Firstly big ups to you for making time for your skin. We keep saying, “Be good to your skin, you will be wearing it for the rest of your life”. But like with everything else, skincare, and rituals more so often come with varying viewpoints. The most oft heard one is if night time skincare ritual is a good practice or not? So if we have to tell you if skin care at night is good or bad, we have to know what skin care means to you. If it means healing your skin holistically, naturally then we definitely swing towards the the nightly routine. But if you are not sure, or if that’s not the case, or when you bring yourself to read the ingredients listed, you spot mineral oil or silicones (both of these may appear in different chemical names), we would probably ask you to skip it.
It might seem polarising at the beginning. After all, a cream is a cream. At least a night cream is a night cream, right? Well, no. And the difference lies in the all important ingredient list.
More than skin deep
Cold pressed oils, therapeutic grade essential oils, raw butters, oil extracts of a bunch of herbs, these ingredients penetrate your skin. To different extents, depending on molecular size and propensity. Like most essential oils go right up to the lymphatic system. That is how they heal from the inside.
Cold pressed oils are great for repairing the skin’s barrier function and eventually regulating the trans epidermal water loss to the optimal degree. Resulting in your waking up with soft nourished skin in the morning.
Say no to mineral oil and silicones
However, a lot of other ingredients, like mineral oil and silicones, do not penetrate your skin. They form a film on your skin, making it feel moisturised on the surface. These if applied regularly and kept for long hours, especially the night hours when your skin is naturally repairing and rejuvenating, causes damage and imbalance to your skin. This could also lead to clogging of pores resulting in eruptions.
Why are mineral oil and silicones made out to be the monsters? Well they aren’t, but here is why they don’t figure in our formulations. We believe mineral oil or petrolatum is an excellent emollient in the very short term because it is effective in sealing in moisture and cutting off the elements. Silicones in their different names are hugely beneficial to improve the spreadability of the product, making it lighter and quick drying, all very good again for the very short term. We, however always look for ingredients that have therapeutic skin-healing properties in the long run, so that we can provide maximum assistance to your skin through them.
Bedtime skin care recommendations
At Oleum Cottage, we include a blend of cold pressed oils in every face crème, depending on skin type. In fact, if you look at our Mini Ritual Kits or OC Ritual Kits, we leave out ingredients that will not allow your skin to breathe and add ample of what allow your skin to heal. And we encourage our users to never skip the ritual at night. We always thought we will just get over with the double cleansing, it’s tedious after all, but if we were to be entirely honest, more often than not, it is this process that we find ourselves lingering on. What we are trying to say is that find a routine that works for you, and stick to it.
Did you know that the ingredients work when you’re asleep?
Our circadian rhythm has an important role to play especially when it comes to our skin health. How our skin behaves changes considerably from day time to night time. For example, the regenerative processes work three times faster at night, the penetrative ability is much higher, we are more prone to trans epidermal water loss early in the morning among others. Keeping all of this in mind, how much importance we give to our sleep (more on that later), and how we assist our skin with the right nutrients and vitamins at night, goes a long way in not just delaying signs of ageing, but also on managing a lot of skin disorders like dermatitis and psoriasis.
Moreover, essential oils like French Lavender and German Chamomile that we incorporate into the OC Ritual Kits, specifically in our Intensive Under Eye Repair Elixir, are known to assist in sleep, and eventually assist in increased production of melatonin, the sleep hormone, that is associated with suppression of ultraviolet (UV) damage in skin cells, wound healing, and anti-tumour effects. And hence, all the more reason to incorporate these oils in your nightly ritual.
Give that night care ritual a go!
So it’s a big yes for a night time skin care ritual, with all the good stuff in the right proportions, that will make you sleep better and your skin look healthier. And if you are feeling intimidated to start with an entire ritual, or worried if you’ll fall off the wagon, we have got your back. Take our Skin Quiz to know your skin type and find recommendations for easy 3 step routines to help you start.
The important thing here is to try and keep at it than try and aim for a 30/30 day in a month sort of figures. And if at any point you are unsure, which way to go, please know that we are right here to answer your questions.