Skin starts at night

The cream is the end, not the beginning

The skincare industry wants you to believe skin is built in the bathroom. It isn't. Skin is built at night, in bed, from what you drank and ate during the day. The cream only helps what's already there.

I coach in the sun every afternoon and I don't really do skincare. Still, people who don't know me guess a decade less. Here are the three things I do do.

1. Seven hours — not "when it works out"

In deep sleep the body releases growth hormone and the skin does its overnight repair. Six hours isn't enough for that. The one hour you "save" in the evening is exactly the hour your face would have reset.

What helped me: the phone leaves the bedroom. Not on silent — out. The screen doesn't just wake you, it pushes deep sleep back by an hour.

2. Water, and not only in summer

Dehydrated skin looks tired, not "glowing". In winter we drink less because it isn't hot, and the skin is first to pay. A one-litre bottle on the desk, finished by noon, a second by evening. Boring and it works.

3. Collagen, vitamin C and biotin — from inside

The body makes less collagen every year from about 25. Vitamin C contributes to normal collagen formation, and zinc and biotin contribute to the maintenance of normal hair and nails. You can get there with good food, and you can add to it.

My ritual is a B-Yng sachet in 300 ml of water before bed — collagen, hyaluronic acid, vitamin C, zinc and biotin, strawberry-lemon. It's the only quiet minute of the day, which is exactly why it's the habit I find easiest to keep.

A supplement doesn't replace sleep and water. It comes after them — and only then does it work.

What I don't do

No devices, no expensive treatments, no ten-step routines. Not against them — they just weren't what made the difference.

This week

Phone out of the room, water bottle next to the laptop, seven hours. One week. Take a photo of yourself on day one and day seven.