Let me start by telling you, I am a great believer in things that happen at night, sleep included. In fact, I am also a great believer in sleep, which also happens to happen at night. I have always sworn by the power of sleep, and have found that there is no healer quite as effective. No matter what skin product I use, or medicine I take, I never seem to look or feel better than I do after a good night’s sleep, which is why I love skin care products that you apply at night.

Ah, the human body. What a fascinating machine! How can it program itself to do some of its best work while its owner sleeps? How can bodies accomplish so much while looking like their doing so little. Just think about REM sleep patterns, the way our minds process information, and most of all, think about our skin, which may become one of the most active organs of the body at night. Not for nothing do they call it ‘beauty sleep.”

However this is all after I discovered Nubi Facial Night Cream, because before that my beauty sleep was a lot closer to a nightmare.

Before

So let me tell you about my sleep, which is anything but beautiful. In fact, if you look up the phrase “hot mess” in the dictionary, there is probably a picture of me when I first wake up in the morning, and it’s not the “Paris Hilton” type of hot I’m talking about – it’s the literal kind. I’m talking sweaty, oily, greasy. Put it this way, if I posted a selfie of me when I first woke up, I would definitely lose a lot of “friends”

That’s why I always concentrated most on my morning routine. This was my time for damage control. I would spend my mornings cleansing and toning, applying concealers and astringents, all in the hope of getting my skin to look somewhat presentable before I went to work. Still every morning the monster returned, and so too did the greaseball cycle.

That’s when I started thinking that I must be doing something wrong. After all, look at the selfie Beyonce’s posted when she woke up. Ok, so maybe my expectations were a bit high, but there had to be something a little better than this. I began to do some investigating.

Soon I Iearned that a.m. skincare routines and p.m. skincare routines needed to be as different as, well, day and night. It turns out that daytime skin needs to be prepped to defend itself against the environmental pollutants it’s about to face, and nighttime skin needs to spend its time recovering from the assault it has just gone through. Apparently, my skin knew a lot more about how to take care of itself than I did. That was when I started to develop a new respect for my skin.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Think your skin doesn’t know what time it is? Apparently it does. Otherwise, how would it know how to begin cell mitosis (cell renewal that repairs skin) promptly between 11 p.m. and 12 midnight? According to experts, this is when skin needs nutrients the most, and when anti- aging formulas make the most impact. And if your skin knows what time it is, you better know what time it is too.

So, between 11 and 12. This was prime time. The time to carpe diem, call out the heavy hitters. I couldn’t afford to lose another precious night on products that weren’t making the grade! I needed to upgrade my night time beauty routine, and I needed to do it toot-sweet, but it would take a little more leg work.

First, I needed to determine what exactly was happening to my skin at night, besides regenerating all those cells, which is pretty creepy when you think about it, but I digress. It turns out that while my cells are doing all those private things that we’re better off not knowing about, my skin is also losing a lot of moisture. Apparently, sebum (or oil) excretion peaks at midday, (and you thought your skin couldn’t tell time) so at night your skin loses its protective barrier, and your skin loses a lot of water. That meant that I had better make sure that my new nighttime products had plenty of moisturizers to keep my skin from drying out overnight.

Another thing I found out was that skin temperature rises at night, which means your skin gets drier and you need a thick cream to keep your skin balanced and becoming more acidic. However, you also had to make sure you were getting something non comedogenic (won’t clog pores).The mission had begun.

Mission Night Cream

When it came to night time skincare, there were a few vital steps to be followed. Of course, skin needed to be cleansed to wash off the daily dirt and debris, and toned to restore pH level, but to me, the most important component was the night cream. Night cream was the part that did the most to regulate the moisture level that was making my skin look so greasy in the morning. I was losing so much moisture during the night, that it was forming an oily film on my face in the morning. If I could seal the moisture in at night with a good night cream, I might actually start to get somewhere.

I immediately thought of the Nubi beauty care line. I had just bought a nut powder exfoliator from them and was really pleased with the effect it had on my skin. Nubi focused on replenishment. It was always incorporating plant extracts, botanicals and natural oils into its products so moisturizing was always a priority. I still use Nubi’s Nourishing and Moisturizing Shampoo every day and I can depend on it to cleanse my hair without over drying. I was sure Nubi would have the perfect night cream for me.

The first thing I do when shopping for a product (food or beauty) is to check out the list of ingredients. I want to make sure they’re effective, natural, and safe. The Nubi Facial Night Cream listed sunflower oil, glycerin, shea butter, and mineral oil at the top of its list, so, having passed the initial examination, it didn’t take much deliberation for me to decide to put it to the test.

When I eventually got the Nubi Facial Night Cream in my hot little hands, the only thing that prevented me from tearing into it right away was the fact that it was not nighttime yet. In retrospect, this turned out to be something of a blessing because it gave me time to admire the elegant packaging. The Nubi came in a sturdy grey silver embossed, and noticeably recycled box, which made my environmentally conscious side very happy, and my aesthetic side quite pleased as well. The jar could have doubled as a paperweight in stature and appearance. It was elegantly modern without ostentation.

The next few hours were a battle against time. I watched my Netflix diligently eagerly awaiting the time when the clock struck 11 and my skin cells began their nightly mitosis. At about ten thirty, I was cleansed, toned, serum-ed, and ready. The only thing standing between me and the cream was a protective seal, and once I got through that it was only me and my Nubi.

The Reveal

The moment had arrived. The product had arrived. Had the product’s moment arrived? The texture was perfect. The Nubi Facial Cream was thick, smooth, and shiny, promising a generous dose of hydration for the even the most moisture deprived skin.

As soon as I put it on my face, my skin drank it in. I saw my fine lines soften, and tightness disappear. The Nubi Facial Cream had made it through the first round. Did I mention it smelled like heaven?

Round 2: The Sleep

Did I sleep more soundly that night? I certainly looked like I had when I woke up. Sure, I’m not saying I looked like the Queen Bee or anything, but maybe I could snap off a selfie that wouldn’t send the kids screaming in horror. Thanks to the Nubi Facial Night Cream, my skin had retained more moisture overnight, so there was less oil on my face. Now I could spend my morning preparing my skin for the day ahead, rather than cleaning it up from the night before.

After

So what have I gained from my experience? A new respect for sleep, a new respect for my skin, a new respect for myself, and a new respect for Nubi Facial Night Cream. Let me break it down.

I have gained a new respect for sleep because I have come to realize how much the eight hours spent doing nothing can affect the sixteen hours doing everything else, mentally as well as physically. Sleep is sacred, it needs to be acknowledged as such.

I have gained a new respect for my skin, because it’s one smart cookie. It knows how to take care of you, you just need to make sure you know how to take care of it.

I have a new respect for myself because I figured out how to solve my problem and am a lot happier for having done it. I also look a lot better and younger, which is always a boost to the self esteem.

Lastly, I have a new respect for Nubi Facial Cream. Nubi Facial Cream not only solved my nighttime woes, it solved my daytime woes as well. Now that I use the nighttime to control moisture loss, I can use the daytime to defend my skin against oxidative damage. That means that my skin is more resilient to the elements, and the environmental effect of aging, so not only do I look better in the morning, I look and feel better throughout the day.

Parting Thoughts

Before I go, there are a few things I want to leave you with:

NIght and day skin care are two different things. They may have some of the same elements, but it is important to recognize that day skin care has to be prepared to fight, night time skin needs to recover. Use an SPF of thirty or above during the daytime, to keep skin in shape.
Take advantage of the skin between the hours of 11 and 12. This is the time to bring on the big guns in anti- aging and moisturizing. Sun-sensitive retinols are best applied at this time.

Apply heavy creams and moisturizers before bed time to keep skin hydrated and prevent moisture loss. Use Nubi Facial Night Cream. It’s got the right ingredients to get you through the night, and the morning after.