My daughter is sleeping through the night!
Oh, I’m sorry, did you not hear me?
MY DAUGHTER IS SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT.
This is the best thing THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED.
Because remember that insomnia that I’ve been dealing with for a good decade? It’s gone.
It’s gooooone!
Which means I am sleeping better than I have slept since I was, like, twenty.
It is THE BEST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED.
(Sorry for all the caps; I’m a little excited about this, in case you couldn’t tell.)
Another really nice thing about sleeping – besides, you know, the sleep part – is that when you do it, you look like you slept. Which is good. But can you make it better?!
You can always make it better.
And so these days, before I go to bed, I make sure all those hours (hours!) I spend sleeping are going to count….and I hydrate, slather, fluff, and otherwise do it up like I’m about to go to prom. And then, when I wake up? I look slightly less like Godzilla, and slightly more like a human being.
Want to know the trick?
It’s all about the skin.
Let’s talk The Process (And The Products).
1. Remove Thy Makeup. Like seriously: ALL OF IT. I spent years and years sleeping with all my eyeshadow and mascara right there in the same spot where I’d put them that morning, and those were years and years when my roommate awoke each day to discover an extremely grumpy blonde raccoon hanging out in her kitchen. Sleeping with your makeup on dries out your skin, and dry skin equals sad skin. Don’t do it.
2. Exfoliate (With Stuff You’ve Already Got). You do need to do this – once a week at minimum – but you absolutely don’t need to spend a fortune on a fancy product. Just combine a little coconut oil with granular sugar, and lightly rub it onto dampened skin for about thirty seconds before rinsing off.
3. Hydrate While You Sleep. Have you ever tried an overnight mask? I know it sounds like it’d get all over your pillow and not be especially comfortable, but if you pick the right product you get all the benefits of major moisture without the extra laundry.
Pictured here: Avon’s ANEW Clinical Hydration Mask, which is a crazy-lightweight (seriously, when it’s on you can’t even feel it) gel mask that absorbs instantly, can be worn on top of your normal night cream, and delivers forty-eight hours of hydration. With one application. (I’ve been using it three times a week because it is March and my skin is DONE with all this winter madness.)
It also contains little beads of hyaluronic acid and shea butter that burst upon contact with skin, which are both excellent for your skin’s moisture barrier…and honestly just super fun.
4. Up The Humidity. OK, you want to know a for-real beauty secret? Go buy a humidifier. Yes, they’re good for preventing colds and such, but I started using one in our bedroom shortly after our son’s birth (mostly because I discovered humidifiers shaped like koalas), and quickly learned that they make an enormous difference not only in how you feel when you wake up in the morning, but how you look. (I’d say definitely go for a humidifier rather than a vaporizer; humidifiers blow cool moisture into the air, and are nice to use year-round.)
Boom: rested.
Or at least rested-looking.
This post was created in collaboration with Avon.
