whether it’s morning or night. This may not be the best approach to take, however. The skin has different needs, depending on whether it’s day or night. For this reason, it’s a good idea to alter the treatment to match the time of day. Moisturizing during the day Daytime … Read more