Last year, Pharrell Williams told Dazed his skincare routine involved exfoliating like a “narcissistic madman” (he’s reportedly a big fan of brand Glytone) and now Frank Ocean has jumped into the men’s skincare conversation.
“I feel like men just go to sleep, they may wash their face or they don’t even bother—they go to sleep with the day face on,” Frank Ocean told GQ in his recent cover interview, dragging his gender for their less than scrupulous skin care routines.
Less focused on the morning, for Ocean, the real skin care happens in the evenings, right when you’re warm in bed watching Netflix and the bathroom seems real far away.
“You really need to do a gentle wash and put a night moisturizer on,” Ocean advises. “I need the night cream because when I wake up I feel very beautiful, moisturized and ready to have people making eye contact with me,” and with that, we’re sold. If night creams make Frank Ocean wake up feeling beautiful, no, very beautiful, then let’s get the best there is. Frank’s recommendation is anything with retinol in it – reportedly the best anti-wrinkle cream you can get without a medical professional.
Frank’s top tip? “You can’t have the retinol in your creams in the day because it makes you more sun-sensitive, so you wanna throw that on at night.”
While he seems to be specifically getting at men to look after their skin better, we could all probably take this advice on board – get up and let one of these retinol-infused products work their magic on your skin while you sleep. Here are our top retinol picks and remember, readers, if you are wearing retinol in the day, always make sure to put on sunscreen!