What should I use in my skincare routine at night?
This is a continuation of our recommended skincare routine for morning versus night.
Below is a guide to the types of ingredients you can consider including in your night time skincare routine.
Certain skincare ingredients are unstable, or cause your skin to become photosensitive, so it’s good to leave these to your night time routine, and apply the other skincare in the morning.
Our nighttime skincare routine steps
AHAs (e.g. glycolic, lactic acid) and BHAs (e.g. salicylic acid)
Make sure to only apply one AHA, BHA, or other acid at any one time! Also avoid applying AHAs and BHAs with skincare containing peptides, since the low pH of acids will interfere with peptides.
Make sure to limit the use of these chemical exfoliators to 1-2 times a week.
Some of the best chemical exfoliators we find effective are the COSRX AHA Whitehead Power Liquid (Olive Young)(Style Korean)(Althea)(Beautynet Korean)(Jolse), The Ordinary Lactic Acid 10% + HA 2%, and the KraveBeauty Kale-Lalu-yAHA. All of these are gentle enough not to strip the skin of it’s natural barrier, but are great at removing the day’s grease, grime, and dead skin cells.
Some of the skincare we recommend are available on iHerb, which we use to buy a lot of our organic skincare. You can use our code AEJ0519 at checkout to get 5% off.
L-Ascorbic Acid
L-ascorbic acid is the active form of vitamin C. On the face of things, it has many benefits for the skin, including brightening the skin, improving skin tone, reducing the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines, and fading hyperpigmentation.
However, L-ascorbic acid and other forms of vitamin C can be very unstable unless kept in optimal conditions.
It’s not just enough to keep the formulation in a dark container. It is also a good idea to keep the product containing vitamin C in the fridge (though you need to check with the particular manufacturer of the product you are using, as it depends on the overall formulation with other ingredients).
Even taking these precautions, the vitamin C (and its derivatives) that you end up applying to your face may still have lost its efficacy over time (within 6 months).
There is some evidence that L-ascorbic acid and sunscreens can work synergistically to enhance each other’s efficacy, but because L-ascorbic acid is unstable in the presence of light, we don’t like to apply it in the morning. One of the best organic skincare containing L-ascorbic acid that we have found effective at gently fading dark spots is the Drunk Elephant C Firma Day Serum. However, make sure to not use it together with products containing niacinamide, as this can cause flushing and skin irritation.
If you decide to give it a go, we recommend putting L-ascorbic acid on after toner but before other water-based ingredients.
Alpha Arbutin
For the purposes of this discussion, we are only discussing non-prescription formulations of alpha-arbutin.
Also known as glycosylated hydroquinone, alpha arbutin is a safer alternative to hydroxyquinone, which was traditionally used for skin whitening and to tackle hyperpigmentation even though it was associated with risk of serious side effects like cancer, which was exacerbated by exposure to UV radiation.
Alpha arbutin is supposed to do away with much of this risk. To be safe, however, we recommend keeping alpha arbutin in your night time skincare routine. Also restrict your use of alpha arbutin to no more than 3 months at a time. We like to use the The Ordinary Alpha Arbutin 2% + HA. This has helped us to fade postinflammatory hyperpigmentation after 2-3 months of use.
Retinoids
There are many clinical trials on the efficacy of retinoids for reducing the appearance of wrinkles, fine lines, and pigmentation.
However, retinoids are relatively strong antioxidants that are vitamin A derivatives. As such, they cause skin thinning and therefore expose the skin more to the harmful effects of UV radiation. Therefore, the risk-benefit ratio of this skincare ingredient is usually only worthwhile if you are aged in your late 20s and beyond.
The term “retinoid” includes a whole family of vitamin A derivatives, some of which are prescription medicines (like retinoic acid and isotretinoin - aka Accutane).
In this discussion, we are only considering non-prescription forms of retinoid. These include retinoid esters (such as retinyl palmitate, retinyl acetate, and retinyl linoleate), adapalene, and retinol.
Retinol is weaker than retinoic acid but has less side effects compared to retinoic acid, and it may take months to a year to see results.
Adapalene (aka Differin) helps to slow or inhibit the developement of pore linings and skin inflammation.
We won’t be discussing prescription retinoids which are prescribed for clinically diagnosed acne - see your doctor if you want advice on these! Also check with your doctor about the use of these products during pregnacy.
Non-presription grade retinoid esters (retinyl palmitate, retinyl acetate, retinyl linoleate) are a relatively weak form of retinoid, and thus are the ideal type of retinoid to begin with. See our anti-aging post for the best organic retinoid products you should try.
Azelaic Acid
If you haven’t explored this ingredient before, we recommend you consider incorporating azelaic acid into your skincare regimen! There is evidence to suggest that azelaic acid helps in at least three different ways to improve the appearance of our skin: by (i) helping to fade skin pigmentation, (ii) calming redness and inflammation, and (iii) acting as an exfoliant.
Like AHAs and BHAs, do not use azelaic acid with other acids to reduce the risk of skin irritation. We recommend using it as a spot treatment for 1-3 times a week.
Formulations involving azelaic acid can sit poorly under makeup or sunscreen, so it’s easier to apply it at night, after water-based products but before moisturizer. It can also make your skin sensitive to UV light. We like using the Azclear Lotion 20% w/w 3 times a week, concentrating on areas of redness, breakouts, and postinflammatory hyperpigmentation. See our Hyperpigmentation post for more information.
Moisturizer of your choice
As discussed above, the choice of which moisturizer to use will depend a lot on individual factors, including your skin type, concurrent skincare products used, and climate. Since there are so many options available, see our separate post for a rundown of the best moisturizers here.
Facial Oil
There is a wide array of different facial oils, including rose hip seed oil, tamanu oil, marula oil, and hemp seed oil, to name a few. However, we do NOT recommend you to incorporate facial oil into your daily skincare routine if you have combination or oily skin. To find out more about what facial oil is suited to your needs, read our dedicated post on using facial oils here.
If you have dry skin, we recommend the Moogoo Calophyllum Inophyllum (Tamanu) Seed Oil as a the last step in your routine. Tamanu oil helped us to lighten post inflammatory hyperpigmentation, when we used it consistently for 6 months to a year. However, use a drop at a time as a spot treatment as all oils can conversely predispose to breakouts even if you have dry skin.
If you are looking for more products to layer, you can also incorporate the ingredients from the morning routine into your night routine, or find out about the Korean ten step skincare routine for more ideas.
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P.S…this is probably obvious, but the information presented doesn’t constitute medical advice - always check with your own doctor!
