As if the arsenal of day creams, night creams, exfoliants and serums that we regularly apply to our T-zones (and beyond) weren’t enough – now it seems that when you apply them during the day also plays a part in their effectiveness.

According to an article in May’s Good Housekeeping magazine entitled “Your Skin’s Clock”, the body’s natural 24-hour cycle (a burgeoning new field called chronopharmacology) plays a part in optimizing treatments and bolstering their benefits. Who knew?

It’s A.M., you’ve gotten plenty of sleep and refrained from the dehydrating glass of vino before bedtime (we covered this… don’t pretend we didn’t), and you still wake-up looking like a Mac truck hit you in the night? Apparently it’s not just a lack of sleep that will steal your skin’s luster. Skin cell turnover (a.k.a. the skin’s natural exfoliation process) declines as you get older (Et tu, Brute?). But according to Rolanda Johnson, Ph.D. and senior scientist for Olay, it also slows while you sleep – regardless of how many miles your birthday meter is logging. Thus actually exfoliating your skin in the A.M. will slough off dead skin dullness and return your face to its original shiny state of being.



Now before you take a sandblaster to your face in a fit of overkill, Good Housekeeping has a few suggestions on how best to accomplish said exfoliation. One good option is to simply brush it away with one of the myriad of cleansing systems out there that are essentially gentle electronic brushes, paired with an equally gentle cleanser, that oscillate very quickly to dislodge dirt from the pores.

And speaking of cleansers, don’t forget the power of using one that has a built in chemical exfoliator to break the bonds between the dead skin cells. Dr. Karyn Grossman, M.D. in Santa Monica suggests looking for the inclusion of ingredients glucosamine, salicylic acid or glycolic acid. (Of course, check with your dermatologist before you start overloading with the acids – in conjunction with some anti-ager retinols you may be over-stressing your skin.)

There are also those cleansers that include a physical exfoliating agent, such as the gentle jojoba bead. (Steer clear of rough-edged grains or granules like apricot kernels or walnut shells that can cause microtears in the skin, leading to irritation when you apply your other products later.)

The next all-important step towards prepping your skin for the day is protection. Your skin is already working hard with its peak level of the hormone cortisol occurring in the morning. Tom Mammone, Ph.D. and executive director for Clinique research and development takes a stab at why this happens, “We think, among a host of other functions, this spike signals the skin to redoubles it’s efforts at keeping out environmental insults like UV radiation and pollution.”

And while our own physiologies are providing a great deal of the protection for us, we have to work as support staff helping the process along with sunscreens, moisturizer and possibly a good antioxidant serum.



Recommended by dermatologists is a good sunscreen (SPF 30 and higher) applied before you slather on moisturizer, make-up… anything. There are also plenty of products out there in the multi-tasking market, so don’t be shy about trying a moisturizer with the SPF protection already mixed right in.

There is, of course, one product that can safely be applied under your SPF (cue the angels singing): Anti-oxidant serum. Anti-oxidants catch UV radiation and neutralize the free radicals it creates, which SPF alone cannot do.

Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize. Did I mention, moisturize? If you’re SPF is not of the multi-tasking variety, slather on moisturizer as well, especially on dry patches that might need a little spot treatment.

Spend the next week or so practicing these A.M. moves and see how the practice of chronopharmacology (word of the day) can turn your morning mayhem into morning magic! Next week: Nighty-Night Time Treatments.