The Beauty-Sleep Nighttime Routine
In partnership with our friends at Ancient Nutrition
The effects of losing even a few hours of sleep are quick to show up on our skin. Sleep allows our skin, body, and mind to reset, and when we don’t get enough of it, our complexion looks lifeless, our energy plummets, and stress can feel unmanageable. One of the most effective ways to encourage a peaceful night’s sleep is with a bedtime routine. This one incorporates powerful skin care that feels almost like a meditation as you smooth it on, along with a natural collagen supplement that supports both sleep and skin. The results—more peace around bedtime, glowing skin, a calm mind—are worth it.
1
Take a Bath to (Really) Relax
Soaking in a bath works on multiple levels: The warm water eases tension in your muscles, the sensation of being immersed in water is naturally calming, it’s harder to access that stress machine known as your phone, and the slight cooling your body undergoes when you get out actually nudges the body toward sleep mode. The blend of lavender and valerian in the G.Nite bath salts is specifically designed to prepare you for sleep—and it smells like absolute heaven. Pour a cup into a steamy tub, submerge, and luxuriate with your eyes closed for twenty minutes or so.
2
Supplement for Skin and Sleep
One of the reasons lack of sleep negatively impacts skin is because it can diminish collagen, the main structural protein in our skin, which naturally decreases as we get older, causing drooping, the formation of lines, and thinner skin. The beauty and sleep supplement from Ancient Nutrition combines collagen with magnesium, a mineral linked to improved quality of sleep, as well as overall healthy muscle and nerve function. We like taking the capsules with a glass of room-temperature water (less jarring to the system) right after soaking in the bath.
3
Moisturize Deeply
Support your skin (and its firm, healthy-looking glow) by keeping it well moisturized. The rich, silky, whipped-texture GOOPGENES face cream is made with ultrahydrating ingredients including plant ceramides and butters that melt right in to firm, plump, brighten, and nourish skin—in four-week trials, 100 percent of subject showed significant improvement in skin firmness, while 97 percent showed significant improvement in fine lines and wrinkles. Massage it in after cleansing and before dabbing on eye cream. (The one from GOOPGENES does more than moisturize: 91 percent of test subjects said it significantly smoothed the appearance of crow’s-feet after four weeks.)*
4
Once a Week, Exfoliate for Glow
All skin types benefit from exfoliating, and the best time to do a powerful treatment like the once-a-week GOOPGLOW peel is right before bed, so the glycolic acid and fruit extracts can go to work retexturizing and brightening your skin while you sleep (try the 5% version if you’re sensitive). For the glowiest results, rinse your face in the morning before layering on a moisturizer (like GOOPGENES).
For Sensitive Skin
GOOPGLOW 5% GLYCOLIC ACID
OVERNIGHT GLOW PEEL LIGHT
goop, $125/$112 with subscription
5
Once in Bed: Massage Your Feet
Touching our own feet and smoothing them with oil or lotion can be an especially grounding form of self-care. Work a few drops of Pure Calm oil from UMA into your hands—it’s a velvety blend of chamomile, lavender, and sage that smells intoxicating—and massage the bottoms and tops of your feet, applying gentle pressure and kneading in slow circles at the heel, the base of the toes, and anywhere else that feels tense. Make sure to get the oil between your toes (the skin is thinner there, so the oil and all its magical botanical elements sink in more easily).
*Based on an eight-week third-party consumer-perception and clinical study conducted on thirty-three women ages thirty-five to sixty-five.
