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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P.M. Step 3: Prescriptions & Treatments
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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P.M. Step 4: Tap on Eye Cream
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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P.M. Step 5: Pile on the Night Cream
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.
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P.M. Step 5: Facial Oil
If you're applying a "100 percent" facial oil (so, for example, pure grape seed or jojoba oil), Kraffert says to apply it last, so it doesn't interfere with the absorption of your water-based products while you sleep.
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.