A skincare routine for dry skin: which products, in what order and on two budgets

Dry skin needs three things before any active: a cleanser that does not strip lipids, a moisturiser that repairs the barrier and a sunscreen that does not leave it tight. What goes on top — a retinol at night, a vitamin C in the morning — is added on that base and only if your priority calls for it. This page is the routine our tool builds for dry skin, with the shop’s specific products in two budgets.

It is built by an engine that applies rules signed by two plastic surgeons to each product’s ingredients list, not to its advertising. And it can recommend you less than it could sell: on dry skin, the most frequent mistake is not choosing the wrong cream, it is stacking actives that dry it out further.

This page is one of the eight outputs of the skincare routine tool, which builds it from your answers in your browser. It sits inside the dermocosmetics guide, where the legal framework of what a cream can do is set out, and the general rule of order — lightest to densest, sunscreen last — is in what order to apply your skincare.

How this routine was built

The routine on this page was not written by a copywriter: it was calculated by the same engine the skincare routine tool uses, and it has been reviewed product by product by the two plastic surgeons who sign it. It works in four layers, in order of authority:

1. What the signatories set for each product — for which skin, in which range, at which step — with their wording on record.
2. The safety rules, read off the ingredients list (INCI), never off the advertising: whether a product contains a retinoid or an exfoliating acid is decided by its composition.
3. Each manufacturer’s official literature — the AllSkin Med brochure, the ZO Skin Health portfolio, the SkinCeuticals and mesoestetic data sheets — which sets the skin type, the timing and the method of use, and the current scientific evidence: published trials and reviews that say what each active really does, how long it takes to show and who it was measured in. When a product’s advertising and the literature disagree, the literature governs.
4. A heuristic that only makes a suggestion where none of the above applies, and it is shown as a suggestion.

The two ranges are set by price within each step, mixing brands: a €52 cleanser is expensive and a €52 serum is cheap. Neither range is made to look cheaper by leaving a step empty: if a product is missing for your skin, one is taken from the other range and we say so.

The routine step by step: mid range and high end

For dry skin with wrinkles and texture as the priority, not pregnant, no surgery planned and for someone starting out with actives. Each product links to its page in the shop.

The essentials — cleansing, moisturising and sun protection, plus the treatment if your priority calls for it — come to €249 in the mid range and €460 in the high end; with every optional item, €429 and €939. The optional ones genuinely are: the routine works without them.

The engine’s notes on this routine:

• First cleanse, high end: The first step of the double cleanse (at night): it removes SPF and make-up; then the cleanser.
• Exfoliation, mid range: The physical exfoliant goes in the morning, after the cleanser and before the toner or the pads: that is the brand’s own protocol, and there is no need to repeat it at night. If the skin gets irritated, the exfoliant is the first thing to space out. With your skin type, 3 days a week.
• Exfoliation, high end: The physical exfoliant goes in the morning, after the cleanser and before the toner or the pads: that is the brand’s own protocol, and there is no need to repeat it at night. If the skin gets irritated, the exfoliant is the first thing to space out. With your skin type, 3 days a week.
• Toner or pads, high end: A toner is not an essential step: the routine works without it. It goes after cleansing and before the rest.
• Antioxidant, mid range: It goes on before the moisturiser.
• Antioxidant, high end: Your moisturiser already contains antioxidants: this vitamin C is not essential, especially on oily skin. It goes on before the moisturiser.
• Sun protection, mid range: If you want it to even out your tone, Mineral Colour SPF50+ Beige (€48) gives coverage and more protection against visible light. There are two shades: Beige for a light skin tone and Bronze for darker skin.
• Sun protection, high end: If you want it to even out your tone, Smart Tone SPF 50 (€79) gives coverage and more protection against visible light.

What the tool flags for this profile:

• First retinoid: two nights a week for 2-4 weeks, then alternate nights. What decides the result is consistency, not concentration.

If what worries you is something else

The skin type sets the base — cleanser, moisturiser, sunscreen; the priority changes the night treatment. This is how it works out for your skin:

With pigmentation, the sunscreen also becomes a tinted one, and with redness the exfoliants and retinoids disappear. Each priority has its own page, with both ranges in full: wrinkles and texture, pigmentation, spots and pores and redness. And if your skin is not dry, the routine changes its base: combination, oily and sensitive.

What you do not need (and why)

• A frequent exfoliant. Dry skin already renews slowly; exfoliating more than once a week leaves it thinner and tighter. If one goes in, a mild one and one night.
• A toner. It is an extra step: the tool only offers it in the high-end range and always as optional.
• Two different moisturisers for morning and night. One rich one does for both, unless you use retinol and want a rest night with the same cream.

When the routine is not enough

When dryness comes with itching, flaking in patches or redness that does not settle with a moisturiser within two weeks, it is not a routine problem: it is a reason for a consultation. And if what worries you is wrinkles, skincare has a ceiling — the literature says so and so do we; the next step in the clinic is linked below.

The next step in the clinic for this priority, which the tool also names: Morpheus8 package · 3 sessions, Sculptra biostimulation package · 3 sessions, INDIBA facial package · 6 sessions of 45 min. It is prescribed in the consulting room, with the skin in front of us.

Frequently asked questions

How many times a day should I wash my face if I have dry skin?

Twice, with a gentle cleanser: in the morning to take off the night’s residue and at night to take off the sunscreen. On very dry skin, lukewarm water may be enough in the morning. What dries the skin is not washing, it is the harsh surfactant and the hot water.

Can I use retinol with dry skin?

Yes, on two conditions: start on the lowest step two nights a week, and put it on with a moisturiser to go with it. On the nights without retinol, the same rich moisturiser. If you notice flaking, you do not build up: you space it out. How it is introduced is in how to start with retinol.

Which sunscreen suits me?

One that does not leave your skin tight: for dry skin, fluid but not mattifying textures, and if your skin is also reactive, a mineral filter. The tool always offers you the tinted and untinted pair. How to read the label is in how to choose a facial sunscreen.

Will vitamin C dry me out?

It depends on the formulation. L-ascorbic acid serums at low pH can sting on dry skin; that is why, for your skin, the tool prefers stabilised vitamin C ampoules or a gel. And if your moisturiser already contains antioxidants, a separate vitamin C is not essential.

How long before I notice the difference?

The tightness, within days, if the cleanser and the moisturiser are the right ones. The texture, within 4-12 weeks of consistent retinol. Fine wrinkles, months. The trials supporting these actives measured at 12-24 weeks, not before.

And if I am pregnant?

Then this page is no use to you and the tool does not recommend anything either: it refers you to the medical team for guidance. It is the signatories’ decision, not an oversight.

Sources

• Kafi R, Kwak HS, Schumacher WE, et al. Improvement of naturally aged skin with vitamin A (retinol). Archives of Dermatology, 2007;143(5):606-612. PMID 17515510. — Randomised, double-blind, arm-against-arm trial with 0.4% retinol up to three times a week for 24 weeks in 36 people with a mean age of 87: significant improvement in fine wrinkles against the vehicle (−1.64 against −0.08). ⚠️ A very elderly population and arm skin, not facial: it is cited for what it demonstrates — that topical retinol induces measurable changes — and with its small print.
• Pinnell SR, Yang H, Omar M, et al. Topical L-ascorbic acid: percutaneous absorption studies. Dermatologic Surgery, 2001;27(2):137-142. PMID 11207686. — L-ascorbic acid only penetrates when formulated at a pH below 3.5, and absorption peaks at 20%; above that it does not increase. It is why a vitamin C is chosen by its form, its pH and its packaging, not by the number on the bottle, and why the anhydrous ones go on in a different order.
• Misery L, Ständer S, Szepietowski JC, et al. Definition of Sensitive Skin: An Expert Position Paper from the Special Interest Group on Sensitive Skin of the International Forum for the Study of Itch. Acta Dermato-Venereologica, 2017;97(1):4-6. PMID 26939643. — Sensitive skin is defined as a syndrome: unpleasant sensations (stinging, burning, pain, itching, tingling) in response to stimuli that do not normally provoke them. It is neither a skin type nor a diagnosis: it is a picture that can accompany any skin, and that is why it is asked about separately here.
• Commission Regulation (EU) 2024/996 amending Regulation (EC) 1223/2009 as regards the use of vitamin A, alpha-arbutin, arbutin and certain substances with potential endocrine-disrupting properties. EUR-Lex. — Annex III, entry 376: a cap of 0.05% retinol equivalent in body lotion and 0.3% in other products, with a compulsory warning; applicable to placing on the market from 1-11-2025 and to making available from 1-05-2027. Verified against the EUR-Lex text on 08-09-2026 (and previously by the team on 27-08-2026); the detail is on the page about the European retinol cap.
• Hughes MCB, Williams GM, Baker P, Green AC. Sunscreen and prevention of skin aging: a randomized trial. Annals of Internal Medicine, 2013;158(11):781-790. PMID 23732711. — A 4.5-year randomised trial in 903 adults: skin ageing measured by microtopography was 24% lower in the daily sunscreen group than in the discretionary-use group. It is the only long-term randomised trial supporting a cosmetic against ageing, and that is why sun protection is the step no routine from this tool leaves out.
• Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on cosmetic products. Consolidated text on EUR-Lex. — Article 2.1(a): a cosmetic is for “cleaning, perfuming, changing the appearance, protecting, keeping in good condition or correcting body odours”. No therapeutic action: that is why, when what you describe is a disease, the tool says so and refers you to a doctor — with severe acne it also stays on the safe base. Article 19.1(g): the ingredients list runs in decreasing order of weight above 1%, which is what makes an INCI readable.
• Commission Regulation (EU) No 655/2013 laying down common criteria for the justification of claims used in relation to cosmetic products. EUR-Lex. — Six criteria: legal compliance, truthfulness, evidential support, honesty, fairness and informed decision-making. It is the yardstick this tool measures what it says about each product against: what the manufacturer declares, with its source, and nothing more.

Book your consultation

If your skin or your situation does not quite fit this page — you have surgery planned, a recent scar, more than one thing worrying you — the skincare routine tool builds the routine from your answers in a minute, in your browser, without asking you for any details. And if you have questions or want to fine-tune it, write to us: the medical team will go through it with you, free and with no obligation.

Clinical confirmation by the surgeon

Dr Enrique Salmerón González

Specialist in Plastic, Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery
Registration no. 46/4624077

Dr Elena García Vilariño

Specialist in Plastic, Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery
Registration no. 46/4624503