This post was supposed to be about seasonal skincare changes, but in order to provide a bit of context I started writing about my usual skincare routine and then I went off on a tangent about how I feel about my face in my forties and then about eighty-seven years later I looked up and realised I’d suddenly written a thesis.

I am therefore breaking it down into something more manageable: I’m going to do a bit of an intro to my face and then describe my skincare routine and then next week we’ll have a good solid base to refer back to when I start to talk about the seasonal skincare changes. Here goes.

I’m forty-three (until next month), I have what would probably be described as “normal to dry” skin and, apart from a few blips in my thirties I have never really had any pressing skin concerns.

You could say that I’ve been preoccupied with “having good skin” for most of my adult life; I’ve been writing about skincare for almost fifteen years and before that I was a model for over a decade and “having good skin” was partly what I did for a living. I’ve tried tens of thousands of products, both newly-launched and well-established and I like to think that I get quite good intel when it comes to what’s what in the beauty industry. What is total bollocks, for example, and what actually does make a visible difference…

I don’t currently have any “tweakments”* and haven’t had any in the past. I’ve had a couple of facials that have incorporated machinery into them – radio waves and ultra sound and so on – but I’m not sure that’s for me, either. Mainly because I like all of my skincare maintenance to be very, very low effort. Done at home, either lying down in my bed, in the bath or, as a last resort, at my desk when I’m on Zoom meetings with the camera turned off.

(*the whole tweakments thing is a huge other post in the making. I don’t want to get sidelined by it here. I use this term to include things like filler and Botox and more dramatic stuff like facelifts and eye lifts – basically anything that involves needles or knives!)

I was quite a heavy smoker for about ten years, from when I was eighteen-ish until twenty-eight, and I was an utterly shameful sun worshipper, as we mostly were in the olden times. Though I must say that I never used to burn, I was always very careful with my worship sessions, considering these were the days before SPF50 was the default holiday sunscreen option.

Anyway, I’m sure that I have all the effects of that life of debauchery ready to catch up with me and so I try my best just to keep my skin barrier healthy and on an even keel whilst also applying the highest possible level of active ingredients I can without making my entire face fall off. I cannot be arsed with anything that requires “downtime”: peels that demand face-bandaging afterwards, rollers covered in needles that draw blood as they prickle the skin – even too-strong retinoids that make my face itchy and dry are a complete no-no in my book. I repeat: I cannot be arsed.

My basic routine includes some choice actives (Vitamin C, Retinal/Tretinoin, Hyaluronic Acid, the odd peptide) to keep my face on its toes (weird visual) but the general gist of the whole skincare routine is that it is short, quick and to the point. Three-ish steps, just like Clinique told us, back in the nineties.

Is it low cost? Debatable. There are a few bits of gadgetry thrown in that are a hefty initial investment, but I don’t do anything that requires regular financial commitment. Or, indeed, requires leaving the house. It’s enough of an imposition to go and get hair and nails done, quite frankly!

Most pricey products usually have a very good, very affordable alternative out there – not an identical copy, but you can put together a good routine for very little expense. (Another post that’s in drafts!) I’ve tried to give a nice range within the product examples that I’ve listed, but this post is more about the routine itself and the types of products I use rather than the specific brands. We have plenty of time to get into the forensics of it all – I’m just getting started!

Ad-info: no paid or sponsored mentions in this post. I regularly work with beauty brands and some of them, including Beauty Pie, Medik-8 and Current Body, are mentioned below. Any affiliate links are marked with * next to the link.

My Basic Morning Routine: Cleanse-Antioxidant-SPF

I am not one for the morning cleanse, I’m afraid. I go in hard with the evening one but cannot abide the feeling of water cascading over my face in the morning. So in the AM it’s a cursory scrub over with a damp flannel and then a quick swipe with a gentle exfoliating liquid before I sit down to do my makeup.

One of my most-used exfoliants? Placid Daily Exfoliant*.

I use a daily liquid exfoliant because it very gently gets rid of dead skin cells to leave skin brighter and smoother, but it’s far less heavyweight than an extreme weekly peel mask or the stronger peel pads. This “little and often” approach seems to agree with my skin more. I used to do a stronger peel every other evening but now that I use retinoids at night I don’t like to overdo it and so gentle morning exfoliating action is where it’s at.

Step 2: Vitamin C

I am religious about using a Vitamin C serum (or general antioxidant) before going in with my day cream/SPF. Added protection from the elements, but also the Vitamin C really does help brighten. And just good form if you want to help prevent dark spots or unevenness of tone, or stop existing patches from worsening. I see it as going hand in hand with my sunscreen.

Some great options: Paula’s Choice C-15 Super Booster here*, Skin Rocks Antioxidant*.

Step 3: Moisturiser/SPF

I usually use one product to do both jobs – hydrate and protect. It’s perfectly possible with the excellent modern sunscreen formulas we have now. This is (another) entirely separate post in the making, but I go for a more hydrating SPF25/30 in the wintery months and a dedicated SPF50 in the summer – one that usually tends to be lighter in consistency.

This year’s wonder SPF summer discovery: Cabana Clear SPF50*. And this RoC SPF30* is a beauty of a wintery day cream if you want something richer.

My Basic Evening Routine: Cleanse-Retinoid-Moisturiser

This is where we get feisty. My evening cleanse is an event. I like a balm texture. Something I can massage onto dry skin and feel it break down into an oil as it gets to work. Something that will remove all eye makeup, as well as SPF and grime and foundation and God knows what else, and sweep it away easily with a flannel and warm water. If you haven’t tried a balm cleanser and you faff about trying to take the day off with micellar water and cotton wool, or cleansing cream and tissue, or facial wipes, then this is possibly the greatest change you will ever make to your skincare routine. There is no comparison. You genuinely cannot properly remove makeup and SPF with a wipe or with micellar and cotton wool. They’re great for getting off the messiest stuff before a proper cleanse, or for use in an emergency, but even then. A balm and flannel session is so much lovelier.

Try: Oat Balm Cleanser from Inkey List* for a brilliant budget buy or Farmacy Green Clean Cleansing Balm* for slightly spendier times, but the ultimate for scent and general luxuriousness of experience has to be Emma Hardie’s balm here*.

Step 2: Retinoid

Again, this requires a whole other post because it’s an absolute can of skincare worms, the retinoids thing. Using a retinoid (commonly referred to as just “retinol”) is possibly the biggest thing you can do in a skincare routine to make an actual, visible difference to the tone and texture of the skin. Finding one isn’t necessarily straightforward though, because some will make your skin dry and itchy and others won’t be strong enough and others will require a prescription and some of them won’t do anything at all, really. Can of skincare worms! I told you.

However. Ease into the retinoids thing slowly, with a reliable brand and a great formula and you’ll be onto a winner. Try using every few days, building up to applying more frequently (I do every night or alternate, see below) and you’ll have yourself a night treatment that will tackle just about every sign of fatigue and wear-and-tear you can think of. Fine lines, crepeiness, deeper wrinkles, loss of elasticity, dullness, it gets to work on pretty much everything. Seems to keep my PMT-related spots at bay too. (At least I’ve had very, very few for the last couple of years since I’ve habitually used powerful retinoids at night.)

Try: Medik8 Crystal Retinal* – comes in varying strengths so that you can work your way up to the top. Medik8 excel at producing easily-tolerated retinoids, in my opinion. I also have “And Begin” on subscription – this is a bespoke night cream that’s formulated based on your consultation with the team and contains very strong ingredients.

Nearly all of the high street brands now have a retinol range but Beauty Pie’s Super Retinol* is competitive with high street prices, if you have membership. The formulas are advanced and brilliant. Use RUTHSENTME if you’re a new sign-up to get money off membership, and they also have a £20 off code running (not sure whether they work together): 20OFFBP

Step 3: Moisturiser

I used to worry that applying moisturiser after my retinoid would buffer it and make it less potent but quite honestly, the benefits of slathering on a rich cream after your retinoid (which can be massively drying) vastly outweigh the potential reduction in potency. Does it have to be a rich moisturiser? Not at all – I like a lightweight gel-cream as much as the next beauty aficionado. I have a few face creams on the go at all times so that I can pretend I’m in an apothecary and dip into whichever pot suits my skin that particular evening.

One thing I will say is that I do try to get my ceramides and/or peptides shoved into this step. I realise that sentence made me sound like a bit of a tosser, and I do hate to throw about scientific words that sound purely like marketing spiel, but I am all for a bit of ceramide action to help with the old skin barrier function. I’m sure there are other “transformational” active ingredients I could be including, but I only have one face, limited patience and a finite time on earth and so I just try to shoehorn in the ones I like best and understand most fully.

See Inkey List Ceramide Cream here*: a no-frills moisturiser option you can bung on liberally due to the non-horrifying price point.

There’s an important caveat here, with the retinoids, which is that quite a lot of the time I alternate my retinoid nights with a night of pure hydration. A lovely, soothing serum (I love this Aveeno one*) followed by a mega-hydrating, plumptious moisturiser – the sort that makes my skin so turgid and bouncy it’s almost obscene.

Some moisturisers that seem to do this for me include: Japanfusion Rich* and Curel Replenishing Night Cream*. FYI.

Extras!

Gadgets:

Here’s where things get less basic, because I’m a recent – but very enthusiastic – beauty tech convert. I thought that it was all a gimmick at first and was hugely cynical (I am always hugely cynical about things I don’t understand, or things that require charging up before I can use them – see aforementioned low-maintenance ramble) but then had such remarkable instant results with the ZIIP (a facial toning device) and such brilliant long-term results with the LED mask that they became a big fixture in my skincare routine. Didn’t ever think that they would, but life is full of surprises.

I work regularly with Current Body who make this beauty tech and so it somehow feels trickier to write about them without feeling as though I’m somehow being “sales-y”, but at the same time it would be weird for me not to mention them when I use them on a daily basis. Are they absolutely necessary? I think that always depends on whether you can afford the outlay. I think that consistent use of a good SPF is possibly the best thing you can ever do for your skin, if you had to pick one thing from the entire routine, but would I buy my ZIIP and mask again if my gadgets suddenly and mysteriously disappeared? Yes I would.

The general brightening and line-smoothing effects of the mask have been really noticeable over the past few months and I love the instant lift that the ZIIP gives, especially around the mouth and at the brows. I would definitely miss the effects if I didn’t have them in my routine. In a separate post I’ll pull out my before and after pictures and “live action” video so that you can appraise the results for yourselves.

Current Body LED Mask* and ZIIP* – NB: you can use code RUTHZIIP for the ZIIP or RUTH15 for 15% off anything else at Current Body. These codes are valid at time of writing.

Right. I feel that we need to go in deeper when it comes to pretty much every stage of the routine that I’ve mentioned, so maybe that’ll be my next run of posts once I’ve tackled the seasonal changes thing. There’s a lot of ground to cover. Let me know if there’s anything in particular you’d like to see in these skincare posts – questions answered, concerns tackled, specific product types reviewed…