Moisturizing is quintessential to maintain a healthy, nourished and glowing skin. You might have heard enough about its importance and it’s safe to say that moisturizers are an important part of everybody’s daily skin care routine.
Night cream and day cream can both play an important part in your skin care regimen. It’s important to moisturize your skin at least two times a day, ideally after cleansing and using a toner. Moisturizing helps provide your skin with nutrients that can nourish and regenerate growth of new skin cells.
In case you’re wondering, if you really need two different creams or if you’ve been tricked by the beauty industry here lies the answer. One of the main differences between day and night cream is that day creams have ingredients that protect the skin from Ultraviolet rays whereas the night creams do not have such ingredients.
Do you really need two separate creams?
Many people think labelling creams as separate day and night creams is just the strategy of cosmetic brands to trick you into buying more products, that’s not true. Using too many active ingredients in a single product can sometimes reduce its effectiveness. The best face creams that you can use daily in India have their own special ingredients that make them effective for your skin concern.
These creams have certain specific components in them that are ideal for your skin under certain conditions and you can receive maximum benefits from them if used at the right times combined with other beneficial products.
Composition of Day Creams
During daytime, skin is subject to damaging UV rays, pollution, environmental factors, and even makeup sometimes. Day creams are basically used to focus on protection and provide support against sun damage.
Day creams are made up of light and moisturizing agents that aren’t greasy on your skin, they can be used as a base before applying a full face of makeup. Day creams contain SPF to prevent your skin from harmful sun rays that can cause burning, antioxidants to fight free radicals and energize the skin.
Although we use sunscreens with high SPF value, it’s an added benefit to use moisturizers with SPF and they also contain skin lightening and brightening agents such as Vitamin-C.
Daytime moisturizers have compounds like alpha-hydroxy acids and retinoids that are light on the skin and have the tendency to make skin more sensitive to the sun.
Composition of Night creams
Skin does most of its repairing, restoring, and regenerating while we sleep, so night creams are focused on nourishing and recovering the damage. During night time your skin can absorb all the crucial components and can help replenish dead skin cells and reduce the damage.
Night creams are concentrated more on recovering any sorts of damage and help reduce various signs of aging. They penetrate deep into your skin over the course of several hours and night time makes it a lot easier as there is no makeup or environmental factors affecting your skin.
They contain the highest concentrations of anti-aging compounds ingredients like retinol, glycolic acid, and hyaluronic acid, which are able to do their work without interference from sun rays or sunscreens applied on top of moisturizers.
Night creams are often richer, thicker, or heavier than day creams. Our skin is fresh and bare during night times that helps the cream penetrate into the skin and work its magic.
What difference does it make?
The ultimate goal of using a face cream or moisturizer is to nourish your skin and prevent dryness. Even if you use a day cream or a night cream both of them will moisturize your skin but the difference lies in the overall benefits you reap from it.
Using your night cream instead of a day cream can do no harm to your skin. It’s just that the repairing properties of a night cream are ineffective during day time, it can make your skin greasy and will do no good apart from just hydrating the skin.
Your skin cannot gain complete benefits of all the anti-aging components present in night creams if used in the place of day creams.
Likewise using a day cream instead of night cream is pointless. Day cream has SPF that protects you from harmful sun rays and there is absolutely no sun exposure during night time.
Our skin requires components that can repair damage during night which are not found in day creams as it contains light and non-greasy compounds, it will just provide nourishment and hydrate the skin.
Ultimately the decision is up to you whether you want to include two separate creams in your routine and reap complete benefits out of it or just invest in one cream that can provide protection against sun and has anti-aging components in it.
Look out for components before making purchases
Look for a cream that has high SPF and can protect you from harmful sun rays, provide necessary moisture and nourishment before investing in a day cream. Choose a cream which is non-oily, light on your skin and can also be used as a base for makeup.
Likewise look for a cream that is rich in vitamins, antioxidants and can provide extra nourishment to help repair the damage caused during the day time. Go for creams with thick consistency, as all the components will be absorbed into your skin easily.
If you have sensitive skin, lookout for allergens that can cause irritation or inflammation.
A moisturizer alone can not fix your damaged skin, although when combined with other products like cleansers, toners, serums and under eye creams it can work wonders. Always moisturize your skin post cleansing or washing your face.
Refrain from moisturizing dry bare skin, cleanse your face, dry it using a soft towel then apply cream on to your damp skin. Any moisturizer or skin care product is effective only if you stick to a strict routine and use all the products religiously, consistency is the key.