Wear your Makeup to Bed - Age your Skin 7 Days!

So, when I was in middle school, I went to a church youth group activity each week. And one weak our leaders decided it would be good to teach us about basic skin care. What I took away from that lesson and still wonder about today is when they said, "Wearing your makeup to bed for one night can age your skin 7 days!". That's crazy! One night of laziness can make you look 7 days older? This statement left me with lots of questions. 7 days? Is this really true? If makeup has those kinds of effects should I be even putting this stuff on my face at all?

Before sleeping with makeup on for 1 month

Well... its worse! Have you heard about the journalist who decided to put this question to the test. She slept in her makeup for ONE MONTH straight! Can you believe that? That is one gutsy experiment. And her dermatologist said that it aged her skin 10 YEARS! Here is what I found from her article as well as a few more to confirm what I thought I found.

After sleeping with makeup one for 1 month

So Anna went one month, never taking off her makeup, wearing it to bed each night. She said she would permit herself to rinse off her makeup in the shower each morning but that she didn't use cleansers at all. She also didn't moisturize, which is a huge no no in the skin care department. Then, she would just re-apply a new coat of makeup for the day. This resulted in Anna's dermatologist coming to the conclusion that her skin looked about 10 years older than Anna's age and the average skin of others Anna's age as well. Here is a link to read the full article.

Good Housekeeping also has a few things you might want to know before you decided to get to bed a few minutes earlier and not take off your makeup.

1. You'll break out - not surprising but true.

2. Your complexion will look more dull. - "Oils and dead skin cells on the outermost layers of the skin are matted up against the pillow all night, and natural turnover of this dull epidermal layer is diminished," says Dr. Chiu.

3. Your Skin Will Look Older & You'll Have More Wrinkles! - "Dirt and makeup trapped against your skin cause environmentally-induced oxidative damage," says Dr. Chiu. "This leads to a breakdown of the skin barrier and prematurely ages your face."

4. If you have acne, it might make it worse. - Refer to caution number 1.

5. You could put yourself at risk for an infection.

6. You may develop a rash. - This happened to Anna as well

So what does this mean?

YES! Wearing your makeup to bed DOES age your skin! I know, lame. But, when you pick up one end of the stick you have to pick up the other. But, does wearing your makeup to bed once age your skin 7 days? I don't know that there is a magic number of days that your skin will age. But, according to Anna's experiment, her skin aged 121 days each day she slept with her makeup on! It'd say that has more to do with the fact that she wore her makeup for 30 days straight and that there was not cleansing or moisturizing involved. So, if you wear your makeup to bed for one night, you'll probably be okay, but not great. Just woman up, and take of your makeup. Trust me, I know the struggle but your future self will thank you for it!