Most people own good products and apply them in an order that quietly wastes half of them. It is the least glamorous part of skincare and the part that makes the largest difference, because a serum applied over a moisturiser is a serum that mostly sits on top of a moisturiser.
There is one rule underneath all of it.
Thin to thick, water to oil
Skincare products are formulated to sit in a particular position in a stack. Lightweight, water-based formulas are built to sink in. Heavier, oil-based ones are built to seal. Put the sealing layer down first and everything after it has nowhere to go.
So: thinnest texture first, thickest last. In practice that is almost always cleanser, then water-based serum, then cream, then oil or SPF.
The morning routine
1. Cleanse
Overnight your skin produces oil and sheds cells. A short morning cleanse clears that so the rest of the routine can reach skin rather than residue. It does not need to be aggressive — a gel cleanser like our Radiant Glow Facial Wash for twenty seconds is enough.
The test of a cleanser is how your face feels five minutes later. Tight means it took too much.
2. Serum, on damp skin
This is the step doing the actual work, and the one most affected by order. Apply it while your skin is still slightly damp from rinsing — water helps carry water-soluble actives in.
In the morning, reach for something that supports the barrier and evens tone through the day. Niacinamide is the workhorse here; our Exosome & Niacinamide Serum pairs it with hyaluronic acid and a low level of lactic acid.
3. Moisturiser
Its job is to hold everything underneath it in place and stop water evaporating off the surface. Sweep upwards and outwards, and take it down the neck — the part everyone forgets until it is the part that shows.
4. Eye cream
Eye cream goes near the end, not the beginning. The skin around the eye is the thinnest on the body and does not need anything driven into it aggressively. Tap it around the orbital bone with your ring finger, which is the weakest finger and therefore the least likely to drag.
5. SPF, last, every day
Sunscreen is the final step of the morning, over everything else, and it is the one that determines what your skin looks like in ten years. Nothing else in the routine comes close.
Use more than feels natural — roughly two finger-lengths for face and neck. Most people apply about a quarter of the amount sunscreen is tested at, which turns an SPF30 into something closer to an SPF8.
The evening routine
The same order, with two changes.
First, cleanse properly. In the morning you are removing oil; at night you are removing sunscreen, make-up and a day's worth of city air. If you wear heavy SPF or make-up, cleanse twice — once to break it down, once to actually clean.
Second, this is where treatment actives belong. Retinol and its alternatives are best at night, partly out of habit and partly because there is no sunscreen competing for the same surface. Our Retinol Alternative Serum is gentle enough to use morning or night, but night is the simpler habit to keep.
Then moisturiser, then eye cream. No SPF, obviously.
Where the extras fit
Masks go after cleansing and before serum, once or twice a week. A clay mask like our Clay Mask for Pores and Blackheads should come off before it fully dries and cracks — five to ten minutes, then rinse, then carry on with the normal routine.
Exfoliants go straight after cleansing. Do not stack them with a retinol alternative on the same night when you are starting out.
Face oils and body oil go last, because oil seals. Our Omega 6-9 Body Oil works best applied to damp skin straight out of the shower, for exactly the same reason serum works best on damp skin — it traps the water that is already there.
How long to wait between steps
Less time than the internet suggests. Thirty seconds, or simply until a layer stops feeling wet, is enough. The commonly repeated advice to wait several minutes between every step is one of the main reasons people abandon routines.
The short version
- Cleanse
- Serum, on damp skin
- Moisturiser
- Eye cream
- SPF (mornings only)
Five steps, about three minutes, the same order every time. Consistency beats complexity every single time — a routine you follow for a year will always outperform a better routine you abandon in March.
If you would rather not assemble it piece by piece, The Glow Ritual Box is the cleanse–treat–moisturise core in one box, and The Morning Ritual adds the SPF step most routines skip.