Baseline Skincare Regimen (for Minimalists and Beginners)
This baseline 4-step skin care routine will make a huge impact in keeping your skin soft, clear, and firm for years to come.
July 09, 2024
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The baseline skincare routine for men is music to many ears: Not only is it perfect for minimalists, but this simplified routine is also a great entry point for skincare rookies, as well as anyone on a budget. This foundational routine contains just four steps, which can even be combined into 2 or 3 steps, and (key to that word “foundational”) any additional products or steps you choose to add will use this baseline routine as framework.
But perhaps best of all, this easy skin care routine will do about 90% of what any highly expensive regimen does. (I will also focus this article on low-cost, high-performance products that are a terrific value.)
Before I get into the steps, there’s some important framework to consider: You should first and foremost understand what your skin’s needs are. This typically depends on how oily or dry your skin may be, as well as how prone to acne or sensitivity you are. So, with all of the regimen recommendations below, you need to purchase products that satisfy your skin type and goals. (And adjust hygiene and diet around them, too.) I will limit product recommendations in this article; please refer to the respective article(s) that satisfy more nuanced needs. (I will suggest some products that simplify the baseline even further, though, all the way down to 2 or 3 steps, period.)
Related Articles:
OILY SKIN // DRY SKIN // ACNE-PRONE SKIN // SENSITIVE SKIN
People with “normal” or combination dry/oily skin can take what they need from the above articles. (I hope to have dedicated ones for ya soon!)
Adding Complexity Later On
Again, this article covers the baseline routine, which can be added to, or left alone. If you choose to, you can add a serum or toner or mask or eye cream or retinoid (and I sure do endorse the retinoid above all, for smoother, clearer, and firmer results). But start with the below basics, build the actual habit, and then see what feels lacking. It’s often easy to combine targeted treatments into the baseline products, too, so long as you choose key active ingredients and smartly made formulas that complement your skin and help you achieve your goals.
Before we get into that routine, let’s answer one pressing question that many skincare rookies might have…
Why Is Skin Care Important?
Your skin protects your entire body, acting like a giant shield against toxins like pollution and UV rays. Keeping it fortified and strong will of course benefit your overall health, but this will specifically prolong skin’s resilient nature and youthful appearance (truth be told, those two things tend to go hand in hand).
It also just feels good to have soft, strong, supple skin—not to mention, to prevent things like acne, hyperpigmentation, and even skin cancer.
Think of skin care like fitness for your skin. It’s never ending, and there is no finish line, just like everything else that involves your body’s health. Results are only seen and felt with continued dedication, and sometimes the results are invisible, since you’re actually just preventing the alternative from occurring. It’s a forever game, just like fitness. So stick with skincare, and start with a baseline regimen to ensure that you build a sustainable habit first and foremost!
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The Essential Baseline Skin Care Routine for Men
Here are the most important steps that men (and everyone!) should have in their skincare routine, as a baseline.
1. Cleanser
Washing your face is more than just a simple splash of water. A proper cleanser not only flushes away grime and sebum (oil) buildup, but also resets the canvas upon which you apply other products. You’ll do this twice a day; as the first step in your regimen, when you wake up as well as before bed.
2. Exfoliant
Exfoliation is the process of proactively removing dead cells from your skin’s surface. This involves taking a physical scrub or a chemical exfoliant. In turn, this prevents roughness, dullness, and perhaps best of all, it minimizes the chances of those dead cells getting trapped in your pores, which would lead to breakouts.
Some exfoliating ingredients, namely salicylic acid, can seep into the pores too, to help flush out excess sebum and dead skin cells that get trapped inside. (Salicylic acid is essential for acne-prone and oily skinned folks.)
Ideally, you would exfoliate at least twice weekly, but different products will advise you otherwise based on their intensity. A low-grade exfoliating face wash might be safe for twice-daily use, whereas a gritty scrub or highly aggressive chemical exfoliant should only be used every few days. The type of product you choose will dictate when you use it, too.
Some people will get a daily-use cleanser with light chemical exfoliating ingredients—this is great because it can combine two steps into one. But if you’ve got a standalone exfoliant, use it after cleansing.
3. Moisturizer
A moisturizer will nourish your skin with hydrating and conditioning ingredients, but it also acts as a defense against moisture loss and outside environmental threats (like toxins/free radicals) which can expedite skin degradation and accelerate visual signs of aging.
Some people like using a lightweight moisturizer in the daytime and a heavier one at night, while others may switch up their product between summer and winter. (A heavier moisturizer, like a night cream, will often double down on nourishment and withstand an overnight in an air-conditioned or seasonally dry room. No, you don’t need a separate daytime moisturizer and night cream, but it’s a nice possibility, especially if your daytime moisturizer utilizes SPF… more on that ingredient below.)
If you keep a minimal regimen but want to add active nourishing or hydrating ingredients into the fold, then a moisturizer is your best chance (namely, hyaluronic acid, squalane, and niacinamide).
Moisturizer is usually the last step in a regimen, as it seals off the skin with its defensive “shield”. However, the next step can (and should be) be the final layer in the mornings.
4. SPF
Sun protection is the difference between an OK regimen and a fantastic one. While things like serums and retinol can elevate you to “advanced” status and target specific issues (acne, aging, texture, etc), SPF can thwart the biggest offenders to your skin’s youthful resilience: UV rays. Think of SPF as proactive skincare, versus reactive. It’s much easier and less expensive to be proactive, then to try and correct all of these problems later on.
Apply an SPF every morning, regardless of how much time you’ll spend outdoors. Make sure it’s SPF 30 at a minimum (fair skinned or sensitive folks should upgrade to SPF 50+), and consider buying an SPF moisturizer if you want to combine it with your morning hydration.
Or, if you want to use the same moisturizer morning and night, then get a non-SPF facial moisturizer that wears light and won’t clog your pores. You can apply a facial sunscreen over it during the daytime.
Even Simpler Yet: How to Do Skincare in 2 or 3 Steps
It is possible to have a 2-step skincare routine both morning and night, but with 3 different products. Here are the products to use in order to achieve that level of skincare minimalism.
Product 1: Exfoliating Cleanser
First, you can combine your face wash and exfoliant together, by getting a daily cleanser with alpha hydroxy acids and/or salicylic acid, like Cetaphil’s Creamy Cleanser for Sensitive Skin. (If it’s formulated for sensitive skin, it will work for just about everyone.)
It has 2% salicylic acid which will help keep skin clear even if acne isn’t a concern; it’s gentle on all skin types too, since it is engineered for the most sensitive among us.
If you have dry skin, you could also swap in a cleanser with polyhydroxy acid (PHA) to buff away surface level cell buildup without flushing out the pores. Hero’s Clear Collective Cleanser makes a terrific low-cost baseline pick here. (It’s also kind on sensitive skin, like most PHA cleansers.)
Use your gentle cleanser morning and night, unless you’re feeling overly dry; then the nighttime wash will be more important.
Product 2: Morning Moisturizer + SPF
Secondly, you can condense your daytime moisturizing and SPF into one step as well, with an SPF-packed moisturizer, like Cardon’s SPF 30 moisturizer. You might need a proper facial sunscreen for days spent out in the sun, but the SPF moisturizer is perfect for most days of the week and casual sun exposure.
Product 3: Evening Moisturizer with Actives
For the evening, you use a standalone night cream, ideally with active ingredients like retinol to help improve complex and keep skin firm. Try Olay Regenerist Retinol Moisturizer for a perfect low-cost, high-function pick. (Retinol is basically an exfoliant too, since it accelerates cellular regeneration and improves cell turnover.)
Don’t Forget to Consider Your Skin Type
I can’t stress this enough: You need to factor in your skin’s specific needs when choosing products and building out a regimen. Especially if your skin is oily, dry, sensitive, or acne-prone; these concerns merit using targeted active ingredients (and avoiding certain ingredients, too) so that your skin remains as balanced and untroubled as possible.
And with a baseline routine in place—as well as an awareness for what your skin type is and what your skin goals entail—then you can start considering additional steps in your routine, like retinol, serum, and masks.
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