What a skincare routine actually needs

A consultant dermatologist walks us through the short list of ingredients with real evidence behind them, and explains why the ten-step routine is mostly a retail strategy.

The honest version of a skincare routine is shorter than the industry would like. Sunscreen, a retinoid if your skin tolerates one, and something to manage barrier function. Most of what sits between those three products in a bathroom cabinet is doing very little, and some of it is actively working against the rest. Our guest is careful not to be dismissive. Pleasure matters, and a texture someone enjoys is a product they will actually use, which counts for more than a superior formulation abandoned after a fortnight. The problem is not that people enjoy their routines. It is that the marketing has trained buyers to read complexity as efficacy. We spend a while on actives, and specifically on the habit of layering several at once. The interactions are real, the irritation is common, and the recovery time is longer than most people expect.

The section on sunscreen is the one worth replaying. Daily use is the single intervention with the strongest evidence behind it for both ageing and skin cancer risk, and it remains the step people skip first when a routine gets trimmed. Formulation has improved enormously, which removes most of the old excuses about texture and cast. On cost, our guest is blunt. Above a fairly low threshold the price of a product tells you about packaging, distribution and brand rather than what it will do for your skin. There are excellent retinoids and excellent sunscreens available cheaply, and paying more mainly buys a nicer experience. We finish with the question she gets asked most: how long before anything works. The answer is twelve weeks for most actives, which is roughly eleven weeks longer than the average person gives a new product before deciding it has failed.