What is the right skincare routine order, morning and night?

The simplest skincare routine order is thinnest to thickest, with sunscreen last in the morning. Mornings: cleanse, toner if you use one, serum, moisturiser, sunscreen. Nights: take off sunscreen and makeup, cleanse, toner if you use one, serum or one active product, moisturiser. Every other skin care routine step is optional, and a short routine you keep up every day will do more for how your skin looks than a long one you skip on busy nights.

The morning routine, step by step

1. Cleanse. A gentle cleanser and lukewarm water. If your skin is dry and you cleansed well the night before, a splash of water can be enough. If you wake up shiny, as many people do in humid weather, use the cleanser.
2. Toner (optional). A few drops pressed in with your palms. Skip it if your routine already feels crowded.
3. Serum. Two or three drops, or about a pea-sized amount. Mornings suit a serum with vitamin C or niacinamide if you want your tone to look brighter and more even.
4. Moisturiser. A pea-sized to almond-sized amount. A gel or light lotion suits humid heat (some people with oily skin skip it in the morning altogether); a richer cream suits a cold winter or a long day in strong air-conditioning.
5. Sunscreen. The last skincare step, every morning, including cloudy days and office days near a window. Use more than feels natural: roughly two finger-lengths for face and neck. Makeup goes on top once it has settled.

The night routine, step by step

1. Take off sunscreen and makeup. A cleansing oil, balm or micellar water loosens them so your cleanser can do its job.
2. Cleanse. On days you wore sunscreen or makeup, follow step one with your gentle cleanser (this is the “double cleanse”). On a bare-skin day at home, one cleanse is enough.
3. Toner (optional). Same as the morning.
4. Serum or one active product. Night is where exfoliating acids and retinol usually go, because some of them make skin more sensitive to the sun. Use one active product per night. If you use both an acid and retinol, put them on different evenings rather than layering them. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, check with your doctor before using retinol.
5. Moisturiser. It can be a little richer than your morning one, since nothing has to sit on top of it. Strong air-conditioning dries skin out through the day, so a richer night cream makes sense even in a hot country.

Eye cream, if you use one, goes after serum and before moisturiser. Face oil, if you use one, goes last at night, either on its own or a drop mixed into your moisturiser.

How long to wait between layers

You do not need to wait several minutes between every step. A good rule: wait until the layer before no longer feels wet, usually thirty seconds to a minute. Two places deserve more time. Give your moisturiser a minute or two before sunscreen, and give sunscreen a few minutes before makeup. Rushing these, or rubbing hard, is what usually leads to pilling: little rolls of product that appear when layers have not settled. In humid weather everything takes longer to settle, so a cooler room helps.

Which steps you can skip, and which you cannot

The three steps worth keeping every day are a night cleanse, a moisturiser if your skin ever feels tight, and morning sunscreen. Toner, essence, mists, face oil, eye cream and sheet masks are extras: pleasant, but none of them is needed for a routine to work.

Signs your routine has grown too long:

• Products pill or feel like they are sitting on top of each other.
• Your skin stings when you apply something that never used to sting.
• Your face looks shiny but feels tight.
• You cannot tell which product is doing what.

If any of these sound familiar, go back to cleanser, moisturiser and sunscreen for a week or two, then add products back one at a time, a week or two apart. Give each one about four to six weeks before you decide how your skin looks with it.

What our advisers see

• Mind the gap after washing. A pattern our advisers see often: face washed, then a long shower, hair washed and blow-dried, and only then skincare, by which time skin feels tight or itchy. Aim to have your first layer on within about 15 minutes of washing. Washing your face last in the shower, or doing your skincare before you pick up the hairdryer, makes that easy.
• The half-hour check. Touch your face about 30 minutes after your routine. Still wet or tacky: use less next time. Soft and slightly moist, neither sticky nor tight: about right. Tight and dry again soon after: use a little more.
• Build in stages. Starting from scratch, our advisers suggest a first week of just cleanser, moisturiser and sunscreen; a few drops of a hydrating serum in week two; then, from week three and only if your skin still feels comfortable, a few drops of an exfoliating or brightening product.
• Comfort first. When several things are going on at once, such as redness alongside breakouts, uneven tone and visible pores, get your skin comfortable first, then look after the breakouts, and only then turn to tone and pores.
• Check the basics before blaming a product. No change after a month or two? Our advisers check three things first: a proper lather from the cleanser, a light touch (pressing, not rubbing), and enough product, especially moisturiser and sunscreen.

This week, try

• Write your current routine down in order and cross out any step that does the same job as another.
• Get your first layer on within about 15 minutes of washing your face.
• Do the half-hour check once, and adjust your amounts the next day.
• Measure out the full amount of sunscreen once, so you know what it looks like.