10 Beauty Habits You Should Be Doing Every Night

It turns out your body can do serious work for you while you sleep—you just have to give it a little help along the way. Try one or all of these treatments to wake up looking refreshed and gorgeous.

1) Remove your makeup—all of it. For real.

The most important thing to do to wake up looking fresh is to remove all of your makeup before bedtime. That means leftover mascara, lip color—everything. This ensures that your pores will be clean and your eyes free of leftover gunk.

2) Use two pillows

Prop your head up on an extra pillow to prevent puffiness. You can also prop up the head of your bed on 2- to 4-inch pieces of wood

3) Do a spot treatment…with a purifying mask

You can use it to target acne and rosacea pimples, and leave it on overnight. The extended skin contact time brings much better results.

4) Turn on a humidifier

A barrier repair moisturizer (containing ingredients such as ceramides and cholesterol) combined with an air humidifier in your bedroom produces durably hydrated, plump skin which is more resistant to irritants and allergens but also to appearing dry and fine-lined. By working on your skin’s hydration overnight, you can skip daytime moisturizer altogether or choose one that’s lighter since heavier moisturizers don’t tend to wear as well under sunscreen or makeup.

5) Go to town with hand cream

Moisturizing your hands with a thick, plain, somewhat greasy hand cream will keep your hands and fingernails looking their best first thing in the morning

6) Sleep on a luxe pillowcase

Wash your hair with a silicone-free shampoo and use a silk pillowcase—sleeping on a silk or satin pillowcase also helps your hair’s overall health. Fibers on most cotton pillows are rough against the hair cuticles. Don’t want to splurge on silk? Changing a cotton or linen pillowcase every one to two days can also bring an improvement.

7) Pin your hair back

Your hair contains oils and dirt that can get on your face and pillowcase and cause breakouts. Braid your hair or pin it up into a bun to keep it off your face as you sleep.

8) Get eight hours of sleep

Catching a good night’s sleep can really effect the way you look

9) Try a leave-on exfoliator

“While you sleep, the skin is working its hardest to repair itself,” says Teresa Stenzel, the director of education for Bioelements. It’s the best time to apply leave-on exfoliators, to give the ingredients time to absorb and correct daily damage to the skin caused by UV exposure and environmental aggressors.

10) Use eye cream

No doubt you’ve heard it a million times, but eye cream is important. Start using great moisturizers and eye cream at night. When the morning rolls around, your skin will be plump and hydrated.