Building a dermatologist-approved skincare routine

Five products, in the right order, will outperform a shelf of twenty. Start here.

Walk into any pharmacy and you’ll find a hundred products promising transformation. The uncomfortable truth from a dermatologist’s chair: most of them are optional. Five products, chosen well and used in the right order, will outperform a shelf of twenty.

The only five steps that matter

Morning: a gentle cleanser, an antioxidant serum (vitamin C remains the best-studied), a moisturiser suited to your skin type, and sunscreen — SPF 50, broad spectrum, every single day. Evening: cleanse, then a retinoid, then moisturiser. That’s the entire skeleton. Everything else — niacinamide, peptides, exfoliating acids — is a refinement, not a requirement.

Order matters more than brand. Thinnest to thickest is the rule: watery serums before creams, creams before oils, sunscreen always last. And introduce one new active at a time, two weeks apart, so that if your skin objects you know exactly what to blame.

“Consistency beats intensity. A modest routine done daily outperforms an ambitious one done occasionally.”

What we’d skip

Harsh physical scrubs, alcohol-heavy toners, and DIY acids from the internet. Chennai’s heat and humidity already stress the skin barrier; stripping it further invites the pigmentation and breakouts you’re trying to prevent.

If your concerns go beyond what a routine can address — stubborn pigmentation, acne scarring, early laxity — that’s where clinical treatments earn their place. But they work best on skin that’s already well cared for. Build the foundation first; we can help with the rest.