It happens to the best of us. After a long night of clubbing in heels or crunching for project deadlines at the office, doing the whole nightly skincare routine can feel like a total chore. After all, when your entire brain is ready to shut down, its hard to focus on any other priority than sleep.
While it’s tempting to head straight to bed, smearing your ‘glam look’ all over your pillow as you leave your face caked on for 8 hours straight can turn into your skin’s worst nightmare real fast.
Below are the most damning side effects of continuously keeping up this bad habit – and believe me, I’ve gone through most (if not all) of them. Better get your cleansers ready after this read.
Clogged pores and acne
Let’s start with the most commonly known (and immediately visible!) side effect.
Plenty of makeup products out on the market have ingredients that effectively block your pores, these including silicones or acrylics.
This process can take place even as you’re wearing your makeup for the day, and not necessarily dozing in it.
Harmful ingredients in your makeup will seep into your pores, potentially trapping the bacteria and natural oils within them. Over time, this excessive build-up of oil, sweat, bacteria and dead skin cells can result in clogs of icky substances within your skin, resulting breakouts and inflammation.
Letting irritating makeup sit on your face for a night out is one thing, but sleeping in such damaging ingredients only helps to further cause and maintain such blockages. It’s no wonder you’re often greeted with emerging pimples or blackheads the morning after.
To alleviate this torture on your pores, it’s best to shop for more skin-friendly makeup. The Love Vitamin gives an informative lowdown on the general pore-clogging makeup ingredients you’d want to avoid, while the Face Reality Acne Clinic gives an even more specified list of ingredient terms to steer clear from.
However – just ‘cause your makeup’s friendlier on the pores doesn’t exempt it from clogging them after extended wear; especially after letting it sit for a full night’s worth of sleep.
A note on marketing labels
Comodogenic is a dermatological term describing products that promote the clogging of pores. As such, brands often use the label “non-comodogenic” to market makeup they claim prevents such damage.
According to The Klog’s interview with dermatologist Neil Sadick – just because a product claims to be “non-comodogenic”, doesn’t mean it’s truly the case.
Similarly to products claiming to be “oil-free”, a “non-comodogenic” label should be taken with a grain of salt. Just because a product is sold as “non-comodogenic”, doesn’t mean that its guaranteed to not clog your pores.
Instead of falling for false labels, it’s best to familiarise yourself with both harmful and skin-friendly makeup ingredients instead, and purchase products that best suit your skin’s needs.
The Natural Acne Clinic dives into a a number of common pore-clogging ingredients in makeup, skincare -and even acne care. A bunch of them sound innocent - even tantalizing (who knew olive oil was a common enemy for acne-prone skin?!) - on the outset, making it all the more important to read through product back-labels (as tedious as it is).
Premature aging
Constantly going to bed with makeup will eventually achieve the exact opposite your foundation and highlighters are going for: a dull, wrinkled, older skin complexion.
You can cover it up all you want with these products – but why not nourish the natural foundations of beauty first?
Most of us strive to maintain that bare-faced, youthful glow… and sleeping in your makeup is like ramming on the accelerator of your skin’s aging process.
Dull complexion
Every night, your skin regenerates itself by shedding old dead cells and making way for new ones. These new skin cells are responsible for bearing the fresh, glowing complexion we’re all after. At the same time, your pores also release sebum that protect your skin from the free radicals in the air.
Wearing a mask of product for an entire night does well to disrupt this critical process, trapping old skin cells and preventing them from naturally sloughing off to reveal bright new skin. This results in a dull, lifeless appearance – which, according to dermatologist Dendy Engelman in his interview with SELF, is the “very first sign of aging”.
Wrinkles
On top of that, makeup can actually increase your skin’s exposure to free radicals, and with your clogged pores unable to release their daily dose of sebum, your skin is left unprotected from the risk of collagen degradation.
Free radicals love to wreak havoc on the DNA of your skin’s cells, and in doing so, destroy the collagen and elastic fibers that make your skin look young, bouncy, and taut. Since collagen is the main protein that firms your skin’s appearance, breaking it down will result in fine lines and wrinkles – as well as deepen any existing ones.
Dehydrated skin
While your initial makeup look may give you that refreshing, glass-like glow that fakes a moisturised appearance, it’s actually creating the exact opposite effect on your skin over the course of the day. Leaving your makeup on throughout the night effectively suffocates the uppermost layer of your skin, preventing it from executing its usual process of regeneration and cell renewal.
In other words, your skin isn’t given the chance to restore and rehydrate itself, leaving you with a dull, dehydrated, and prematurely aging appearance.
Eye irritations
The make-up gods know just how much time I spend covering up my saggy, puffy eyebags with concealer. (And as someone who does cosplay and the occasional fashion photoshoot, these things are my absolute worst enemy.)
Sadly, as someone who was a frequent offender of sleeping in makeup, the very stuff I used to hide these bastards up were the very same substances that retained them.
But that’s not all you’ll be dealing with when regularly sleeping with your slap on. I’m hoping everyone reading this values their sight enough to take the following side effects into consideration, because – my gosh – eye bags are actually the least of your worries:
Eczema, styes, and irritated corneas
Yup – leave enough gunk on your eyelids night after night and the skin around the area will likely respond in irritation. This can result in a rash-y, itching, or burning sensation; essentially eczema on your eyelid. Pretty gross.
As if that’s not enough, eyeshadow and mascara can have just the same effect on your eyelid as day-long foundation on your facial pores – leave them on throughout the night, and they can potentially clog the small oil glands and hair follicles on your lids, likely leaving you with a nasty stye the next morning.
Even more concerning, the product debris may find their way to the actual surface of your eye, scratching your cornea and, at best: creating discomfort, at worst: potentially creating risk of blinding eye infections.
A rather disturbing case emerged mid-2018 of an Australian woman who nearly suffered from permanent blindness due to 25 years of improper mascara removal. Deposits of black mascara congregated beneath her eyelids over time, resulting in horrifying lumps of black gunk that scratched away on the surface of her eyeballs.
The sensation was described by ophthalmologist Dana Robaei as the equivalent of “somebody throwing a handful of sand in your eye, it’s constantly irritating.”
If you’re feeling brave and curious for some gruesome visuals, check out some of their photos from the case study – but you’ve been warned.
Eyelash breakage
Those long, flirty lashes you love to volumize with mascara? The very products that help you achieve those wide, anime-like eyes can very well break them off entirely. Failing to remove them properly on a regular basis can cause the product to rub into your lashes, drying them out, and ultimately causing breakage.
Take care of your natural lashes and be sure to give them the gentle cleansing they deserve!
Puffy, baggy eyes
Last but certainly the least harrowing of eye symptoms, all these irritations caused by sleeping in eye makeup will ultimately lead to red, puffy, and swollen eyes as your skin attempts to fight off possible infections. I’m assuming you’d rather not rock a stoner’s look first thing in the morning, so keep this in mind if you’re constantly trying to avoid tired, puffed-up eyes (like me!).
All these symptoms described aren’t necessarily going to pop up after a single night of forgetting to clean off your Kim K look – rather, they’re the consequences of failing to do so for prolonged periods of time.
It’s a struggle – I get it – especially on nights when you’re dead tired can’t be bothered. But is it really worth the long-term damage?
Even with the extreme medical cases aside, it’ll just feel good to nourish and care for your natural beauty and maintaining that youthful, healthy glow for as long as possible. A cleansing routine to end your nights may take a bit more effort, but its benefits pay off in the long run, for sure. (And if you think cleansing wipes are an easy, lazy alternative – stop right there! They don’t do the job as well as you think.)
But we aren’t perfect people, and there will be days where sleeping in your Kat Von D’s just going to happen. What can you do to repair your skin then?
Stay tuned to the second parter of this article, where I lay out the perfect recovery guide to morning-after makeup damage!