I've been getting so confused about what comes first and last. I see a variety of steps, all different from one another. I attached some examples of what I see. I'm not so sure if it's really necessary to use every product. I know some skincare influencers use like maybe 3 or 4 products to achieve their ideal skin care goal and some use extra products just for their skin too, to treat their skin.
Does it depend on the type of skin one has? Is it really necessary to use a bunch of products to achieve a certain skin care goal? I hope I make sense of this. I just don't want to keep buying products that won't contribute necessarily to my skincare goal or make me feel icky from how heavy some product feels when used.
I'm not so sure if there are certain steps we must follow even if we use 3-4 products for skin care. The whole step by step guide for skin care is confusing. :((
Thank you for this question, it is very confusing indeed and a lot of information around that I think is not helpful.
I am personally a big fan of a minimalistic skincare approach. This is how I can describe it:
There are only 3 things that any skincare routine truly needs (aka basics):
- broad spectrum sunscreen for the day time
- cleanser to use once a day at night to remove sunscreen and daily pollution (no double cleansing)
- moisturizer without SPF to support healthy skin barrier and keep it hydrated.
Then, we can add "targeted treatments" - products with actives that are specifically used to achieve a skin goal/ help with an issue. For example, you might want to use 2-3 products in addition to the basics to help reduce acne & clogged pores, 1-2 products if the goal is anti-aging or reducing hyperpigmentation. The more goals you have, the more actives you might want to use, but in any case there is a limit to how much the skin can take.
I strongly disagree that you "need a serum, mask, toner etc" in your routine. It is literally like saying you "need to eat soup". You need nutrition, and it can come in a format of a soup, stew, salad etc. The format doesn't matter, most important is what's inside.
In terms of the order of using products, I think overall it's less important than people often make it sound. There are some common-sense "hard rules" like: use sunscreen as the very last skincare step in the AM, and cleanser as the very first step at night. Otherwise, in most cases the order doesn't matter that much. Generally it's a good idea to use more watery, thin-textured products before the heavier one (so a serum before a moisturizer) - moistruizers and especially heavier ones and oils can slow down the absorption of actives in serums (but sometimes it's a good thing - for example, when you want to reduce a risk of irritation from a retinoid product for example). Between serums, I think you can use them pretty much in any order, they typically sink into skin within 10-30 sec and it doesn't matter much what comes next.