Step-by-Step Skin Care Routine: How Many Steps Do You Actually Need?

How many steps does a step-by-step skin care routine really need? Fewer than you've been told. Mine is three steps in the morning and two at night, always on damp skin, and my skin has never been calmer.

Too many products and the attention span of a gnat

In my teens, twenties and early thirties I had tricky skin, never happy and never calm. It was a long process till I got to a space of ease.

Here is the thing, I really do think I have tried everything. And while my generation never had influencers and a million-step routine, there were still too many steps to start with.

At my most product-heavy, I honestly lost count of how many products were on my bathroom shelf, for my face alone.

Did I use them all, every day, in the right order? Of course not. I have the attention span of a gnat (I've written about it in the routines we don't keep). Routine and I always part ways, and not always in a nice easy way.

Another reality that astounds me today: back then routines weren't well priced, but today it seems really just insane. I had to look up the current price, just to be sure, because the jump is so extreme.

For example, a product I bought way back when now costs close to R600. I am not even going to go into the excess and extreme packaging that seems to come with it.

Anyway, these days I do far less, and my skin is calmer. So why do we keep being told we need more? Let me show you.

Is a 10-step skincare routine necessary?

You've probably seen the 10-step and 12-step routines, often borrowed from Korean skincare: double cleanse, toner, essence, ampoule, serum, sheet mask, eye cream, moisturiser, sunscreen. Some people genuinely love the ritual, and if it calms and nourishes you and your skin is happy, then that is brilliant.

But is it an absolute necessity? No. Most skin just needs to be cleaned gently, kept hydrated, protected from the sun, and soothed when it's irritated.

That's three or four steps max, not ten. When I look at this, the main thing that always strikes me is that every extra step brings another 15 or 20 ingredients for your skin to deal with. And that is where the safety limits of individual ingredients come into play, which I'll get to in a moment.

Are we being sold too many skincare products?

Back in the day, the more I bought, the more I believed the next bottle would be the solution. It never was. And on a deeper level, all it really did was disconnect me from myself and from my own skin.

I grew up in the age when magazines and advertising held the holy grail. If the glossy page said you needed a toner, you needed a toner. Today we're far better at questioning everything, and I think that's healthy.

Just to be clear, it's not the need for a toner I am questioning. It's the plethora of ingredients we have to deal with.

I did see a few beauticians over the years. But what's taught in beauty school is often shaped by the big brands that support or subsidise those schools.

I know, because I even enrolled in beauty school myself. It wasn't my best decision, but what can I say? We all learn as we go along. That's a tale I tell in my founder's story, Beauty School Dropout.

What I noticed most, over and over, was that the people with genuinely healthy skin weren't the ones with the biggest bathroom cabinets. They were the ones who spent time in nature and lived in a way that let them be present.

If you've ever wondered why you keep buying skincare you never finish, you're not alone. I unpack it more in the intentional natural skincare consumer.

Can your skin actually absorb everything you're layering?

Short answer: not really. Your outer layer, the stratum corneum, is built to keep things out. That's its job.

When you pile on six or seven products, a lot of what goes on later can't get past what's already there. It mixes with the layers underneath, sits on the surface, or ends up on your pillowcase.

Remember those safety limits I mentioned? This is where they matter. Each ingredient is safety-assessed at a set amount, usually in one product at a time. Nobody puts the cumulative picture on the label.

Stack seven products and your skin is handling every one of those ingredients, every morning. For sensitive skin, that adds up.

I go much deeper into what gets through and what doesn't in skin absorption vs penetration.

Am I using too many skincare products?

Honestly, the answer isn't on a checklist. It's on and in our skin. We have to get back in touch with our skin and ask it how it's doing after everything we've put on it. I wrote about how to find the right skincare routine, and why it has to be yours.

• How does it feel? Tight, hot, itchy or stingy when you apply things?
• How is it reacting? Redness, new bumps, patches that come and go?
• Does it feel overwhelmed? Stressed, unpredictable, and just at war?

My skin was at war for years. Red patches on my chin and nose, and instead of pausing and connecting with my skin I just kept on layering more products in the hope that I would find the answer.

When our skin is shouting, the kindest thing we can do is take things away, not add more. Over-exfoliating is a definite pet peeve of mine. I've seen the end result too many times, so of course I've blogged about the hazards of over-exfoliation.

How to layer skincare: thinnest or thickest first?

The general rule is thinnest to thickest. Watery things first, richer things last. But in my experience, how you apply matters more than the exact order.

Finding the best way forward with balms is working out how to optimise their benefits. Water is what hydrates your skin. Oils and balms don't add water; they seal in what's already there.

So if you put a balm on bone-dry skin, it has nothing to hold on to. It just sits on top, which is not the goal. (I explain the difference properly in balm vs moisturiser.)

How I layer, every time:

1. Start with damp skin. Always.
2. Warm the product between your fingertips first.
3. Press it into your skin. Never rub. Your skin is not the kitchen floor.
4. Then, if you want, a cream or serum on top.

I've been playing with elixirs for the skin, and it has been just brilliant, formulating a product that makes the moisture step easier. More on that coming soon.

When should you apply face oil?

My favourite trick: add a drop or two of oil to your cream in your palm, mix it with your fingertip, and press it in. Or press a drop over your serum while your skin is still a little damp.

Either way you get the hydration and the seal in one go. Our natural tissue oil works beautifully like this.

What does a simple skincare routine look like?

Here's my actual step-by-step skin care routine. Nothing convoluted, nothing resembling an extreme sport.

Morning (three steps)

1. Wash my face in an ice bath if I've got my act together, or cold water if I haven't. (My love affair with cold therapy for glowing skin is well documented.)
2. Pat dry, leaving it slightly damp.
3. Press in either AYA Cream or SOS Serum, depending on what my skin needs.

Night (two steps)

1. Melt off the day with AYA Cleansing Balm.
2. A drop or two of PS Serum, pressed in.

I'm still playing with that elixir I mentioned, but that's for down the road. Work has to have an element of fun.

Sunscreen? It lives in my car and my handbag, and there's always a hat.

I try not to have big sun days anymore. I'm too hot and too old for that, and menopause is real. If you want the full picture, I've written about natural sunscreen and SPF.

Skincare layering for 45+ skin

Menopause changed my skin, so my routine changed with it. I use more serums now, and I'm experimenting with a night balm. The damp-skin rule matters even more here, because drier skin needs that layer of moisture underneath for a balm to reach its full potential.

Why simple works when your brain doesn't do routines

I only recently got diagnosed with ADHD, which has been an interesting journey. A routine only survives in my life if it's simple, fast and automatic.

Anything complex or unnecessarily complicated is gone by day four. And I've come to believe the art is actually in the simplicity.

Use what you have before you buy more

One of the realities I've heard more times than I can remember: lovely clients telling me about all the products they bought to try, and how they now just sit on their shelves.

I always say, start by looking at what's already on your shelf. See what works for you and what doesn't. Read the labels, and if you're comfortable with the ingredients, find other uses for them.

I know an expensive face cream on dry feet sounds outrageous, but sometimes it might actually be the best option for your skin.

So before you buy another bottle, use up what's already on your shelf. It saves money, and it breaks the buy-and-abandon cycle I've grumbled about in Black Friday is Wack Friday.

The same goes for my own range. Each product has its own job.

AYA Balm isn't meant to replace your whole routine. It's the lovely extra you reach for when skin is irritated or just needs soothing.

Its raw fermented pawpaw (also known as papaya, one and the same) and beeswax calm things down, wherever on your body that happens to be. That's exactly the job our natural pawpaw balm is made for.

Your step-by-step skin care routine starts with stopping

If you're standing in front of a 10-step routine feeling overwhelmed, here's what I'd say to you as a friend.

Stop. Sit. Feel. Check in with how your skin is actually doing.

Then go back to the essentials:

• Keep only what you truly need, as clean and as free from synthetic chemicals as possible.
• Remove anything with added fragrance or parfum. (Why? I explain in perfume's dark secret.)
• Wash your body with a gentle natural soap, like our Body Bliss Soap Bar.
• Keep it as simple as possible.

The best step-by-step skin care routine isn't the longest one. It's the one you'll actually do, that leaves your skin calm and in harmony with itself. The art, as I keep learning, is in the simplicity.