Evening beauty routine for your face

Have you always wondered whether an evening beauty routine for your face is as effective as a morning one?

The answer to that is yes, and in this article you’ll find lots of tips for taking care of your skin also in the evening, a crucial time of day for regenerating the epidermis and looking after our wellbeing.

Here you can get all the detailed information you need on:

• How to remove make up and impurities from the skin
• How to correctly hydrate your face
• Why it’s important to clean the skin by exfoliating

First of all, don’t forget that the evening facial beauty routine is very important both for regenerating and taking care of your skin and for treating yourself to a moment of relaxation and wellbeing; these little private moments all for yourself will help you rest better at night and unwind after a stressful day, perhaps in the company of a nice relaxing herbal tea.

Many women think it is enough to look after their skin in the morning, washing their face and applying the classic moisturising cream, but in reality it is just as important to clean your skin of make up and residual impurities (smog, dust, the effects of the weather) in the evening.

It could even be argued that cleaning your face in the evening is more important because it is absolutely essential to carefully remove the make up you applied in the morning and all the irritating impurities and substances that are deposited on the skin during the day.

Cleansing your face in the evening also enables the cream to penetrate the skin more deeply and more effectively. Meanwhile, applying a night cream can help reinvigorate the skin, the hours of darkness enabling the active ingredients to function more effectively.

Another important technique for looking after your face skin is exfoliation, which can help to clean the skin deep down and remove dead cells and impurities.

Now let’s take a closer look at the three key steps of your evening facial skincare routine.

As alluded to before, carefully removing make up while cleaning the skin of the impurities deposited on it during the day is the first key step in your evening beauty routine.

There are lots of products for cleansing the face and removing make up so here are a few guidelines on which ones to choose:

MICELLAR WATER: ideal for those who have little time to clean their face, micellar water is a very quick and practical product that doesn’t require rinsing. You don’t need to apply toner afterwards either and some micellar waters are even formulated to remove waterproof make up. It is suitable for all skin types because it comes in many different formulas.
CLEANSING MILK PLUS TONER: the classic combo used for cleansing the face and removing make up is cleansing milk and a cotton pad. Particularly indicated for those with dry or mature skin! Make sure to thoroughly clean your eyes and remove traces of mascara and eyeliner: black or dark flecks around the eyes are tell-tale signs of poorly executed cleaning.

After using cleansing milk it is important to apply a toner, which serves to close the pores and restore the pH balance of the skin.

TWO-PHASE MAKE UP REMOVER: a practically indispensable product for those that love waterproof make up. In fact, because it is so resistant and long-lasting, waterproof make up requires an oil-based remover to eliminate all of its traces. The two-phase solution consists of an oily part (which removes fat-soluble substances, like waterproof make up) and a transparent part that eliminates water-soluble substances and tones the skin at the same time.
VARIOUS CLEANSERS (mousses, gels, solids) to be used emulsifying only with water. These are suitable for those with combination or oily skin and during the summer. Solid cleansers, generally made from natural substances, have also become very fashionable in recent times.

As you will have seen, there are many different cleansing products. You can also try them all out one by one to find out which type suits you best.

Hydration is the second key step of an effective night-time beauty routine.

In the evening we normally use a specific night cream, with active ingredients and functionalities that are more targeted and deep-acting than regular day creams.

This is because during the night the active ingredients contained in the cream are able to penetrate our face skin more easily, acting deeper down and more effectively.

For those who have more time to dedicate to their evening facial beauty routine, I recommend these 3 products:

• Face serum (Not an essential step but in any case useful for enhancing the effectiveness of the cream)
• Nourishing or anti-wrinkle cream (necessary step after cleaning)
• Eye contour (complements face cream)

Let’s take a look at them one by one.

Serums are usually liquid, watery or oily products and are known for their high concentration of active ingredients, a characteristic that enables them to deeply penetrate the epidermis. Serums are applied after cleaning and before creams, and are designed to enhance the effects of the cream used; in fact, they are usually chosen together with a cream with similar active ingredients.

On the other hand, night creams are primarily chosen according to skin type (dry, combination, oily, regular, sensitive) and for this reason there are many different types.

Generally, this type of cream performs a more intense hydrating or nourishing function than a day cream because our skin is more receptive to the active ingredients at night. It often contains ingredients that have more targeted functions.

For more mature skins it might also have an anti-wrinkle, filling, firming or brightening function.

Eye contour products must be chosen carefully, on the basis of our skin type and characteristics. They can come in the form of creams or gels and, depending on the product, have various functions (they can eliminate bags and dark circles, reduce typical crow’s feet wrinkles or hydrate and nourish the delicate eye contour skin).

Let’s not forget that our hair also requires the same level of attention when it comes to moisturising and care: here is a fantastic kit for looking after your locks if you have wavy or curly hair.

Exfoliating the face skin is a very simple process that you should perform at least once a week.

By removing deep-lying impurities and dirt, as well as eliminating dead skin cells, it helps you obtain a radiant and healthy complexion.

Exfoliation is necessary for bringing the underlying layer of the skin to the surface and replacing the damaged upper layer of skin which is removed by the exfoliants. It is therefore a deeper form of cleaning than our regular morning or evening clean.

Peels, gommage and scrubs are all forms of exfoliation treatment. Exfoliation is always carried out before your regular face cleansing routine.

For some women exfoliation is preferably carried out in the evening, especially if:

• you use lots of make up;
• your goal is to improve the effectiveness of your night cream;
• your skin is oily. In fact, if you decide to exfoliate in the morning you run the risk of producing even more sebum;
• your skin is sensitive and easily irritated. The night-time hours will help to soothe your skin and reduce any redness.

There are various types of exfoliants:

• Scrubs
• Gommage
• Chemical peels

Scrubs have a creamy consistency and contain hard micro-spheres. They are gently applied and massaged into the skin and rinsed with water.

A gommage is a creamy substance or gel containing rice or oat powder and is always massaged into the face and rinsed with water.

Peels generally contain acids that serve to eliminate the surface layer of the skin. The most common types contain glycolic or salicylic acid.

Whatever the exfoliant it is always important to avoid applying it to the very sensitive eye contour and lip areas.

Do you understand just how important an evening beauty routine for your face is now? As you can see, it has a very important role to play. If you want more haircare and face tips keep following the I Love Riccio blog: you’ll find lots of useful information for looking after your hair and skin!