If you’ve ever been confused about the myriad of products available at the cosmetic counter, you are not alone. In fact, there are so many product options for us today with different descriptions and ingredients it’s hard to distinguish what is really necessary on a daily basis. With that point in mind, we had to ask the question, is night cream really necessary?
There are many of us who contemplate the real need of buying a night cream, especially when you have to consider the costs. The idea of getting away with only using a regular moisturizer at night seems to make sense, but we couldn't be more wrong. There are many reasons why it is important to have both your regular day creams and your night cream in your daily regimen. To get the complete breakdown we asked several different specialists in the skin care industry to please explain why.
Dr. Sven Gohla, Vice President of Research & Development of the La Prairie Group, said, "Absolutely it is necessary! During the night, specific formulas supply the skin with the ingredients that support the skins natural regeneration process, the latter being primarily active during night time".
Putting it simply, you won't find the same ingredients in a daily moisturizer that will be able to help in this healing process.
Dr. H. Maes, Ph.D, Vice President of Global Research & Development at Estée Lauder further explains, "Studies show that night time is the optimal time to maximise existing natural processes that occur in your skin. It is more receptive to ingredients that will help restore and revitalize its appearance". Maes adds, "During the day, your skin goes on the defensive. Think about what's going on around you – UV rays, free radicals, stress from the daily challenges of work and home. All these elements can impact your skin and not in a good way."
Fair enough, we all know that we are exposing our skin to a bombardment of negative impacts on a daily basis, so what happens to our skin at night that makes it so important to use a specific night cream? "During the night, your skin goes on the offensive. Environmental aggressors are no longer present, so your skin redirects its energy into repairing damage from the day and rebuilding its collagen and elastin support structures, these are vital to maintaining a youthful "spring" and firmness", says Maes, "In order to accomplish all that repairing, skin has to increase its metabolism – just as you have to eat more when you are active. As metabolism increases, so does blood flow through the skin. This causes the skin's temperature to rise, which in turn causes faster water loss.”
The end result of this chain reaction? Overnight, skin can become seriously dehydrated. This dehydration has two main consequences. One being if the water loss is severe enough, cells enter a state called Osmotic Shock and they may die, revealing unhealthy skin appearance. The second effect is that even a little dehydration can interfere with the rebuilding and repairing process, so skin is sabotaged by dryness right when we need it to be performing at its peak. To emphasize the importance of night cream application Ana Guerrero, skin specialist for La Prairie says, "If we did not apply night creams before we sleep, the repairing process slows down and in some cases doesn’t occur at all (short sleep time, damaging way of life such as smoking, not drinking enough water, lack of vitamins... Etc.).
Fair enough, we all know that we are exposing our skin to a bombardment of negative impacts on a daily basis, so what happens to our skin at night that makes it so important to use a specific night cream? "During the night, your skin goes on the offensive. Environmental aggressors are no longer present, so your skin redirects its energy into repairing damage from the day and rebuilding its collagen and elastin support structures, these are vital to maintaining a youthful "spring" and firmness", says Maes, "In order to accomplish all that repairing, skin has to increase its metabolism – just as you have to eat more when you are active. As metabolism increases, so does blood flow through the skin. This causes the skin's temperature to rise, which in turn causes faster water loss.”
The end result of this chain reaction? Overnight, skin can become seriously dehydrated. This dehydration has two main consequences. One being if the water loss is severe enough, cells enter a state called Osmotic Shock and they may die, revealing unhealthy skin appearance. The second effect is that even a little dehydration can interfere with the rebuilding and repairing process, so skin is sabotaged by dryness right when we need it to be performing at its peak. To emphasize the importance of night cream application Ana Guerrero, skin specialist for La Prairie says, "If we did not apply night creams before we sleep, the repairing process slows down and in some cases doesn’t occur at all (short sleep time, damaging way of life such as smoking, not drinking enough water, lack of vitamins... Etc.).
As most day creams are formulated specifically with free radical fighters (e.g. antioxidants) to help protect the skin, during the night our skin should repair itself from the possible damages that squeezed through those barriers, but it is not always possible. Sometimes the damage is so severe from the daily onslaught skin does not have enough time to oxygenate, rest and repair.
Eventually this makes the skin stress out and age prematurely and ends up looking fatigued, flaky and sags this is why we need the repairing, calming & emollient ingredients in night creams. Guerrero adds, "The trend is to now also include antioxidants which will fight premature skin aging, but will then defend the skin during night time, letting the organ do the repair work itself. This results in creams originally designed for night time that can also be used during the day.
That's the case of La Prairie's Anti-Aging Emulsion SPF30 a cellular protection complex.
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