Step one: work out your skin type
Wash your face with a gentle cleanser, pat dry and apply nothing for an hour. Then look and feel. If your whole face feels tight or looks flaky, you likely have dry skin. If it is shiny across the forehead, nose and cheeks, it is probably oily. Shine only through the centre, the T-zone, with normal or dry cheeks suggests combination skin. If products often sting, burn or leave you red, treat your skin as sensitive regardless of oil levels. Skin type can shift with seasons, hormones and age, so repeat the test now and then.
Some conditions need a professional rather than a shopping list. Persistent redness with visible vessels may be rosacea; deep, painful spots may be acne that benefits from prescription treatment. The British Association of Dermatologists and the American Academy of Dermatology both publish free patient leaflets that are worth reading before you spend money.
Step two: match criteria to your skin
Our overall score is a weighted average, and our weights are a compromise for the average shopper. You are not average. Here is how to reweight in your head:
- Sensitive skin: read tolerance first. A 9.5 tolerance with a 7 for finish is a better bet than the reverse.
- Oily or acne-prone: look at feel and finish, and check the formula notes for heavy oils or comedogenic-reported ingredients.
- Dry skin: for cleansers, prioritise tolerance and feel; for serums, check that the formula includes humectants like glycerin.
- Deep skin tones: on sunscreen sheets, read the white-cast note, which is always judged by our panellist with the deepest skin tone.
- Tight budget: value is weighted at only 10%. Raise it yourself; several of our best-value products score within half a point of luxury ones.
Step three: read the ingredients list
In the UK and EU, cosmetics must list ingredients using INCI names under the Cosmetics Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, retained in UK law. Ingredients above 1% appear in descending order by concentration; those at 1% or below can appear in any order. That means the first five ingredients tell you most of what you are paying for. If an advertised active, say "with rosehip oil", appears after the preservative phenoxyethanol, which is usually used at up to 1%, it is present in a small amount.
Fragrance appears as "parfum" or "fragrance". The EU also requires certain fragrance allergens, such as linalool and limonene, to be named when they exceed set thresholds. If you know you react to fragrance, those names are your warning signs.
Step four: start with three products
A cleanser, a moisturiser and a sunscreen cover most needs. Add one active serum at a time, and wait three to four weeks before judging it or adding another. Introducing several products at once makes it impossible to know what helped and what caused a reaction. Patch-test new products on your inner arm or behind the ear for 48 hours.
Quick starts by skin type
