Why day creams don't work in place of night creams.

A lot of my time in the treatment room is spent educating my clients on their skincare routine and usually we’re talking about undoing the habits they already have in place. My first question is always “what do you wash your face with?” – not because I want to literally know the brand of their face wash, but because if they are able to somewhat quickly answer this question, I know they are washing their face. And then I ask what they moisturize with…again to see if they are performing the two MOST important steps in skin care: washing your face and applying moisturizer. Finally I ask them if they are doing this when they wake up and before they go to sleep. Sometimes it’s a little like getting your child to admit they didn’t brush their teeth before bed or wash their hands after using the toilet. You have to trick them into giving you the truth. My clients like to believe that they are taking care of their skin and they don’t know why they’re breaking out-dry-sensitive-dull-congested (insert verb here). If you want your skin to remain youthful for as long as possible you MUST wash your face in the morning and moisturize/protect with a sunscreen made for the face. And at night you MUST wash your face and apply a night cream. Use a washcloth too! The face is so much dirtier at night than in the morning. Once you have this routine down, you can start adding serums, peels, eye cream, spot treatments, masks, exfoliants, etc. I like creamy cleansers in the morning because the skin is just waking up and sleeping doesn’t make you too dirty, but cleansing is still a must. At night your skin goes to work while you sleep and it’s basically running a marathon. So while you’re going through your four phases it is repairing everything that you did from that day. It is killing free radicals which causing aging, fine lines, wrinkles and cancer. It is also producing collagen which fights the affects of gravity and keeps your skin "bouncy." You skin loses moisture and it needs water and a night cream in order to do its best work. That being said, this is why night creams cost more than a daytime moisturizer. Night creams have more concentrated and stronger ingredients than day creams. Same with night serums, a la Lancôme Absolue Night Serum, Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Serum, DDF Restoring Night Serum and a slew of others. These products are created to help your skin perform its repair functions. Smart, right?