A: Your skin, like you, needs to "breathe." Sleep is when our minds and bodies are rejuvenated. Hair and nails grow more quickly during these hours than at any other time of the day. Your skin needs to be free of products which will simply block your pores and inevitably cause breakouts. Consider this: If a patch to help stop smoking can be absorbed through your skin, then so can your makeup!

Moreover, it is before bed when you should give special attention to thoroughly cleansing your skin from the day's grime and oil build-up and use products which will leave you with a soft, firm, wrinkle-free, luminous complexion in the morning. After cleansing and toning, choose a skin care regimen (or assorted products) which works for you and stay with it. Read the ingredients; items with alpha-hydroxy components (vegetable and fruit acids) will help your own skin to renew itself, ridding itself of dead cells. Thus, you won't awake with clogged pores and troubled skin, but a wide-awake, ready-to-paint "canvas" for the next day.