Supercharge your beauty sleep

“Beauty sleep”… Those old wives knew a thing or two. As we sleep, our skin, brain and body undergo vital repair and regeneration. But, most of us simply don’t get enough hours in, which means our skin suffers. So how do we supercharge it to get the maximum benefit from those night time hours? With the right evening skin care. Here are some compelling facts to sleep on.

The essential thing to understand is this…

Our skin, like our body, operates on a 24-hour circadian rhythm. During the day, it’s in protection mode, while at night, it does its essential repair. Countless scientific studies have shown sleep’s importance for our bodies and brains to enter repair-and-regenerate mode to fix daily damage.

Sadly, many of us just don’t get enough of that vital downtime to keep our minds sharp and our skin and body at peak renewal. The magic number is between 7 to 8 hours of good-quality sleep. Anything less than that inhibits the repair process.

Sleep time is work time for our bodies

While we’re in dreamland, our body is hard at work doing repair, regeneration and construction.

What’s happening in our skin and body as we sleep?

• The hormone melatonin make us sleepy from about 9 pm. And it also has anti-ageing and antioxidant skin benefits, which counteract daily skin damage from aggressors like UV light and pollution.
• Levels of cortisol (the ‘stress’ and get-up-and-go hormone) drop during sleep, allowing skin to repair daytime damage.
• Human growth hormone (HGH) kicks in. It’s responsible for muscle and skin repair and cell regeneration – including collagen production. Between 11 pm and 4 am, our cell production can double. So getting to bed at a reasonable hour and having uninterrupted sleep until 4 am will help our skin do its best work.
• Blood circulation to our skin increases, helping it to release impurities and absorb.
• Skin is more permeable and warmer, so it’s more receptive to the products we apply.
• BUT, this permeability causes moisture loss, which can cause dryness, and impairment of the protective barrier. So it’s important to supply the skin with extra moisture and nourishment.

Supercharge your skin’s night-time repair in 3 steps

We tend to focus on protecting our skin in the morning, but it’s as important to help our skin with night-time skin care that boosts regeneration and repair.

1. Clean away the day

It’s essential to remove daily dirt and pollutants. Our Priming Cleanser not only cleanses and exfoliates the skin, it primes it for the nutrients that follow.

2. Give your skin an intense nutrient injection

The Brightening Elixir is our powerful radiance-boosting serum, which diminishes the appearance of discoloration and uneven skin tone visibly as it boosts collagen production.

3. Comfort and feed your skin

The star of our evening routine is the Overnight Regenerating Cream which supports and maximises the skin’s renewal process and helps to compensate against nightly water loss.

• Our hero active ingredient Bulbine Frutescens has a powerful collagen-stimulating action that helps firm the skin and smooth lines

We’ve added other active ingredients for maximum skin repair benefits:

• Skin regenerating retinyl palmitate (Vitamin A), antioxidant vitamin E, moisturising Panthenol (Pro-vitamin B5)
• Two peptides are included for their powerful anti-wrinkle, restructuring and firming effects

Botanical ingredients boost nourishment and provide delicious comfort:

• Rosehip seed oil, shea butter, passionflower oil, blackcurrant seed oil and olive oil are included not only for their rich, nourishing vitamin and essential fatty acid content, they are sublimely softening and comforting for the skin.

HOW TO USE IT: Before bed, apply one to two pumps to cleansed face, neck and décolletage. Suitable for all skin types, including sensitive.

And in the morning… cleanse and protect

Use our Priming Cleanser to remove overnight impurities and prime the skin for the Brightening Elixir. Lastly, apply our Protecting Day Cream SPF30.