Night routines are enjoyable because you get to wash the stress off your tired skin and you simply can afford more time on pampering your skin with luxurious ingredients. What you apply at night can give your skin an extra bolster of tools that can power up its repair and rejuvenation processes while you sleep.

Read on to understand what your skin does in the wee hours, and what products would work best during this time.

It’s your skin recovery time

Just like how we need a vacation to recharge and recalibrate our lives, our skin does the same too. In the day, our skin has to counter and resist all attacks from UV, harsh environments and stress.

At night, our skin takes a much-needed vacation to recover and recharge. This is the time when our skin cells need the most nutrients and nourishment, which is where our anti-ageing ingredients come into play. While we are asleep, our skin goes through intense repair and regeneration, producing new skin cells and sheds away the old dried ones.

Ingredients such as antioxidants, peptides and collagen help to stimulate the growth of fresh skin cells, collagen and elastin, enabling our skin to stay firm and supple.

It’s the best time to fade dark spots

During the day, UV from the sun increases the production of melanin in our skin. Always remember to apply sunscreen liberally at the last step of your day routine.

Night time is the best opportunity for brightening ingredients to work. If you are trying to fade dark spots or improve dull skin, make sure to include those products in your night routine.

It’s important to prevent water loss

Trans epidermal water loss occur when our skin loses water to the environment through the epidermis (the skin’s outer layer). Compared to the day, less sebum is produced at night, which means our skin has less natural oil to retain moisture.

To avoid looking like a dried fruit in the morning, top up our skin’s moisture bank by hydrating and applying moisturizer liberally before going to bed. You can go for a heavier cream (as long as it doesn’t clog your pores) to effectively lock the moisture in.

4 “Secret’s” must-haves for your night routine

We recommend including the following products from DR’s Secret to power up your night routine.

1. C15 Essence 7

It’s a high-performance Vitamin C essence that encompasses antioxidant, brightening and firming properties all in one. Vitamin C, being an essential anti-ageing ingredient also provides great help to your skin’s recovery process and builds up the skin’s defences against UV when dawn breaks.

2. Age Arrest A3

Natural growth factors present in the skin signals and reminds our skin to conduct cell renewal. The star ingredient in Age Arrest A3—proprietary E-Factor™ peptide acts like a natural growth factor that tells the skin to increase its renewal rate.

This helps to stimulate the production of collagen and elastin, smoothening out fine lines, ensuring that our skin stays plump and supple.

One tab is sufficient for each day, and thus we recommend using it at night when our skin is most receptive.

3. Moisturizer 6

Apply liberally before bed to lubricate skin and lock in the moisture tight. Moisturizer 6 can help to repair skin barrier as well, which will be soothing and calming for dry, sensitive skin. For oilier skin that may find it a tad too heavy for the day, we recommend using once at night.

4. Eye Cream

We would suggest applying Eye Cream both in the day and night. During the day, the Eye Cream helps to reduce puffiness and firms up the eye contours, so you look more refreshed. At night, the peptides in Eye Cream give your skin ingredients to work with to stimulate its regeneration.

Tip: Apply Eye Cream all around the orbital bone and eye contours to not just target eye bags but also fine lines that may appear around those areas. Remember to follow up with sunscreen after applying Eye Cream in the day.