Beauty sleep, we all know the popular phrase. Every beauty magazine will bring it up at some point, because each day we all need the well deserved sleep, for a beautiful and rested appearance. Very true and indisputable, but some of us wake up looking more like trolls, than some well rested beauties. Due to skin aging or funny sleep styles, we wake up all wrinkled up. Each night for 8 hours we deepen the wrinkles on our faces and decolletages and after years and years, they become permanent. A true nightmare. Like expression lines aren’t enough, now we can’t even sleep in peace!
But hear hear, if you’re a troll like me, I have solutions. Sleep wrinkles are actually very easy to avoid, if you’re willing enough to look funny at night. We can’t totally prevent our expression lines (smile, baby, smile), but when it comes to sleep wrinkles, you just need some sense of humor and they can be gone with the wind! So long permanent damage!
Wanna know how? Keep reading!
The sleeping outfit
Sleep wrinkles
Wait, what?
Yeah, sleep wrinkles are definitely a thing. If you never heard of them, you’re either too young or you sleep like a princess. You might even be a troll, but you just haven’t realized yet, that many of your wrinkles come from your sleeping positions. So, let’s take a see how they look like:
Sleep and expression lines
That is my eye area where you can see the difference between sleeping and expression lines. The white arrows point on sleeping wrinkles that I managed to produce in only one night of sleep. Imagine how they would deepen night after night. And at my age they don’t disappear during the day. No wonder I panicked a few years ago. I didn’t want any additional wrinkles! And that’s how my research began.
Taping
The moment I panicked I already had the idea that I need to stop the wrinkling physically. Almost immediately I got the idea, that I could tape them. I took a surgical tape I had at home and made some patches. They worked nicely on preventing wrinkles, but the adhesive hurt my sensitive skin, so I’ve started looking for other solutions. Very soon I’ve found out, that I was not the only one that had that »brilliant« idea. The so called »taping« is an actual thing out there! There are even especially designed patches for preventing and smoothing sleep wrinkles!
The most popular at the time were the Frownies, so I ordered them. And didn’t like them. Very hard, uncomfortable and taking them off was a serious challenge that resulted in irritation. Plus, they don’t come cheap…so I went back to my original idea – the home-made patches. In time I’ve tried different types of surgical tapes and even some kinesio tapes. The winner and my all time favorite is now Pic Sensitive Fix Plaster. The adhesive doesn’t irritate my skin, the tape is soft and comfortable to wear and it sticks nicely to my skin all night long. Bonus points: it’s a very cheap solution!
My eye area after a night without and with home made stickers (notice that it smooths the expression lines too!)
Now you’re probably wondering how this peculiar routine looks like. Here you go:
- I cut the surgical tape into two oval shapes / patches to fit my eye area on both sides.
- After my skincare routine I apply a small amount of Vaseline or Aquaphor on my eye area to avoid too much adhesion, which would end up in pulling my skin in the morning.
- I put the stickers on, make my husband laugh and go to sleep.
Very important: the patches should come off nicely in the morning without excessive pulling! Pulling your skin will do more harm than the patches did good. No pulling, the just right amount of Vaseline is your friend.
Important: find a combination that suits you. A tape that doesn’t irritate your skin and feels comfortable. You might need some trial and error to find out the right combination of tape and amount of cream/Vaseline. You can also try with kinesio tapes or band-aids. Anything that suits you will do, as long as it doesn’t include pulling your skin while taking it off.
The Patch kit: Pic surgical tape, Vaseline and some scissors
Additional useful tip: of course, you can use the taping method on any area of your face that wrinkles. It can be useful for expression lines too, for smoothing the skin during the night. It helps! Some say that helped with their »elevens«. Smoothing is always a good idea!
Of course, you can also look for other types of patches that are designed especially for taping. I’ll stick to my routine because it works for me and it is not expensive, as daily and long-term use is essential. Recently I stumbled upon these: Peace Out Microneedling Anti-Wrinkle Retinol Patches, which look very promising, because they are soaked with retinol and moisturizers, but the price… You have to be quite wealthy to use them regularly.
If you’ll try it, please send me photos. I always appreciate a good laugh!
Anything can be OK for home-made patches
Pillow talk
Another very comfortable and luxurious way to prevent wrinkling your face during sleep are silk pillowcases. Silk is very smooth which results in less friction thus, less wrinkles. It works! I’ve got mine from Inbed recently and I’m thrilled. If I don’t use my patches, there are still minor sleeping lines forming around my eyes, but there are not so many as with ordinary cotton pillowcases. In general, I don’t have any pillow prints on my face anymore. I Love it! Plus, silk has many other benefits for your skin and hair so it is a very nice beauty prop that you can take in consideration. It is expensive, but it is well worth it and you can enjoy in it many years, if you treat it well. I’ll never go back to cotton #sorrynotsorry!
There are also some special anti-age pillows on the market, which I didn’t try, but might be interesting. One example: Nurse Jamie Beauty Bear Age Delay Pillow.
Silk pillow cases are great for skin and hair
Decollette bra and pads
Yeah. That too. My chest is a wrinkle wonderland if I don’t use my anti-aging bra. I use it for about five years and I can’t live without it. It has it’s own post with before and after photos: La Decollette anti-aging bra.
Another option are anti-aging silicone pads that you stick on your chest during sleeping. They are basically larger patches that physically prevent wrinkling. At the time I was looking for a solution I considered them too, but I settled for the cheaper and more sustainable solution – the bra. Nevertheless, pads can be more effective and more comfortable for some. I think the most known are the SilcSkin pads, but there are many other similar options – just google up »anti-wrinkle pads« or »decollette pads«.
La Decollette anti-aging bras prevent wrinkles on your chest
Turn your back
… to wrinkles. Sleeping on your back is the best and cheapest solution! If you can handle it. I just can’t. I’ve tried and didn’t get any proper sleep, so here I am, with all these funny props. But you might succeed, so give it a go. Maybe you just need an anti-aging pillow that helps you sleep on your back or you’ll find some other tricks, that will help you become a princess sleeper. I’m just a 100% troll.
If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask! Any thoughts? A joke? Shoot!
One 100% troll