Taking off our makeup before bed is one of those things that we absolutely know we should do every single night. But sometimes — after a crazy day at work or an extended happy hour, or a very good date or a very bad one — it just doesn't happen.
Well, today we bring you a story that will make you rethink that occasional negligence and take off your makeup every single night, no matter what.
A Daily Mail reporter took on the challenge of leaving her makeup on for an entire month. (Ugh!) By the third night, she'd developed tiny white cysts around her eyelashes and her skin felt dry and taut. Friends already started to remark she looked tired. After about 10 days, she awoke with a swollen eye on account of a mascara-caked lash.
After the full month was up, she took to a dermatology clinic to assess the damage she'd done — and it wasn't pretty. A special camera revealed the surface texture of the skin was substantially worse than the previous month, because of less oxygen to the skin. Further, her wrinkles had become deeper, on account of dryness. Her redness, already a problem, had gotten even worse (because makeup forms a barrier over the skin, locking in irritants), and the pores had increased in size (because of clogging).
Has all of this sent you running for the cleanser? It should. Experts cited in the Mail suggest a month of sleeping in makeup could age a person's face by a decade. "Long-term avoidance of cleansing while continuing to wear makeup could be detrimental to your skin in the long-run,"Harley Street cosmetic dermatologist Sam Bunting told the Mail.
And with that, we've heard enough. We'll be cleansing and moisturising every. Single. Night, from here on out.
Do you ever sleep in makeup?
Alesandra Dubin is a Los Angeles-based writer and the founder of home and travel blog Homebody in Motion. Follow her on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.
