DIDN’T GET ENOUGH BEAUTY SLEEP? HERE ARE TEN WAYS TO WAKE UP YOUR SKIN.
We all know that we should be getting around eight hours of good quality shut-eye sleep every night to put the ‘beauty’ in our beauty sleep, but… life happens, which is why we’re bringing you ten ways to wake up your skin on the mornings when you don’t feel – or look – all that wide awake.
We’ve got you covered from the morning after a bad night’s sleep to the night before, so let’s get started…
1. NEVER GO TO BED WITH MAKEUP ON
Giving your skin a thorough cleanse before your head hits your pillow is a must, no matter how tired you are. When you don’t cleanse your skin at the end of the day, you give all the product, makeup, pollution, sweat and dirt collected on your skin throughout the day the chance to wreak havoc on your pores and your complexion while you sleep. And you give premature ageing the green light – and who wants that?
We have all sorts of industry-leading cleansers, from foaming cleansers to cleansing oils, that guarantee to give your skin sweet dreams. So, the next time you’re in-branch or on our online skin shop, have a look at our variety of fabulous cleansers.
2. CHOOSE HOW YOU SLEEP
Did you know that the way you sleep can contribute to your ageing process? Well, now you do. Sleeping on your side or stomach forces your skin to roll and fold while you sleep, often for hours at a time, causing fine lines and creases to develop on the face. How can you prevent this? Sleeping on a satin pillow cover, prevents and reduces skin folds.
3. GET YOURSELF A HUMIDIFIER
Airconditioned environments by day may keep you cool, but promotes dehydration of your skin, leaving it flaky and dull. Aircon may keep you cool, but it gets your skin a little hot under the proverbial collar by dehydrating it, leaving it flaky and dull. Consider a humidifier when sleeping. You’ll be adding much-needed moisture to the air – allowing your skin to repair itself and stay hydrated.
4. SAY “GOOD MORNING” WITH HOT WATER AND LEMON
Super easy to make, even at the crack of dawn, drinking hot water with lemon first thing is an instant wakeup call for your tastebuds, metabolism and your skin. Trust us, try this for a few days in a row, and you’ll get your skin a healthier glow from the inside out.
5. MOISTURISE, MOISTURISE, MOISTURISE!
Few things say you had a good night’s rest quite like a well-hydrated, dewy complexion. So, counteract the dehydrating effects of back-to-back cups of caffeine with a day cream that puts back into your skin what the past 24 hours took out. As an added bonus, a well-moisturised complexion will also enable your makeup to look (and feel) more like a second skin and give your favourite highlighter swept across your cheekbones that ‘glowing from within’ effect every selfie-taker yearns for.
Visit our online skin shop for a wide range of day creams that are up to the task, whatever the night before entailed.
6. CLEAR THE DECKS WITH A GOOD EXFOLIATION
Out with the old and in with the new. Giving your skin a good exfoliation once or twice a week, is excellent for removing old, built-up dead skin cells, encouraging, fresh, plump hydrated skin cell to be revealed. Prime your complexion’s canvas with your favourite exfoliator (no more than twice a week). This will help turn dull and lacklustre into smooth and glowing.
Bear in mind that some products contain mild-exfoliant ingredients which are safe for daily application to encourage continuous skin cell turnover, but every skin can definitely benefit from a weekly boost with a deeper exfoliator.
Don’t have an exfoliator yet? Chat to one of our therapists at any of our 18 branches nationwide the next time you pop in to find out which gentle – but effective – at-home exfoliator is right for your skin type.
7. DON’T LEAVE HOME UNPROTECTED
Using an SPF every day, come rain or shine, is one of the best ways to ensure that your skin doesn’t age pre-maturely. This prevents sun spots (also known as age spots), sun damage, pigmentation, loss of tone and loss of elasticity due to sun damage.
Many of the best SPF products on the market contain powerful anti-oxidants which protect the skin form harmful daily pollution in the air. Never leave home without applying your SPF.
8. DRESS FOR THE SKIN YOU WANT
Wearing the right colours for your skin tone can make a big difference when you’re a little short on shut-eye. If your skin has cooler undertones wear colours with pink, red or bluish undertones. If your skin has warmer undertones, go for your favourite clothing items with yellow, peachy, or golden undertones. If you’re a bit tired – and feeling physically and mentally drained – you want to avoid wearing colours that drain your skin tone.
9. MASKING – NOT JUST LIP SERVICE, IT WORKS.
Interestingly, our lips are often the first place on our face to show signs of sleep deprivation, becoming dry and cracked due to dehydration. While we may love the plumping and hydrating effects of our favourite lip gloss during daylight hours, while we sleep, these makeup bag must-haves can dry our lips out while we sleep. So, ditch the lip gloss at night and instead apply a nourishing and hydrating lip mask just before turning the lights off.
10. COOL AS A CUCUMBER!
Maybe the oddest thing on this list but definitely worth mentioning: Skin cooling is a tried and tested method used for centuries by Korean women to quickly give tired eyes and faces a wide-awake appearance. Skin cooling with cool compresses, cloths or even cucumber rounds, tightens and shrinks enlarged pores; soothes the skin; decreases redness and swelling, and reduces puffiness around the eye area. How? Well, the cool temperature constricts the tiny blood vessels found just below the surface of the skin, temporarily slowing down blood circulation to inflamed areas and allowing the redness to calm down. Once the cool compresses are removed, these tiny vessels expand again, welcoming fresh “Good morning!” blood flow to the skin’s surface.