the dermatologist recommended skincare routine i still swear by
as given to me by the dermatologists at skin + me four years ago
In 2019, I joined the startup Skin + Me to help them figure out who they were. Back then, it had no name, no brand and no product – just ten truly brilliant people huddled together in a tiny space in Soho, with a plan to change the face of skincare by building a personalised, prescription direct-to-consumer brand. What a gig.
I was tasked with building the verbal side of the brand from scratch, with a brief to ‘create a distinct voice that truly set us apart from our competitors’. I spent weeks researching what other brands said, how they said it – and how it made their customers feel. I spent hours at various different beauty and skincare counters in central London, spilling out all my skin woes and insecurities and analysing exactly what was prescribed for me – and the way in which the sales assistants spoke to me and made me feel. Your relationship with your skin, and all the feelings you have about and towards it, is so personal. So every single thing about our brand had to be personal too.
I created a character who could embody the brand – the person you imagined when you interacted with us. Then, I tested that character with a group of target customers and they loved it. Finally, after many, many feedback sessions and approval rounds – our brand personality was born. Beauty journalists loved it. Skincare geeks loved it. But most importantly, our customers loved it.
After the brand was brought to life and rolled out to exist in the real world (in the real hands and on real faces of real customers!), I remained responsible for all things words, language and brand personality at Skin + Me – from web to social to CRM to UX to products to packaging and company culture and beyond. Whether it was words for big stages (hiya, Sunday Times Style magazine) or words for little corners (hello, ‘boring’ FAQs) – every word was obsessed over and deliberately chosen for a reason.
Eventually, from humble roots as a tiny little startup in a tiny little office, Skin + Me grew into an award-winning skincare brand in the skincare world – and it even made a few waves in the brand world when my tone of voice work won the Women In Marketing Highly Commended Copywriter Award in 2022. I tripped over on my way to the stage, but it was fine (they didn’t get it on camera).
Although I left in 2021, I am still so proud of the little legacy I left behind me. It’s the work I’m the most proud of creating (and still feel so lucky that I was given the chance to do it). My job at Skin + Me gave me a lot. It gave me confidence in my abilities as a solo writer (even if a new boss down the line did try to shatter them) and strategist in a business, it gave me friends for life (one of the best ones even lived with me for a year) and it led me further into my career niche as a creative person who helps little brands find big voices.
But perhaps most importantly, my job at Skin + Me gave me a solid, reliable skincare routine that has honestly kept my skin in the best shape it’s ever been in my adult life. And the thing that people always ask me whenever I mention that I worked there is not at all related to branding, copywriting or creative – but instead for my skincare advice.
A dermatologist, I am not. But a person who asked our team of dermatologists every single annoying question under the sun in order to get her own perfect perfect skincare routine, I am. And below, you’ll find the exact routine that our wonderful dermatologists designed for me – that I still use, four years on.
Before starting this routine, my skin had never been bad – but it had never been great. I’d get small, relatively unnoticeable (except to me) blackheads on my nose, the odd whitehead and then these weird little bumps along my jawline that when squeezed (I know, I know – you shouldn’t squeeze), would erupt into big red spots that stayed under the skin for days and days. I didn’t hate my skin, but I definitely never felt like I had a face worth writing home about. I just felt a bit plain, a bit average and a bit… meh.
But after a few weeks of this, I would genuinely wake up in the morning with a glow. I still do not understand how that is possible (witchcraft, probably), but it happens. I still get the odd spot, but after four years of truly taking care of my skin – I’m now at the point where unless I’m going Out Out™️, I don’t bother with foundation, but just tinted moisturiser instead.
My skin is combination, fairly fair (with freckles in the summer) but needs more hydration in the winter. It’s a fairly common type, so I was told. Here’s what the derms told me to use, and here’s what works for me…
IN THE MORNING
CLEANSE
Brand: La Roche-Posay
Product: Effaclar Purifying Cleansing Gel
Price: £15 for 200ml
Why I like it: It literally leaves my skin feeling so fresh and clean. It’s like a wake up call just for my face. It describes itself as being designed for oily blemish-prone skin (which mine is occasionally) and it does the job of stopping that nonsense going on for me. Love.
MOISTURISE (IN THE SUMMER)
Brand: La Roche-Posay
Product: Toleriane Sensitive Fluid moisturiser
Price: £19
Why I like it: This is super lightweight, which is why I prefer it in the summer. Very soothing. Very hydrating. Very lovely. It works for me.
MOISTURISE (IN THE WINTER)
Brand: La Roche-Posay
Product: Toleriane Sensitive Rich moisturiser
Price: £18.50
Why I like it: This one’s way more intense and much better for when my skin gets drier in the winter months. Even a few days without it (I forgot to take it on a recent weekend away) and my skin is flaky again. My winter companion for life.
PROTECT
Brand: Glossier
Product: Invisible Shield (SPF 30)
Price: £25
Why I like it: Ok even if this wasn’t actually effective, I’d still buy it because it smells SO good. I can’t even describe what its scent is, it’s just GREAT. It also doesn’t feel oily at all, and doesn’t leave any of the grease or white cast that other sunscreens do. If there’s one piece of advice that I’ll never not continue to take from the Skin + Me derm team, it’s that SPF is the single most important thing you can do for your skin and that you should wear it every single day. Oh, and that it’s not enough to just rely on your foundation having a bit of SPF in it either – you need one that’s loaded up with UVA/UVB filters of at least SPF 30. I never go a day without it (and I stock up every year in the Black Friday sale).
IN THE EVENING
CLEANSE
Brand: Garnier
Product: Micellar Cleansing Water
Price: £7.99 for 400ml
Why I like it: She’s simple, but she really is effective for taking the day off your face. Also, did you know that if you pop it onto a cotton pad, hold the back (not the side you put the water onto) and then blow – it foams up, creating a bubbly texture for you to smear onto your skin? I do this every night and I still thrive on the novelty of it. It’s the little things, I guess.
CLEANSE AGAIN
Brand: La Roche-Posay
Product: Effaclar Purifying Cleansing Gel
Price: £15 for 200ml
Why I like it: You heard read me the first time, the fresh feeling this gives my skin is unbeatable. Double cleansing is apparently good for getting all the extra bits off your face that the first cleanse didn’t. If ever I forget to double cleanse, I can feel that my face just isn’t as clean and fresh the next morning.
TREAT
Brand: Skin + Me
Product: Personalised Solution
Price: £3.50 for your first month, £29.99 a month ongoing
Why I like it: I’m a lazy girl at heart. I like to figure out what works and then just do that. I also don’t really care about what brand I’m putting on my face (clothes are different), as long as it’s going to work. This is a personalised treatment that features a combination of three active ingredients that are prescribed for your skin, based on a questionnaire you fill in and photos you upload.
My personalised solution has Tretinoin, Niacinamide and Azelaic Acid in it, and it’s currently in maintenance mode after four years of using it (I can’t believe it’s been that long, time is not real). At first, you’ll be started off on a low dose and over the next few months, your personalised solution will be tweaked and adjusted as your ingredients get to work and your skin gets used to it. My current doses are: Tretinoin at 0.009% strength, Niacinamide at 4% and Azelaic Acid 4%. After so long, it’s now what works for my skin and keeps it healthy and relatively spot-free.
You apply it as the last thing you do before bed and it gets to work overnight, leaving you with this big glow in the morning when you wake up. It’s actually worth getting up for, even for a very much not morning person like me.
So there you have it. This is what I use every day – and I’ve even got my husband, Jonny, on the cleanser and moisturiser hype too (annoyingly, he seems to just have great skin all the time. Why are men like this?).
How about you? What do you use? Are you a basic ‘please just tell me what to do’ skincare person like me? Or are you a die-hard lotions and potions fan? Leave your answers on a postcard in the comments below!
PS. This is not a sponsored post, or an ad or something I’ve been asked to write. While I used to work for Skin + Me, I no longer do but still religiously use the product because of how great it truly is. My Skin + Me referral code is linked throughout this post, but I don’t get any commission or make any money from it. The £10 per referral that would normally go towards my future orders instead gets donated to Women’s Aid in my name. You can try it yourself here.