What if you could soften your hair, whiten your teeth, clear your skin, fade scars, and more, all while catching z's? Enter overnight beauty treatments that do all the hard work while you snooze.
Get Your Beauty Sleep! 15 Ways to Get Gorgeous Overnight
Make your skin glow
Though your mom always told you to never go to bed angry or forget to wash your face, she might not have shared the anti-aging secret that probably included the word retinol. Serums containing a mild retinol are a gentle way to improve just about every skin concern, from fine lines to large pores.
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Get serious hydration
Blame the dry heat inside or the cool temperatures outside, but sensitive skin can get parched seemingly overnight. To the rescue comes Avon Anew Clinical Overnight Hydration Mask, which is meant to give your thirsty skin the tall, cool drink it needs. Instead of a traditional cream that can just sit on the topmost layer of skin, this super-light gel has hyaluronic acid (which acts like a sponge pulling in moisture) for deep hydration and shea butter to lock in moisture. It’s also fragrance and paraben-free, to prevent breakouts in people who are acne-prone. And you don’t have to use every day, as it keeps your skin hydrated for 48 hours.
Save your neck
When you hop out of the shower and do your daily lotioning, you probably hit all of those traditionally rough spots, like your elbows, knees, and hands. But a part of your body that’s in need of TLC? Your neck! Just like the skin on your face, your neck ages too, and without keeping it hydrated and elastic, you might get wrinkles sooner than you’d like.
Get a faux glow
Though we hope you haven’t hit a tanning bed since high school (or ever) and always apply SPF, sometimes you just want a warm, just-back-from-the-tropics glow. Consider Tarte’s Brazilliance Maracuja Self Tanner and Mitt. In addition to moisturizing your skin, this hybrid gel doesn’t carry the same scent as most self-tanners and is packed with lots of vitamins C, A, E, and sunflower seed oil. While you have to wait 30 minutes before getting under the covers and eight hours before you shave your legs, we say it’s worth watching an extra episode on Netflix while standing up to get that natural-looking summer glow.
Stop aging in its tracks
If you prefer a one-stop shop beauty product that hydrates, prevents wrinkles, and brightens your complexion, consider an anti-aging product made just for nighttime: Skin Authority’s Night Revitalizer. This alpha hydroxy formula, derived from sugar cane, exfoliates and brightens with little to no irritation. It’s pretty wallet-friendly too.
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Shrink pores
Especially if you’ve struggled with acne, you’re probably hyper-aware of the size of your pores. If they’re inflamed or very congested, even heavy duty makeup can’t always smooth them out. To help unclog pores and reduce any inflammation, consider slathering on BeautyRx by Dr. Schultz Dermstick for Pores. Its star ingredient is glycolic acid, which dissolves the glue binding dead skin cells, so they can more easily slough off, revealing fresher skin cells below. You need only a very small amount each night to see results.
Soften your hair
In between haircuts you desperately need and the constant assault from heat styling, your locks get a lot of attention, but not a lot of love. To soften fried strands, try massaging some Hairfinity Nourishing Botanical Oil throughout your hair before bedtime. It works on both the scalp and the hair follicles to soften hair, restore elasticity, and build strength against split ends and breakage. You’ll love the subtle fragrance too, which is a blend of sweet almond oil, lavender, cinnamon, and more.
Take a snooze-inducing shower
When you sneak out of the office at 5 p.m. and make it to your workout class by 5:30, you feel like a rockstar. But though you’re building muscle (and following doctor’s orders), you might struggle to get to sleep with your metabolism still cranking. ThisWorks is a brand dedicated to 24-hour care, with a whole line based solely for night-time wonders. One to consider is their Deep Sleep Shower Gel that is natural, lightly fragranced, and deep-cleansing, and works to help you step out of the shower and fall right into bed.
Whiten your teeth
No energy to deal with strips, trays, and all of that jazz, but that daily cup (or cups) of coffee has your teeth less white than you’d like? This Teeth Whitening Pen from Dr. Brite is a far-less time-consuming whitening option that promises to get your pearly whites two shades lighter in two days. It’s created by a dentist and includes minty menthol, so that groggy good-morning kiss might not be so stinky.
Grow your eyelashes
If each and every time you put on mascara, you think about how you’d love your eyelashes to be just a bit longer, or you’re jealous of your friend’s two-year-old toddler’s eye game, then you might consider a lash-enhancing serum that encourages hair growth.
Smooth fine lines
Not ready for Botox injections but you’re starting to notice tiny little wrinkles from your expressions? FROWNIES Facial Patches, which you can wear while you sleep, are free of chemicals and don’t require needles, and work to soften “the elevens” (indents between your eyes) and horizontal forehead wrinkles. It’s especially a good idea to wear them when you’re in dreamland because your facial muscles are relaxed, meaning you’re not expressing emotion, and thus, deepening the wrinkles. This a preventive beauty treatment that takes pretty much zero effort and could really pay off over time.
Soften your lips
Especially if you’re a mouth breather or you tend to snore, you might notice that your lips are dry and chapped when you wake up in the morning. Instead of reaching for lip balm in the morning, consider pre-moisturizing your lips before you go to la la land.
Fight cleavage wrinkles
If you’re a side sleeper (as some 86 percent of people are), chances are that you’ve woken up to vertical wrinkles on your chest where the skin was literally squished all night. Many products promise to smooth the oft-neglected décolleté, but the SiO Beauty Overnight Wrinkle Smoothing Pad is not only a no-brainer to apply—you stick it on your chest like a sticker, but it’s been clinically proven to dramatically diminish signs of aging on the chest in just one night of use. It works by locking in hydration, and rebuilding collagen, and also just keeping the skin from folding into itself.
For more beauty tips, follow The Healthy on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Keep reading:
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