The PM Wind-Down

The evening is subtraction. Only one step adds anything.

Five steps Four products Every night 6 min

Micelles have an oil-loving inside and a water-loving outside, which is how they lift sunscreen off a dry face. Wet the skin first and you have diluted the mechanism before you started. Saturate the pad, and hold it on the eye for ten seconds before moving — mascara dissolves, it does not scrub off.

Product Micellar water

The first pass took off what was sitting on top; this one cleans the skin. Salicylic acid is oil-soluble, so it goes down into the pore instead of stopping at the opening. Sixty seconds of contact, fingertips, tepid water. Three nights a week is plenty — every night is how you end up flaking by week three.

Product Salicylic cleanser

Pat until damp, then leave it alone for sixty seconds. Everything after this works better on skin that still holds a film of water, and the minute is also a diagnostic: if your face goes tight before the minute is up, you over-cleansed. Fewer surfactant nights, not more oil.

No product · technique

An oil does not hydrate. It slows how fast the water already in your skin leaves, which overnight is the whole difference. Three drops warmed in the palms and pressed onto damp skin. If you use a retinoid, that goes on dry skin first and the oil over it — never the other way round.

Product Facial oil

You have just spent five minutes on your face and you are about to press it into a fabric for eight hours. Cotton takes most of that oil into the weave and drags on the cheek you sleep on. Satin holds less and pulls less. Turn the case twice a week and it costs you nothing.

Product Silk pillowcase