Beauty Routine Calendar: Plan Your Care Schedule
Choose how often you exfoliate, use retinol, wash your hair, mask, do your nails and remove body hair to get a four-week calendar that spaces the…
Skincare Routine Builder: Plan Your Daily Routine
Choose your skin type, main concern and experience, and get a morning and evening skincare routine in the right order, with a weekly plan for treatment nights.
The skincare routine builder lays out a short morning routine and a short evening routine for your skin type. If you have a main concern, it adds one treatment and tells you on which nights of the week to use it.
What this tool does
The builder follows fixed rules. Your skin type chooses the texture of the cleanser, moisturizer and sunscreen. Your main concern chooses one treatment. Your experience and sensitivity decide how many nights a week that treatment appears. It does not recommend brands or products.
What you enter
| Field | Choices |
|---|---|
| Skin type | Normal, dry, oily or combination |
| Main concern | No particular concern, breakouts and clogged pores, dryness or tightness, dark marks or uneven tone, fine lines or rough texture |
| Experience | New to treatment products, or already using them without problems |
| Size of routine | Basic, or fuller with one or two extra steps |
| Sensitive skin | A box to tick if your skin stings or turns red easily |
If you are not sure of your skin type, take the Skin Type Quiz first.
How the routine is worked out
- Morning: cleanse, moisturize and apply a broad-spectrum sunscreen of SPF 30 or higher. For dryness, a hydrating serum is added before the moisturizer. In the fuller routine, a vitamin C serum is added for uneven tone or fine lines.
- Evening: cleanse, apply the treatment on treatment nights, and moisturize. The fuller routine starts with a makeup-removing step.
- Treatment: for breakouts, one acne product (salicylic acid, benzoyl peroxide or adapalene). For uneven tone, azelaic acid or niacinamide. For fine lines, a low-strength retinol.
- Treatment nights: three a week, with one fewer if you are new to treatments and one fewer if your skin is sensitive, and never fewer than one. One night falls on Monday. Two fall on Monday and Thursday. Three fall on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
For sensitive skin, the builder asks for fragrance-free products and a fragrance-free mineral sunscreen.
Messages you may see
Each of the four lists needs a choice. If one is missing, you will see a message under it, such as "Choose your skin type." or "Choose the size of routine you want." Nothing is calculated until all four are chosen.
How to use it
- Choose your skin type and your main concern.
- Say how experienced you are with treatment products, and choose the size of routine.
- Tick the box if your skin is sensitive.
- Select "Build my routine", and read the morning steps, the evening steps and the weekly table.
Worked example
Oily skin, breakouts and clogged pores, new to treatment products, basic routine, not sensitive:
- Morning: cleanse with a gentle gel cleanser, moisturize with an oil-free gel or light lotion, and finish with a fluid or gel sunscreen of SPF 30 or higher.
- Evening: cleanse, apply one acne product on treatment nights only, and moisturize with a light, oil-free lotion.
- Treatment nights: two, on Monday and Thursday. After four weeks without irritation, you can add one more.
Limits and assumptions
The plan is general information, not personal medical advice. It assumes ordinary, healthy skin and products used as their labels direct. Retinol and adapalene are not advised in pregnancy unless a doctor says otherwise. Patch test new products, add one at a time, and see How to Add New Products to Your Skincare Routine for how to do that. Deep, painful or scarring acne needs a doctor or dermatologist.
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Frequently asked questions
How many steps does a skincare routine need?
Three in the morning: cleanser, moisturizer and sunscreen. In the evening, cleanser and moisturizer, with one treatment if you have a concern. More steps are optional.
Why does the builder add only one treatment?
Starting several active products together makes irritation more likely, and you cannot tell which one caused it. One treatment, used on a few nights a week, is easier to judge.
When can I use the treatment more often?
After about four weeks without redness, stinging or peeling, add one night. If your skin becomes irritated, go back to the earlier number of nights.