How to use retinol at night in 5 steps

Nighttime is a very special time for the skin – it regenerates while you sleep. Here's how to get the most out of your evening skincare routine with retinol.

Cleansing the skin at night is essential to remove impurities and pollution before applying a retinol serum.

We must invest time in cleansing and toning the skin at night if we want our retinol skincare to be safe and effective. Using retinol at night requires first scrupulous and proper step-by-step cleansing.

Step 1: Cleansing: the key to a beauty routine with retinol

Our favorite for this first step is our Aquasource Hydra Barrier Cleanser. Maintaining a strong skin barrier is important when you’re using retinol products. If you’re wearing makeup, always start with a makeup remover first before moving on to a cleanser.

Cleansed skin, free of pollution and dead skin cells, is ready for your retinol skincare routine.

It is important that the first step in a retinol night routine is to remove makeup, and tone with the right products for your skin type for optimal results. It seems obvious, but it’s worth remembering.

Your skin may feel more dehydrated when you start to use retinol, so Aquasource Hydra Barrier Cleanser helps to hydrate with soothing ceramides. It has a creamy and nourishing formula, enriched with bioceramides and a unique, smooth cream-to-foam texture.

Step 2: Choosing the right toner for your skin type

A night routine with retinol requires balanced skin. To do so, we recommend using the most appropriate toners for your skin type.

The skin's pH must be restored after cleansing with water. Biotherm offers two options within the BIOSOURCE range, with a toner suitable for each skin type.

We offer Biosource Hydrating & Tonifying Toner (Normal Skin), for normal to combination/oily skin, and Biosource Hydrating & Softening Toner (Dry Skin), a more hydrating toner for normal to dry skin.

Biotherm's toners remove pollution particles as well as balance the skin after cleansing with either a soapy cleanser or an oil-based makeup remover.

pH-balanced and soothed skin is better equipped to receive the benefits of retinol skincare.

Step 3: Life Plankton Regenerating Serum

When you first start using retinol, there’s often an adaptation period. Use retinol only a few times per week before increasing to avoid dryness and flaking. On the off days when you’re not using the Blue Retinol Night Serum, go for the Life Plankton Regenerating Serum to restore hydration.

Applied every morning, it helps to keep skin strong and defends it from external aggressions thanks to the combination of high and low molecular weight hyaluronic acid and vitamin CG.

On the nights when you use retinol serum, the Life Plankton Regenerating Serum can be applied too as a pre-serum. It not only boosts results, but also improves skin hydration.

Step 4: Our retinol night serum

Use our Blue Retinol Night Serum in your retinol night routine after toner and before face cream. We recommend that you apply Life Plankton Regenerating Serum before the retinol serum to maximize the benefits and reduce the likelihood of adverse effects.

Step 5: Moisturizing cream

You need to apply a moisturizer over our Blue Retinol Night Serum. Serums are formulated to provide the skin with a high concentration of active ingredients, but they do not cover the moisturizing function that is so important when performing your retinol skincare routine.

Which cream should you use after retinol? Whatever best suits your skin's needs. Remember that hydration is as valuable as the active ingredients in your routine. Healthy skin is hydrated skin.

How do I start using Blue Retinol Night Serum?

We start by incorporating it into your night routine, staggered over two nights a week to allow the skin to get used to this new ingredient. It gives it time to recover from the usual stress that occurs when using a retinol skincare product for the first time.

Which cream should you use after retinol?

Luckily our Blue Retinol Night Serum combines perfectly with any Blue Therapy cream. You just have to choose the one that meets your needs or the areas of your skin you want to work on.

If your main concern is spots and wrinkles, reinforce your nighttime retinol routine with the anti-aging Blue Therapy Night Cream. Wake up day after day looking younger: wrinkles appear smoothed and dark spots appear reduced.

If you’re concerned about firmness, Biotherm's Blue Peptides Uplift Night Cream is a lifting and firming cream that corrects the effects of collagen loss in the skin while you sleep.

You’ll have less wrinkles, spots and regained firmness. It repairs the visible signs of aging for smoother, firmer and more luminous skin.

For more mature skin in need of extra effective ingredients, Blue Therapy Revitalize Night is the repairing and revitalizing treatment for mature skin that is specially developed for the face, neck and décolleté areas.

Blue Therapy Revitalize Night cream comes in a rich and nourishing balm texture that envelops the skin to repair wrinkles and restore firmness, reducing the signs of aging.

However, retinol also treats imperfections, and you can do a retinol skincare routine for acne to treat blemishes, texture and spots in younger skin. In this case the ideal cream to follow-up with is the Aquasource Hydra Barrier Cream.

Most signs of aging are triggered by exposure to external aggressions such as UV rays, pollution, lack of sleep, stress, weather changes or an unbalanced diet.

Thanks to its unique formula with Biotech Plankton^TM probiotic fraction and Bioceramides, the new Cera Repair Barrier Cream strengthens the skin's protective barrier, protecting it from aggressions and slowing down premature aging.

Don’t forget to do this in the morning after applying retinol at night

Whenever we do a nighttime retinol routine, we cannot forget the Waterlover sunscreen in the morning – SPF 30 or even better, SPF 50.

Alternatively, our Blue Peptides Uplift Cream SPF 30 provides high SPF protection against the sun’s aging UV rays, while also moisturizing.

The use of retinol makes the skin sensitive to UV radiation and makes sunscreen the perfect ally for a skincare routine, protecting it every morning from external aggressions and helping to repair and regenerate at night.