How to choose skincare that actually fits you
We sell some of what is named here
Routinae sells some of the products written about here, so read this the way you would read any shop’s opinion of its own shelves. Where we think a cheaper product does the same job we say so, and where the evidence is thin we say that too. Our buying standard is published so you can check the argument against it.
The short answer: pick for what your skin does, not for what you want it to do. Almost every expensive mistake in this category starts with the second one.
Skin that stings after cleansing is telling you something specific. So is skin that shines by noon, or feels tight in a heated room. Those are observations, and they narrow a shelf fast. “I want glass skin” is a mood, and it narrows nothing.
Four products decide almost everything
A cleanser, a moisturiser, a sunscreen, and at most one active. That is the whole structure. Everything else — essences, mists, second serums, sheet masks — is optional and should be treated as such, because each one you add is another suspect when something goes wrong.
People arrive here convinced their routine is too small. It is almost never too small.
Two questions that rule most of it out
Does it have a job my routine does not already do? If you own a moisturiser, a second one is not an upgrade. Most “must-have” products are a fifth thing doing the job of an existing second thing.
Would I still buy it if the front of the bottle were blank? Strip away the hero ingredient and the promise, then look at the texture, the price and the ingredient list. A lot of shelves empty out at this question.
What to ignore
Step counts. Country of origin as a quality claim. Before-and-afters. The number of actives named on the front. And any product sold mainly as part of a set — if it only works alongside four siblings, that is a business model, not a formula.
What actually takes time
Judgement. A product needs weeks, not days, before you can say anything about it, and you cannot judge two new things at once. Introduce one, wait, then decide. It is slower than the internet suggests, and it is the only method that produces an answer you can trust.
If you would rather answer a few questions than read four more of these, the routine builder does the narrowing for you. Our own filter for what gets on the shelf is on How we choose.