A plain-language starting point for a basic face-care routine. Not medical advice — and not a pitch: nothing in it requires buying anything.
Why this guide exists
This guide is free, and it works with whatever products you already own. Anders sells a wash and a moisturizer; nothing below depends on you buying either.
This guide exists because a lot of the confusion around skincare has nothing to do with ingredients. It's simpler than that — people own two or three products and aren't sure what order to put them on in, or whether the thing sitting in their bathroom was ever meant for a face in the first place. That's the part this guide tries to help with.
What "a routine" actually means
Strip away the marketing, and a routine is just a small number of things, done in a consistent order, repeated often enough that you stop having to think about it. That's the whole idea. It isn't a hobby, a wall chart, or a personality trait.
Two things worth keeping in mind:
- Fewer steps done consistently beats more steps done occasionally. A three-step routine you actually do every day does more for you than an eight-step routine you do twice a week.
- It's easier to add than to walk back. Starting minimal and adding one new thing at a time, on purpose, is more manageable than starting complicated and then trying to work out which of six products is doing what.
The order most routines follow
Across brands and price points, most face routines follow roughly the same shape:
- Cleanser. Removes dirt, oil, sweat, and the day's buildup so you're starting from a clean surface. Usually first, morning and night.
- Active step (optional). Anything targeted — a serum, an acid, a spot product. This step is optional, and it's the one people most often overdo. More on that below.
- Moisturizer. Goes on after cleansing, and after any active step, to help the skin's surface feel less tight or dry.
- Sunscreen (mornings only). The last step in a morning routine, applied on top of everything else, on any skin that's going to see daylight.
That's the whole shape. Night routines usually drop the sunscreen step and stop after moisturizer.
Morning vs. night, in short
Morning: cleanser → active step (if you use one) → moisturizer → sunscreen.
Night: cleanser → active step (if you use one) → moisturizer.
The order matters more than the number of products. Lighter, water-based steps generally go on before heavier ones, and sunscreen goes last because it's meant to sit on top of everything else.
How many steps is enough?
This is the question that trips people up most, and there isn't one right answer — it depends on your skin, your patience, and how much time you actually want to spend on this. A few things we can say honestly:
- If you're already wondering whether you're doing too much, that's usually a sign to simplify, not a sign to add one more product to fix it.
- A routine that's easy to repeat is more useful to you than one that's theoretically ideal but that you skip half the time.
- If you've already bought products and aren't sure how to use them, you don't need to throw anything out to start over. Work out where each one actually fits in the order above — cleanser, active step, moisturizer, sunscreen — before deciding what, if anything, to drop.
Face products vs. body products
This one comes up constantly: is it fine to use body wash on your face, or a face product somewhere else on your body? As a general rule, products labeled for the face and products labeled for the body are formulated differently — facial skin is thinner, more exposed, and behaves differently than skin elsewhere on the body. When a label specifies "face" or "body," take that as a reasonable starting point for where it belongs, not as marketing noise.
Adding something new
Whenever you introduce a new product — especially anything with an active ingredient — a few habits are worth building:
- Add one thing at a time. If you change three products at once and something reacts, you won't know which one was responsible.
- Give it real time before judging. A few days usually isn't long enough to tell whether something is working for you or not, in either direction.
- Pay attention to how your skin responds, and stop using something if it causes ongoing redness, stinging, or irritation.
When to check in with a professional
This guide is general education, not a diagnosis or an individual recommendation, and it's not a substitute for a licensed professional. If you're dealing with persistent or severe skin concerns, ongoing discomfort, or anything that seems to be getting worse rather than better, that's a conversation for a dermatologist or a licensed esthetician — not something a guide like this one can resolve for you.
What this guide is not
It's not a product pitch. Anders sells two products, and this guide works fine without them. It's not tailored to your specific skin; it's the same general starting point offered to anyone who wants one. And it isn't the last word: skin is genuinely individual, and what works well as part of one person's routine doesn't necessarily work the same way for someone else's. We'd rather say that plainly than pretend otherwise.
More plain-language guides live on the Learn blog.