10 Tips to Create a Relaxing Bedtime Ritual for Glowing Skin
There’s a reason your grandmother insisted on getting her “beauty sleep.” Your body is hard at work while you’re asleep as it works to repair the wear and tear that occurred during the day and your skin is no exception.
Create a relaxing bedtime ritual for deep, restorative sleep to wake up with visibly smooth, radiant skin with these 10 easy tips.
1. Try Magnesium
Magnesium is often used as a stress-busting supplement that may help improve sleep. It’s also a Swiss army knife of skincare ingredients that has been shown to provide a multitude of benefits, including:
- Soothing dry skin
- Strengthening the skin barrier
- Regulating cellular regeneration and repair
- Calming irritation and redness
- Replenishing moisture
- Improving the skin’s overall appearance
Our new Ectoin Overnight Rescue pairs calming, barrier-boosting magnesium with the water-binding, protective qualities of ectoin in a rich, velvety night cream that acts as a veil for vulnerable or damaged skin.
This breakthrough formula helps to strengthen and rebuild skin’s appearance, soothing irritation and plumping fine lines and wrinkles while enhancing its daily defense mechanism by strengthening the barrier.
2. Support Skin’s Overnight Repair Process
Your body increases blood flow to the skin overnight as it replenishes and repairs skin cells, raising skin temperature and decreasing skin PH. This causes transepidermal water loss (TEWL) to accelerate, putting your freshly replenished skin at risk of dehydration.
Support your body’s natural repair process and boost skin hydration with a rich, protective moisturizer such as our Ectoin Overnight Rescue. Our velvety night cream pairs water-binding ectoin with squalane to help repair daytime damage and strengthen skin’s barrier while you sleep, leaving skin feeling stronger and more supple after just one overnight treatment. Sleep-promoting magnesium and peptides help calm stress-inducing neurotransmitters to optimize skin’s capacity for repair.
Add an extra layer of moisture to the delicate undereye area, which is more susceptible to dehydration. Our multi-award-winning Marine Algae Eye Cream delivers deep, lasting hydration as it visibly lifts and firms from the very first application.
3. Sip Herbal Tea, Not Wine
While unwinding with a glass of wine can feel relaxing in the moment, the alcohol it contains can also disrupt the sleep cycle and lead to insomnia.
Instead, trade your glass of wine for a warm and cozy cup of naturally caffeine-free herbal tea. Some varieties – such as chamomile and lavender – are thought to promote more restful sleep. Try a cup more than an hour before bedtime so you finish digesting before falling asleep.
4. Boost Skin Cell Turnover
Our body’s natural cell renewal process peaks in our 20’s, which is one of the reasons why we notice changes in skin texture and pigmentation as we age.
Incorporating ingredients such as lactic acid and retinoids in your nighttime routine can increase skin cell turnover over time, revealing smoother, more even-toned skin.
If you’d like to get the benefits of both ingredients, try a skin cycling routine that alternates between our groundbreaking Retinol Night Serum and our 10% Lactic Acid Resurfacing Serum for smoother skin with visible improvement in texture and tone.
5. Indulge in a Relaxing Bath Ritual
Luxuriating in an evening bath doesn’t just feel decadent, it can actually help you sleep. As your body warms up in the tub, blood rises to the surface of the skin. This pulls heat from your core, lowering your body temperature and promoting sleep.
Light a candle, fill up the tub, and enjoy a luxurious soak and emerge with softer, more hydrated skin by adding a few pumps of our 100% Squalane Oil to your bath. Our weightless, sugarcane derived squalane oil is a molecular match for the moisture naturally found in human skin, making it the perfect fragrance-free bath oil for sensitive skin, or skin that becomes irritated by bathing.
6. Limit Screens
The blue light emitted by screens can disrupt sleep by affecting melatonin production and circadian rhythms. It can also damage your skin.
Blue light can penetrate dep into the skin and damage the cells, leading to signs of aging, inflammation, and a weaker skin barrier. Wearing sunscreen during the day can help minimize the damage and avoiding screens for at least an hour before bed can help protect freshly cleaned skin while promoting a good night’s sleep.
7. Boost Circulation with Facial Massage
Giving yourself a relaxing facial massage doesn’t only feel good, it also increases circulation to the skin. This creates a plumping effect and may also help improve product absorption.
Warm a few drops of our bestselling Vitamin C Rose Oil on your fingertips and gently massage into your face as the final step in your skincare routine to brighten and moisturize while sealing in active ingredients.
8. Turn on Your Humidifier
The ideal indoor humidity range is between 40 and 50 percent but can easily be below 30 percent depending on the season and climate. Using a humidifier can help boost humidity and protect against dehydrated, itchy, irritated skin.
Some humidifiers also act as diffusers, enabling you to simultaneously promote restful sleep by infusing the air with essential oils. Try a relaxing scent like lavender to help soothe you to sleep.
9. End the Day With Mindfulness
Regular meditation can help our bodies cope with stress, lowering cortisol levels and associated inflammation. This may also help improve skin barrier health and help with inflammatory conditions such as rosacea and acne.
Meditation can also help you fall asleep more easily as well as improving the quality of sleep, enabling you to get the most out of your body’s natural overnight repair processes.
10. Sleep on Your Back
Sleeping on your back is not only best for your posture, it’s best for your skin. In fact, a 2016 study identified a set of wrinkles that from sleeping position alone.
Sleeping with your face against a pillow means eight hours of pressure and friction that can damage skin, which is why sleeping on your back is best.
