SilkSkin: Silk pillowcase

I remember hinting, a lot, for my parents to gift me a silk pillowcase years ago. The potential wonders to the skin had been sold to me, just the price was the limit. But I'm a grown-up now and I decided that considering I spend at least 6 hours a night sleeping, investing in bed-time makes sense.

Incorporating a pillowcase into my beauty regime appeals to the lazy side of me that seems to be breaking out more and more. It is a no-effort-required step: place head on pillow and sleep.

Using the pillowcase is actually meant to help your existing beauty products to work better too mostly by not rubbing off onto the pillow, and since silk is meant to prevent skin from drying out, you should need to use less products too.

The other benefits of silk are:

• Hypoallergenic (good for allergy sufferers) 
• Beneficial for those with eczema 
• There are no chemicals or dyes which can dry skin out, and leave it in poor condition – Less hair frizz 
• Assists in reducing hair loss 
• Cleaner bedding (house and dust mites don’t live in silk!) 
• Less frizz and hair breakage with movement in the night 
• Anti-ageing 
• Skin can breathe at night and loses less moisture. 

I won't address all of these, but here is what I have noticed. My face is not puffy in the mornings. I don't know if this is because of the last point about skin breathing, but I don't feel like I look half as rough in the mornings than I used to. My skin also feels much smoother, not just first thing in the morning, but overall. I used to have a slightly rough texture to my skin if I didn't use Liquid Gold or exfoliate, but I don't have that problem any more. And finally, my hair isn't frizzy in the morning, and I don't have those annoying knots at the nape of my neck.

I have to say that even without any of the above benefits, this is a supremely comfortable way to sleep. The pillow stays cool, and living in a hot climate I appreciate this a lot.

The Silkskin pillow costs £39, is stocked by major retailers such as Harvey Nichols and House of Fraser. I purchased mine as a double-pack from Beauty Bay (the husband wanted in on the action too) and you make a tiny saving this way.

There are a few things worth noting: being silk the cases do require a little more care than regular bed sheets when it comes to washing. I have purchased a specialty silk washing detergent and I use the delicates cycle in the wash, then leave the cases to air dry. Also there is no choice of colours (at least not from SilkSkin) and this is because there’s no dye in them, which makes it a purer product. Finally, if you google silk pillows there are hundreds of choices, and I am not sure I fully understand the differences for the most part. I believe they are similar to thread count options etc, but because I didn't want to spend that much time doing research I opted for SilkSkin knowing that they are offering what is meant to be best for what I want.

Tempted? I've tempted myself to buy a spare set actually. The care routine has disrupted my life a little, I practically sit by the washing machine as they wash now, fingers crossed nothing bad happens to them and then wait for them to dry so I don't have to go one night without using them.

This could become a real problem.