How to Build a Routine You Will Actually Keep

The best routine is not the most complete one. It is the one you still follow in week six.

Start with two products

A cleanser and a moisturiser. That is a legitimate routine, and it outperforms a ten step regime abandoned after a fortnight.

Add one thing at a time

Give each addition at least a week. If your skin reacts and you have introduced three products in three days, you have no way to identify the cause and will usually abandon all three.

Order matters more than count

Thinnest to thickest, water before oil. A serum applied over a cream is largely wasted, no matter how good the serum is.

Judge it at six weeks

Comfort changes in days. Anything structural, including texture and the look of fine lines, follows the skin cell cycle and takes considerably longer. Most people quit at week three.

The short version

Hydration is the step most routines under-serve and the one that changes how skin feels fastest. If you take one thing from this page, apply your hydrating products to damp skin and seal them with something occlusive, every single day.