A night cream is not a day cream with a heavier texture. It is the product you apply to skin that will spend eight hours with nothing else on it — no sunscreen, no makeup, no wind. That is the one window where a formula gets uninterrupted contact, and it is why the choice is worth thinking about.
You do not need a night cream and a day cream. If your day moisturiser is comfortable and you are wearing sunscreen separately, using the same one at night is a perfectly sound routine. The case for a separate night cream is that it can be richer and can carry ingredients you would rather not wear under sun.
Apply it last. Whatever else is in your routine — toner, serum, oil — the cream goes on top, because its job includes slowing the water loss from everything underneath it.
