Just the term "night cream" can summon up visions of Fifties housewives slathered in a thick layer of greasy vanishing cream, rollers in place, ready for a good night's sleep.
But that image of night-time skincare that is out of date. Modern formulas have become lighter, more easily absorbed and contain active ingredients that seem better suited to a chemistry lab than on our faces.
Gone are the days when sleeping was a passive beauty process. Those much needed eight hours are the best time to pamper your skin and hair. The latest generations of night creams contain active ingredients that help skin to retain a healthy moisture balance, without the need for oils and creams that could block the pores.
But despite these high-tech formulas, the beauty world is still divided as to whether we still need night creams at all, Some skincare companies simply don't offer them while other companies offer specific night creams and say that your skin's needs differ at night.
Every 24 hours, our body clock divides our biological processes into two distinctly different phases - an active period when we are awake and functioning, during which our body's resources of oxygen and nutrients are being constantly depleted, and a resting and repairing phase when we are asleep and our body can call on stored resources to renew itself.
Research by the big beauty companies has confirmed that while water loss through the skin is greatest at night, our skin's ability to absorb active ingredients from whatever cream we apply before we sleep is just as great.
As a result, night creams often contain higher doses of active ingredients that might go to waste during daylight hours. Some active ingredients are Vitamins C and E which fight free radicals, fruit acids which exfoliate away dead skin cells, ingredients which help repair the barrier function of the skin, and others that help to rehydrate it.
It's almost as if our skin is too busy doing during the day, protecting our bodies from the outside world, that a night, it repairs and renews itself. So it would make sense that a day cream should offer protection and a night cream should offer a treatment.
Night creams are invaluable to someone with very dry skin. They primarily work at preventing the loss of water through the skin while we sleep and they also offer the best way to try a specific treatment, including the anti-ageing lotion, retinol or fruit - acid cream.
It is not just your face that can benefit from a little night-time pampering, your body also renews and repairs itself while you sleep. Body lotions are more tempting at night because you don't have to get dressed minutes afterwards. Apply them all over, concentrating on elbows, knees, shins, hands and especially your feet.
Last but not least, take advantage of the time spent sleeping to try a deep conditioning hair treatment which you wouldn't normally have time for during the day. Don't wash your hair first, just comb the conditioner through the last few inches of your dry hair to ensure the ingredients are concentrated and protect your pillow with a hand towel. In the morning just shampoo and rinse as usual.
That is all there is to it! Did you ever think you could look beautiful by doing nothing but getting a good eight hours sleep?
