What’s the Difference Between Day & Night Creams?

Many people assume that skincare creams are, for the most part, almost all similar. However, there are differences among the various types of creams available — not only with ingredients but also consistency. Some of the biggest differences can be found between day and night creams.

Both a day cream and a night cream serve different purposes for your skin. One is all about protecting, while the other is designed more for restoring. To learn more about each, we’re sharing the difference between day and night creams. Plus, you’ll learn if you should have both as part of your skincare routine.

Day Cream

Using a day cream has a much greater purpose than just providing moisture to your skin. It’s essential for protecting you from the environmental stressors we encounter on a daily basis. And that doesn’t just mean the harmful rays from the sun that can leave our skin looking and feeling damaged.

Every day, our skin comes into contact with free radicals, which have been shown to speed up the aging process. These free radicals are everywhere around us, including in the air we breathe and inside our bodies. Things like air pollution and smoking can increase the production of new free radicals.

Unfortunately, we really can’t completely avoid encountering these free radicals. Nor can we avoid ever going out into the sun! So, it’s important that we protect our skin from the damaging effects of these environmental stressors. And we can do that by using the right day cream.

A great day cream will be packed with antioxidants, such as Vital Defense, which can help fight off free radicals from pollution and other environmental elements. Because many of us wear makeup daily, day creams are typically lightweight and non-greasy too. This allows for a smooth canvas for applying makeup. Since they’re not usually thick, heavy creams, it’s absorbed quickly and doesn’t clog your pores. It’s also important to partner a day cream with sunscreen over top to protect against sun damage and prevent skin cancer. Liberally apply an SPF (such as Yon-Ka’s SPF 25 or 50) to the skin after applying the day cream.

Night Cream

While your day cream is all about protecting your skin, a night cream is designed to help restore and repair it. As mentioned, our skin encounters a lot of potentially damaging environmental stressors all day long. At night, it needs the opportunity to recover from all of that. Since your body uses the nighttime to repair and regenerate itself, it only makes sense that your skin does the same while you’re getting your beauty sleep.

Night creams are often thicker than day creams which allows it to be absorbed slowly throughout the night. Plus, they’ll typically contain higher concentrations of anti-aging ingredients since your skin won’t be exposed to the sun and you’re less likely to sweat it off while you sleep. In a nutshell, at night your skin gets to use the active ingredients to replenish itself instead of using the actives for protection.

The use of a night cream is highly beneficial because it helps to repair and restore your skin from everything it deals with all day long, including wearing makeup. Even if night creams feel heavy when you first apply them, it will be fully absorbed by the morning. And you’ll wake up with refreshed, healthy skin that has a beautiful glow.

Do You Really Need Both?

While it’s totally up to your own personal preference, we definitely recommend incorporating both a day cream and a night cream into your daily skincare routine. The reason for this is that they both serve two unique purposes, both of which you want to take advantage of if you want healthy, youthful skin.