I gave you the steps to a simple AM anti-aging daytime routine here, so of course we need to talk about nighttime.
Yes, like I said for the daytime routine, you can also have all the steps you want in your nighttime routine as long as you’re not irritating your skin of course. But for those nights when you’re shuffling into the house late AF, you might want something quick and easy that gets the job done. Or if you’re just starting out, having something that’s easy to remember can help keep you consistent.
So the basics of a nighttime anti-aging skincare routine are:
1. Gentle Cleanser
Even if you don’t wear makeup, cleansing is an important step to cleanse the skin of things you can’t see with your naked eye: free radicals, dirt, oil, etc. And if you do wear makeup, or wear a hard-to-remove sunscreen (mineral and tinted mineral sunscreens can especially be stubborn to remove), consider double cleansing.
You can double cleanse with an oil-based cleanser or balm—massaging the product onto dry skin, rinsing, and then following up with your gentle cleanser. Or depending on your gentle cleanser, you can just cleanse with that twice.
SHOP CLEANSERS IN THE WIDGETS BELOW
OIL CLEANSERS
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DRY SKIN
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OILY/COMBO SKIN
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ACNE PRONE SKIN
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SENSITIVE SKIN (ALL TYPES)
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2. Retinoid
Retinoid is a collective term for derivatives of vitamin A. You can find a broken down explanation of them vs retinol using the Wu-Tang Clan in the video below.
Retinoids are the gold standard for anti-aging because they come with tons of receipts showing their efficacy. BUT when you first get on one, it can be pretty irritating for some people so you have to TREAD LIGHTLY.
Check this out for tips on how to start a retinoid. The video below talks about how to start on Tretinoin which is a prescription retinoid.
While you need to visit your doctor to get Tretinoin in the US, you can get retinol over the counter. Retinol is also a vitamin A derivative and in general tends to be gentler on the skin. Whichever route you go, always go low and slow—starting out with using your retinoid once a week and slowly increasing frequency as your skin can tolerate. The video above is a great resource for this whether you do prescription or over the counter.
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Retinoids are amazing, but there are certain situations that call for a pause on using them (ie pregnancy, breast feeding, etc—this is because testing has not been done on this population to determine whether or not it’s safe) and some people just can’t tolerate retinoids no matter what.
In that case, you can try products that contain ingredients like bakuchiol and peptides.
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3. Moisturizer
Even if you have oily skin, you need to moisturizer, my people. There are so many moisturizer formulas out there for every skin type for every season (I have oily skin and live in NYC where we have four seasons—I typically need three different moisturizers during the different seasons).
If you have oily skin and it’s the warmer months, you may want to look for a water cream or gel cream moisturizer. Then in the colder months, you might want to switch to something a little thicker.
If you have dry skin, you want something THICCC when it comes to the colder, drier months. Some people with dry skin (or if you have oily skin and it’s the dead of a super cold winter) like to layer hydrators and moisturizers. See below for an example.
DRY SKIN MOISTURIZERS
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OILY/COMBO SKIN MOISTURIZERS
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SENSITIVE SKIN MOISTURIZERS
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You could also combine two steps in one by using a retinol/bakuchiol/peptide moisturizer
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EXFOLIATION
A lot of what we already do to our skin counts as exfoliation: some of the products we use contain ingredients that exfoliate, washing our faces with a cloth is a form of exfoliation, using facial cleansing tools counts as exfoliation, heck, even rubbing your hands across your face when you cleanse counts as exfoliation.
So it’s very important that we NOT overdo it. Skin that is over-exfoliated not only doesn’t feel good (ouch!) but continuing to do so impairs the skin’s barrier which can lead to a host of issues including but not limited to HYPERPIGMENTATION.
So relax, y’all.
At most you only need to exfoliate 1-3 times a week. There are a lot of exfoliating products out there that tell you to use them daily, but proceed with caution, y’all.
If you have sensitive skin, which to remind you again, is a condition NOT a skin type, you have to be extra careful to not overdo it. Once a week is likely enough—maaaaaybe twice. But look into enzyme exfoliators which tend to be more gentle. I have some recommendations in the widget below.
If your skin has sensitized because you did the most (usually feels very tight and stings no matter what you put on it), lay off the exfoliants for a while and focus on soothing and moisturizing until your skin is back to normal.
And don’t do the most again.
Also, on nights when you use retinoids, skip the exfoliation.
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Do you need an eye cream?
There isn’t a yes or no answer to this—check out the video
