My Night Skincare Routine

And here is my night skincare routine. For those who are interested in my morning skincare routine, you can check that post out here. Basically, in this post I'll be talking about the skincare products I use at night and summarize how the product is effective for me. If you're interested in getting more details or to look at the product description, I've already written a separate review for each of these products and I will provide their respective links below.

And if you're wondering...the green elephant at the bottom of the photo is to hold the yellow sample up :D

I should mention that this is my skincare routine during fall, winter, and spring. During summer, I need to use a whitening line to try to revert my tanned skin back to its original color so my night routine is totally different.

Before I delve into my routine, let me tell you a little bit about my skin as these products are targeted towards my skin's problems. I have oily/combination skin and large pores. If I ignore my large pores, 2-3 of them like to transform into pimples especially when it is that time of the month. In addition to the pores on my cheek area, I have some dark pigmentation and little bumps from the crazy acne I had 3 years ago. My skin color is very dull and has this jaundiced, unhealthy yellow tan. I also have very dark circles under my eyes and many fine lines under my eyes. As a result, my eyes look much older than the rest of my face.

My Night Skincare Routine

Cleanser: Skinfood Black Sugar Scrub Foam

I think Skinfood makes very good and inexpensive cleansers. Both my morning and nighttime cleansers are from Skinfood. I must say though that I'm much more impressed with this cleanser than my morning cleanser. This cleanser has small little sugar beads that make my skin brighter instantly after cleansing, which means that it is effective in taking away the dirt and impurities that I've accumulated over the day. It's for this reason that I use this as my NIGHT cleanser. I usually prefer chemical peels rather than physical exfoliation with beads, but this cleanser is effective yet not too abrasive for my skin when used daily. This is the only cleanser I've used that actually remove/clean the blackheads on my nose. I rarely have to use my Kose Charcoal Nose Strips I'm using this cleanser. Even masks don't always do the trick when it comes to blackheads. Sometimes exfoliating gels work well too, but you have to use a cleanser beforehand. This cleanser is two-in-one (exfoliating and cleansing), which really makes a difference when you're just dead tired and want to hop onto bed asap. 

You can find a more detailed review of Skinfood Black Sugar Scrub Foam in my blog post here.

Toner: Etude House Wonder Pore Freshner

This is the same toner I use in the morning. Before I found this toner, every month I would have 2-3 pores that would get inflamed, swollen, then become a pimple. Every single month without fail. I'd try to clean it more, put some antibacterial cream on it, put my clay mask onto those swollen pores, but somehow at least 1 pore will prevail and give me a pimple. When I read about this toner and how it does 7 things in 1 I was extremely skeptical. But it really does work. After I started using this toner the whole swollen pore-->pimple cycle stopped. And now I've been pretty much pimple free. I have one every once in awhile but they aren't cyclic and the frequency is definitely less than 1 pimple a month.

You can find a more detailed review of Etude House Wonder Pore Freshner in my blog post here.

Eye Cream 1: The Face Shop Smim Fermentation Concentrate Eye Cream

According to the number of blog posts tagged with "eye cream," I've tried around 13 eye creams so far. This is by the far the best for the fine lines under my eyes. It doesn't take it all away, but I'd say 90%? And when combined with eye cream 2 (see below), my fine lines are basically gone the next morning. My eyes look younger and my under eye area doesn't look like dried up leaves when I put on my Skinfood Salmon Dark Circle Concealer Cream in the morning. This cream also helps with the puffiness under my eyes as well. It's funny because I've tried more expensive eye creams from higher end brands, but so far only this one does the trick for me. And it's only $35 for 30g!

This eye cream does have its limits though. It only makes my fine lines disappear if I use it faithfully. I don't use it for a day and it shows. It also helps with the puffiness but as my eyes are pretty puffy..I would like something stronger.

You can find a more detailed review of The Face Shop Smim Fermentation Eye Cream in my blog post here.

Eye Cream 2: Sulwhasoo Essential Rejuvenating Eye Cream

This is the only other eye cream that helps with my dark circles, with the other one being Skinfood Salmon Brightening Eye Cream. However, unlike Skinfood, this one also helps with my fine lines. Since this one is more moisturizing than Skinfood, I combine it with the eye cream above and use it at night. In fact, I finished my first jar Skinfood Salmon Brightening Eye Cream recently and have been too lazy to open a new one, so I've been using this in the morning instead and it's just as good. The only thing about this eye cream is that since it's from a higher end brand, Sulwhasoo, I can't really afford to buy the full sized version, so I buy samples. 

You can find a more detailed review of Sulwhasoo Essential Rejuvenating Eye Cream in my blog post here.

Cream: Missha Super Aqua Cell Renew Snail Sleeping Mask

For those who may not know, Korean skincare like to call night creams as sleeping mask; you don't actually have to wipe/rinse it off, you just sleep with it on.

As a sleeping mask, it has a thicker consistency than your usual cream and is therefore quite moisturizing, but upon application my skin doesn't feel suffocated at all. In fact, it's very refreshing on my skin. And pretty much within a minute upon application, my skin already looks brighter. Now that doesn't mean much if it my skin looks like crap when I wake up next morning. But when I wake up, my face looks evidently brighter. My skin tone looks more even, the bumps are gone, the redness underneath from my acne scars are calmer, and my skin feels resilient, supple and moisturized. It's not oily so I can apply generously on my face and I don't wake up with enlarged pores.

I can't tell you how many times this cream has "rescued" my skin. Sometimes I try new night creams for a few weeks at a time. They turn out to be ineffective for my skin, and my skin tone ends up going back to its jaundiced unhealthy yellow tan. Many times I've gone back to this mask to rescue my skin tone and it consistently performs. My skin goes back to how it first was when I first started using this mask.

I think this sleeping mask only contains 15% snail mucin extract whereas the cream contains 40%. But I am as satisfied with the mask as I am with the cream. Moreover, it's $30 for 110ml, which lasts forever.

You can find a more detailed review of Missha Super Aqua Cell Renew Snail Sleeping Mask in my blog post here.

And that's it! If you read up to here, I hope this post and my morning skincare routine post were somewhat useful to you :)