P.M. Step 1: Remove & Cleanse, The Only Way Ever to Apply Your Skin Care Products

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Straight from the desk of the skin care gods: Thou must remove thy makeup before slumber. Start with an oil-based makeup remover (check these reader-approved options for top-rated removers) for your eyes, which should wipe that heavy eyeliner right off. For heavy makeup, use a wipe to remove the bulk of the day's camouflage. However, don't stop there. Kraffert says that wipes are great in a pinch, but they don't usually remove everything -- or if they do, they leave a residue behind. "Without water to help remove [the makeup], it's a fail," he says. Follow up with a cleanser (the same gentle exfoliator used in the morning works) to get the rest of the job done.

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This is a good trick to catch any remaining vestiges of makeup that your cleanser -- however vigilantly you scrubbed -- didn't catch. Look for something non-drying, with a low percentage (if any) of alcohol. We like Kiehl's Cucumber Herbal Toner for its gentle formula.

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Just like during the day, apply any prescriptions right next to your skin. This includes your lighteners, your brighteners, your acne zappers and your wrinkle reducers.

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Pat on an eye cream that contains retinol or peptides, like Olay Pro-X Eye Restoration Complex, formulated with caffeine and vitamin B3, or Amarté Eyeconic Eye Cream containing 3.8 percent retinol, since the next step will lock in those reparative ingredients so they can do their work while you snooze.

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Now's the time to slather on the ultra rich night cream, since your skin loses the most moisture while you're sleeping. A thick moisturizer will also help lock in all the skin-boosting goodies in your treatments.

A New Kind of Night Mask The older you get, the less oil your skin produces. While that may be a cause for celebration for those with oily, acne-prone skin, it also means that your skin's natural hydration system isn't as effective -- meaning your skin will look older, faster. To combat the sudden drought-like landscape of your skin, Dr. Kraffert recommends a weekly sleep mask like La Prairie Caviar Luxe Sleep Mask or Origins Drink Up Intensive Overnight Mask in place of night cream.

What comes first? Forget the chicken and the egg, we're talking about our skin care products, like serum, moisturizer, face oil and sunscreen. A cabinet full of products to keep you blemish-, wrinkle- and sun spot-free means nothing if you don't know in what order to apply them. Instead of slapping them on and crossing our fingers, we conducted a skin care nerd-out session with board certified dermatologists Dendy Engelman, M.D., and Craig Kraffert, M.D., who is also the president of Korean skincare line Amarté. We grilled them to find out which products should be applied first, last and everywhere in between so that they can perform exactly as they're supposed to. Here, these derms school us in the exhaustive process of layering skin care.

The Only Way Ever to Apply Your Skin Care Products

Your morning and evening guide to layering your serums, wrinkle-fighters and sunscreens

P.M. Step 1: Remove & Cleanse

P.M. Step 2: Tone

P.M. Step 3: Prescriptions & Treatments

P.M. Step 4: Tap on Eye Cream

P.M. Step 5: Pile on the Night Cream

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