Beauty review: Emma Lewisham’s Supernatural Sleeping Mask

While it may take a little coffee to get my brain going in the morning, one thing I’ve never worried about is my skin’s ability to rest and recover, in spite of any nocturnal interruptions. I’ve been writing about beauty for more than 20 years, and the one take-home mantra from every night-cream launch I’ve attended has been this: your skin repairs itself at night. The get-out-of-jail-free card of the beauty industry is the knowledge that any product you use in the evening comes with an inbuilt superpower, something we make ourselves, for free. Sleep.
While there’s still much we don’t know about how our body recharges at night, there have been studies that show our cells use our sleep time to repair themselves. Most of that restoration seems to occur within a small and precise window of opportunity from 10pm to 2am. The first third of our sleep is suggested to be the most helpful due to a sharp increase in growth hormone, which is responsible for skin-cell reproduction and regeneration.
While we sleep our skin actively works to repair damage that has accumulated through the day, while also absorbing more actives. Chronic poor sleep is associated with accelerated skin ageing and less effective barrier function. In short, sleep is crucial to overall skin health – and rest has never been more important.

Lara Worthington, photographed in New York exclusively for Emma Lewisham

This is where a high performance sleep is an essential in your arsenal, doing all the hard work while you just get do the sleep part, waking up to glowing skin. That is exactly what you get when you layer on the latest release from New Zealand beauty powerhouse, Emma Lewisham, who have finally added a mask to their high-performance Supernatural range, the Sleeping Mask.
Three years in the making, the Supernatural Sleeping Mask comes from a deep understanding of the skin’s aforementioned own nocturnal activity, further optimising it with 22 hard-working active ingredients that act synergistically to deliver exceptional results. And naturally many those ingredients are super unique and exciting to a beauty nerd like me, beginning with Gardenia Jasminoide extracts from the evergreen plant. Topically applied, the extract enhances the skin’s natural overnight repair system by binding to melatonin receptors. Melatonin is the sleep hormone, which diminishes as we age and subsequently decreases the ability of the skin to perform regenerative overnight processes. While we sleep, our skin works to remove toxins and repair the skin barrier, build collagen synthesis and stimulate cell turnover. Gardenia Jasminoide extracts help support this process for more dramatic results come morning. The extract contains ferulic acid, which is a natural antioxidant to help brighten and offer skin protection. It targets sensitised skin, helping reduce the look of red and dehydrated skin and improving skin flaking and scaliness. This in particular got me really excited about trialling this release, as I often feel like I’m in an endless battle with on/off redness and sensitivity.

The Sleeping Mask is also formulated with specialised lipopeptides, antioxidants, and energy enhancing molecules, creating a dual-action effect that both increases the production of collagen and elastin (love that), while also decreasing its degradation (love that even more). The end-to-end system restores the skin’s structure, resulting in a plump, elastic, and firm complexion.
Next, the Sleeping Mask shares a triple-action approach to hydration with my all-time fave from the brand, Supernatural Crème. I’ve been using the latter day and night during the winter months when my skin needs all the help it can get, and now I get to swap it out a couple times a week with the new mask. The synergistic hydrating complex enhances moisture and increases its retention, leaving the skin plump and with a healthy glow that I cannot get enough of. Two weights of hyaluronic acid provide both deep and surface hydration, while the skin’s own production of this moisture molecule is enhanced by a bio-active hydration hero with a small molecular size that promotes profound penetration to deliver powerful hydration action deep into the epidermis.
Lastly, the final flourish comes from specialised plant extracts that deliver calm, bright, and ultra-conditioned skin. Think: alpha hydroxy acids from the Hibiscus sabdariffa flower to gently dissolve the glue that cements dead skin cells together to reveal the fresh and radiant cells underneath, and Edelweiss stem cells, which promote skin suppleness and restore the appearance of firm skin.
So there you have it! I’ve been using this marvel two to three times a week at night in place of my fave Emma Lewisham Supernatural Crème, and I can’t get enough. My dry winter skin literally soaks it in, and that morning glow is seriously addictive. And if all of that ingredient info left you feeling a little blinded by science, no problem. Let's just say it's amazing, and does what it says on the jar!
The Emma Lewisham Supernatural Sleeping Mask is available now, and comes very highly recommended.