New Year Night Repair
New Year, new night cream. Did you know that your skin regenerates more when you are asleep? So any anti-ageing creams you use work harder and do more overnight.
The idea of beauty sleep isn’t so daft after all! And at this time of year, when we all miss a lot of sleep, even moreimportant to get a good cream that will work for the hours we are sleeping!
Clarins Extra-Firming Night Cream (£62) comes in two formulas – one for all skin types, and one for dry skin. I love Clarins products. They are rich, feel great to use, and the fact they come in a dry skin formula is great for me. This formula contains kangaroo flower, known to help with skin firming, and moonstone hydrated silica, which encourages that nighttime regeneration.
Filorga is a great Italian skincare brand – the products are ‘super-scientific’ and this NCEF Night Mask (£60, Debenhams) is packed with all sorts of ingredients to help the skin regain its youthful appearance, including Melatonin CX, a silk tree extract complex that activates the synthesis of the sleep hormone melatonin, regulating and triggering overnight skin healing processes. You can pop this mask in the fridge for a cooling sensation with increased smoothing and decongesting effects, and you can also use it on the eye contours, any dark circles, and the upper eyelids.
One of my favourite night products is Origins Drink-Up Intensive Overnight Mask. I love it, and have turned so many of my friends and family on to it! But most recently I’ve had a look at the brand’s latest launch – Origins High Potency Night-A-Mins (£30). This is an oil-free resurfacing cream, with fruit derived AHAs. AHAs are Alpha-Hydroxy Acids. I’ve had a bit of a hit or miss with them, most recently taking a bit of a bad reaction to a product that was a bit too strong.
Be careful with these products. This is effectively a night cream and a gentle peel. The AHAs work hard to gently exfoliate whilst you sleep, and it contains a combination of Barley, Wheat Extract, Squalane, and Jojoba Butter, as well as an essential oil blend of neroli, valarian, orange and vanilla.
The mg derma CDB Stem Cells & Algae All Night Cream (£80, harveynichols.com) is based on stem cell science, and blends it with algae exteact for its hydrating and moisturising and antioxidant properties. There’s Tocopheryl Acetate in there, a form of vitamin E, and Apple Stem Cells to help increase skin stem cell vitality. All of this works overnight to combat the signs of ageing.
Diego Dalla Palma Time Control Moonlight Cream (£37, M&S), has a nourishing texture and creates a barrier on the skin, releasing its powerful regenerating and anti-ageing active ingredients as you sleep. It contains extract of moonstone, rich in silicon and potassium, two minerals with a powerful detoxifying and rebalancing action. It also contains Total Collagen Care complex to improve skin texture, firmness and tone, and Ceramide plus 1-3-6 II to moisturise, firm and restructure.
L’Occitane’s Immortelle Reset Oil-in-Serum (£49) contains three potent active ingredients suspended in an innovative dual-textured serum. Immortelle Essential Oil, known for its power to boost collagen production, blends with Acmella Oleracea Extract, whcih is known as a natural alternative to Botox, and Marjoram Extract, which has the ability to restart gene expression functions that have become dormant.
