Night Cream vs Day Cream, Honestly: Do You Really Need Both?

If you came here to buy: our Rich Anti-Age Night Cream (€62.40) is our richest night cream, for dry and mature skin, and the Ceramide Barrier Night Cream (€58.80) suits dry and normal skin. Both are fragranced and qualify for free shipping on their own. None of our day creams contains sunscreen, so in the morning add our SPF50 stick (€45.60).

Skincare shelves sell day creams and night creams in matching pairs, which suggests your skin needs two different products. It might, or it might not. We went through what the research says about skin at night, what actually separates the two kinds of cream, and when one is enough.

Night cream vs day cream: what is the difference?

In short: texture and intended use, not law. EU cosmetics law does not mention night or day creams at all. In practice, a night cream is usually richer, with more butters, oils and waxes to slow water loss for eight hours, and a day cream is lighter, so it sits well under sunscreen and make-up. Some day creams also contain sunscreen; none of ours do.

What actually happens to your skin at night?

Less than the marketing suggests, and the studies do not all agree. In a 1998 study, researchers measured 16 people every two hours for a day and found daily rhythms in water loss through the skin, skin pH and temperature; they concluded that skin is more permeable in the evening and at night than in the morning. A 2000 study by the cosmetics company Shiseido found that the barrier recovered more slowly from damage between 8 and 11 pm, and that water loss peaked at around 3 am.

But a 2024 study of 12 people who measured their own forearm skin every two hours from 8 am to midnight found no significant change in hydration or water loss across the day. The fair reading: skin may lose a little more water at night, which makes a richer cream at bedtime a sensible habit. Claims that skin does its repairing at night, and needs a special product for it, go well beyond the evidence.

Do you need a night cream?

In short: not necessarily. One moisturiser that suits your skin, used morning and evening, with sunscreen on top in the morning, is enough for many people. A second, richer cream at night is worth it if your skin is dry, feels tight by bedtime, or gets drier in winter.

Is a night cream necessary for oily skin? Usually not. If your skin is oily, a rich night cream can feel heavy; one light moisturiser twice a day does the job.

Can you use night cream during the day, or day cream at night?

• Night cream in the morning: yes, if your skin likes it and it does not feel heavy under sunscreen or make-up. Sunscreen still goes on top; our night creams contain none.
• Day cream at night: yes. If it contains sunscreen, there is nothing wrong with wearing it at night, but you are paying for protection you do not need in the dark.
• Night cream or moisturiser first? A night cream is a moisturiser, so you only need one at a time. A serum, if you use one, goes on before it.

Does collagen cream work?

In short: not by adding collagen to your skin. In 2000, researchers at the University of Amsterdam’s dermatology department argued what became known as the 500 dalton rule: molecules need to be smaller than about 500 daltons to pass the skin’s outer layer. Almost every substance known to cause skin allergies is below that size, and so is every drug designed to be absorbed through the skin. A collagen molecule is hundreds of times larger. Applied to the skin, it stays on the surface.

A cream labelled collagen can still moisturise, like any good cream, and that alone can make skin look smoother. What it cannot do is replace the collagen in your skin. That is why, in October 2026, we renamed our Collagen Anti-Age Night Cream to the Rich Anti-Age Night Cream: it never contained collagen, and the name claimed something it did not have. If firmer-looking skin is the goal, we went through the evidence for peptides and retinol alternatives separately.

What is in ours

• **Rich Anti-Age Night Cream (€62.40):** sunflower oil, cocoa butter, sunflower wax and shea butter near the top, with glycerin and sodium PCA. For dry and mature skin. Fragranced. No collagen, despite the old name, which may still appear on the bottle.
• **Ceramide Barrier Night Cream (€58.80):** cocoa butter, jojoba and sunflower oils and shea butter, with plant glycosphingolipids rather than a named ceramide; our skin barrier guide explains the difference. For dry and normal skin. Fragranced.
• **Light Moisturising Day Cream (€58.80):** aloe leaf juice, argan oil and glycerin in a lighter base. For normal and oily skin. Fragranced. No sunscreen.
• **Moisturising Day Cream (€50.40):** an everyday cream with jojoba oil and glycerin, for all skin types. Fragranced. No sunscreen.
• Fragrance-free: the Sensitive Skin Moisturiser (€58.80) for day or night, and the Nourishing Rich Cream (€58.80), whose sunflower oil, cocoa and shea butter base makes it a fragrance-free night cream in all but name.

Unopened products can be returned within 14 days, with the return postage on us.

Where to start

If your skin is normal or oily, one moisturiser such as the Light Moisturising Day Cream, morning and evening, with an SPF50 stick in the morning, is enough. If it is dry, add a richer cream at night: the Ceramide Barrier Night Cream, or the Rich Anti-Age Night Cream for dry, mature skin. All our moisturisers are in the moisturisers edit.

Two creams are a choice, not a rule. Buy the second one when your skin asks for it.

Products in this article

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Rich Anti-Age Night Cream

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Ceramide Barrier Night Cream

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Light Moisturising Day Cream

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