What exactly are night creams? Cynics might say they were any cream you slap on at bedtime. They’re just thicker moisturisers, right? To be clear: they are not, or at least they shouldn’t be. During the day your skin works overtime to protect itself from environmental aggressors. At night it goes into repair mode, which means it needs products to work accordingly. While you sleep, the skin loses a higher rate of moisture than it does during the day – it’s known as transepidermal water loss – so a day cream won’t touch the sides. Meaning you need great night-time formulas with powerful ingredients. Many of these increase your skin’s sensitivity to the sun, but they are perfect to use while you sleep. So with the plethora of night creams on the market, how does one choose? Well think about what issue you want to tackle and be led by the ingredients that help with that: retinols and glycolic acids help to refine, resurface and smooth skin texture; vitamin C and other acids (malic and lactic, for instance) will help brighten skin; ceramide-rich night products are great for firming, plumping and boosting the skin’s barrier, etc. The tried and tested is also not a bad place to start: Estée Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair is an excellent beauty editor stalwart that addresses everything from hydration to radiance. Oh, and another thing to note: night creams can be serums or even masks. They don’t have to be creams.
1. Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair £65, esteelauder.co.uk
2. Caudalie Vinoperfect Dark Spot Correcting Glycolic Night Cream £37, uk.caudalie.com
3. Murad Essential-C Overnight Barrier Repair Cream £83, murad.co.uk
4. Clarins Multi-Active Nuit £49, clarins.com
5. Olay Regenerist Retinol 24 Night Moisturiser £38, boots.com
6. Lumene Nordic-C Overnight Bright Sleeping Cream £17.80, feelunique.com
7. Laneige Water Sleeping Mask £28, spacenk.com
8. Elizabeth Arden Retinol + HPR Ceramide Rapid Skin Renewing Water Cream £75, johnlewis.com
9. Medik8 Advanced Night Restore £59, cultbeauty.co.uk
10. Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow Aha Night Treatment £36.40, sephora.co.uk
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