What happens when you sleep in make-up

We’ll put our hands up and admit that we’ve been guilty of doing this in the past.

You come home from a night out, eat ALL the food and all you want to do is get straight into your inviting, comfy bed.

However you know that you still have a full face of make-up on and really, you should get yourself into the bathroom and wash it off before it ruins your complexion and adds to your hangover the next day.

And while you may be cursing your contour palette and your fake eyelashes at that moment, it turns out it would have been worth spending those 30 minutes on your skincare routine, as the effects of leaving your make-up on overnight can be extremely negative.

According to Attn, collagen renewal stops, irritation can incur and worst of all, your crusty mascara can cause painful eye infections.

Collagen is needed to keep up looking fresh and youthful but this is halted by the presence of ‘free radicals’ on the skin.

Free radicals are the little particles from your make-up that latch onto your skin, refusing to let it breathe.

They can lead to unwanted wrinkles, clogged pores and dreaded breakouts.

“When free radicals sit on our skin at night, this can cause problems with cellular turnover since they break down collagen production in our skin,”medical aesthetician, Lauren Bound said.

“It’s important we give our skin a good wash to get rid of them and then a chance to breathe for the night.”

Zits can also form from the perfumes and dyes often found in make-up products so if you’re going to sleep in your full face, then make sure the make-up you’re using is hypoallergenic.

“If you know you aren’t the best at washing your face at night, at least make sure what you had on during the day isn’t going to be doing any further harm. Mineral makeup is generally free of toxic, pore clogging ingredients,” Lauren said.

If you do happen to conk out with your full face of make-up on, there are certain areas you should focus on cleaning as soon as you wake up.

“If you do fall asleep without washing your face, removing your eye makeup is the first critical step,” Dr. S Manjula Jegasothy MD of the Miami Skin Institute told InStyle.

“Many eyeshadows contain quartz and mica, which are highly irritating to eyelid skin and can concentrate in the fold, releasing dark particles into the eye for days later.”