withSimplicity | Nov. 15, 2022
10 Minute Natural Nighttime Skincare Routine
After a long, stressful day, sometimes you just want to jump right into bed. We totally get it; however, we can’t stress how important it is to dedicate at least 10 minutes every night to your natural skincare routine.
Let’s ditch the bar soap and leave the mascara-stained pillows behind and put together a nighttime skincare routine that’s a) easy to do, and b) preps your skin for a full night of rejuvenation.
Snapshot: Nighttime Skincare Routine Order
- Step 1: Remove Makeup
- Step 2: Cleanse
- Step 2.5: Mask & Exfoliate (Only 2x per week)
- Step 3: Toner (pH balancing spray)
- Step 4: Treatment Products (acne treatments, under eye elixir, etc.)
- Step 5: Moisturizers & Serums
Step 1: Remove your Makeup.
This is probably one of the most important steps in your nighttime skincare routine… so don’t skip it! Even if you only put on a little bit of mascara and concealer for the day, it’s imperative you remove it before catching your precious “z’s”.
If you leave on your makeup throughout the night, you’re inadvertently inviting a bunch of bacteria onto your skin and significantly increasing your chance of clogged pores, blackheads, and unwanted breakouts.
We highly recommend using an oil-based makeup remover because (unlike water-based makeup removers or cloths) it breaks down makeup particles while simultaneously nourishing the skin. Just make sure to follow up with a normal cleanser post makeup remover use.
Pro-Tip: Oil-based makeup removers are great for double-cleansing.
What's the verdict on Makeup Removing Wipes? Our advice? Steer clear of them. While they’re quick to use, the rubbing on the skin of the wipe a) irritates the skin, b) unnecessarily stretches the skin, and c) breaks down the protective barrier of the skin.
Step 2: Cleanse your Skin.
Cleansing is the most basic step of any nighttime skincare routine. At the end of the day, it’s important to remove any excess dirts, oils, and bacteria that accumulate on the surface of the skin and in pores.
Please….do not use the Dial soap bar.
When cleansing your face, use a product formulated specifically for the delicate skin on the face, such as one of our Foaming Cleansers or our Charcoal Face Bar.
Step 2.5: Face Masks and Exfoliators.
Why 2.5? Incorporate this step into your routine only 2 nights a week.
It’s not necessary (nor recommended) to exfoliate your face every day. In fact, over-exfoliation can be very irritating to the skin and exacerbate problems.
While we think of face masks as just fun, extra ways to add moisture, they actually exfoliate the skin and inject it with added vitamins and minerals.
We recommend using face masks/exfoliating 2 times per week. When doing so, make sure you use a face mask that’s suited for your skin type. For example, if you have oily skin, you want to refrain from masks that add extra moisture.
For your second weekly exfoliation, we recommend a manual exfoliator like our Micro Exfoliator. Its base ingredient is oatmeal, making it super gently on the skin while removing dead, flakey skin cells and promoting cell turnover.
Step 3: Time to Tone.
Up to this point, we’ve said every step is very important, but this step may be the most crucial.
Make sure to tone your skin.
Keeping your skin's pH level balanced is quite the feat, especially with all the products and environmental factors that come into contact with your skin throughout the day. Disrupting its pH level can cause skin conditions such as dermatitis, rosacea, and eczema.
Toners are pH balancing sprays that reset skin’s pH to a 5. The skin needs to be slightly acidic and have a strong acidic barrier.
After cleansing (all soap-based products have an alkaline (basic) pH), the skin’s pH is thrown out of whack and slides closer to a 10 on the pH scale. Using toner immediately after you cleanse or mask/exfoliate (less than a minute, if possible!) will ensure that the toner's active ingredients penetrate the skin better, since your skin will be a little wet from cleansing. This will also help rest your skin’s acidic barrier by bringing the pH back to a 5.
Step 4: Treatment Products.
Sometimes there are problem areas in your complexion that you want to hyper-target with specific ingredients, and that’s when under eye and acne skincare products come into play.
Make sure to apply these before going in with your moisturizers and serums.
Step 5: Moisturizers & Serums.
After cleansing, toning and using all of your specialized products, it’s crucial to add moisture back to your face. At night, our skin goes through a renewal process and needs all the vitamins and minerals it can get.
Now, most people think that moisturizers and serums are one-in-the-same, but they actually serve different purposes. Moisturizers work on replenishing and fortifying the upper levels of the skin while serums work further down in the lower layers and deliver targeted ingredients.
Moisturizers are actually a lot thicker than moisturizers in terms of their molecular structure, meaning that the order in which you apply these two products matters.
Always start with your lightest products and then work your way to the heaviest. If you start with the denser product, then other products (such as serums) won’t even get the chance to reach the lower layers of the skin.
If you’re already in-tune with your natural skincare routine and use our products, here is the correct order of application based on which moisturizer you use.
First: Serum, Second: Face Cream
First: Face Jelly, Second: Serum
First: Blue Dew, Second: Serum
Our Face Cream is definitely the densest product we have, which means it’s always the last step in the routine. Face Jelly and Blue Dew aren’t as dense - meaning that they will still allow the serum to pass through.
Now with all this knowledge, we hope you take at least 10 minutes tonight before going to bed to complete your natural nighttime skincare routine. Your skin (and pillow case) will thank you.
Looking for a natural daytime skincare routine? Check out our blog.
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