A routine that works is usually shorter than the one people arrive with. Start here, run it for four weeks without changing anything, and only then decide what is missing.
1. Cleanse
Morning and night, lukewarm water, twenty seconds. If your skin feels tight afterwards, the cleanser is the problem, not the moisturiser.
2. Hydrate and treat
Toner onto damp skin, then one serum. One. Adding a second active is how a routine stops working and nobody can say which product caused it.
3. Moisturise
The step most people under-do. A humectant with nothing on top of it will lose its water to the air within the hour.
4. Protect
Sunscreen every morning, two finger-lengths, reapplied if you are outdoors. Nothing else in the routine performs as well without it.
Adding an active
Once those four steps are comfortable for a month, introduce one active on alternate evenings and give it two weeks to answer. If skin stings, flakes or flushes, stop that product rather than adding something to soothe it.
This is general guidance, not medical advice. Anyone with a diagnosed skin condition or an active prescription treatment should talk to their clinician before changing a routine.