A routine for skin that is easily upset should be short before it is clever. Five steps carry it, and only one of them is fussy about timing: cleanse, mist, serum, cream, and in the morning a sunscreen. La Roche-Posay, the French dermatological house, builds most of those steps around the same thermal spring water, so they share a vocabulary and sit together without argument. What follows is the order they go in, the amount of each, and how often, taken from what the house sets out for the products themselves.
In What Order Do the Steps Go?
Thinnest first, richest last. A cleanser is rinsed away, so it comes first. A water mist goes on next, while the face is still bare. A serum follows, then a cream, and in the morning a sunscreen closes the routine because nothing should be spread over the top of it. The evening is the same sequence with the last step removed.
The Morning
Begin with the Gentle Cream Cleanser for Very Sensitive Skin. Apply it to a damp face, massage gently to dissolve make-up and impurities, then rinse thoroughly. It is a cream that lifts to a light foam, and at 400 ml it is sized for a step used twice a day rather than one used occasionally.
Then the Thermal Spring Water Mist. Hold it six to eight inches from the face and mist in a light, even layer, then pat gently or let it settle on its own. La Roche-Posay puts it after cleansing, after sun exposure and after a clinical treatment, which is a way of saying it has no fixed slot: it belongs wherever the face is bare and about to have something else put on it.
Next, the B5 Repairing Hydration Serum. Two to three drops on clean, dry skin, morning and evening, pressed in rather than rubbed. This is the most concentrated step and also the smallest bottle at 30 ml, so precision is the whole point of it.
The Hyaluronic Barrier Hydrating Cream follows: a pea-sized amount smoothed upward over face and neck until it has fully absorbed. The house says it can be worn alone, or under sunscreen and make-up, which is what makes it the second-to-last step rather than the last.
Last, the Anthelios Facial Sunscreen, applied generously to face and neck as the final step of the morning. La Roche-Posay asks for reapplication every two hours in sunlight, and again after swimming, perspiring or towel-drying. That instruction is the reason sunscreen goes at the end: anything spread over the top of it moves it.
- Gentle Cream Cleanser for Very Sensitive Skin
- Thermal Spring Water Mist
- B5 Repairing Hydration Serum
- Hyaluronic Barrier Hydrating Cream
- Anthelios Facial Sunscreen
The Evening
The evening is the same four steps without the sunscreen. Cleanse, mist, serum, cream. If the day has been long and the face is asking for more, the answer is a second pass of cream on the places that want it, not a sixth product.
Thermal Spring Water, and the Other Names on the Label
It is worth knowing which product carries which ingredient, because that is what tells you when a routine has doubled up on itself. The cleanser names niacinamide, ceramide NP and panthenol. The serum names panthenol, written on some labels as vitamin B5, and sodium hyaluronate. The cream names hyaluronic acid. The mist names thermal spring water and nothing else. Two steps naming the same ingredient are doing the same job twice, and one of them can usually go.
The Sizes, and Which Runs Out First
The cleanser is 400 ml and the mist is 300 ml; the serum is 30 ml and the cream and the sunscreen are 50 ml each. The two large bottles are the two steps used with an open hand, and the small ones are used by the drop. In practice the sunscreen empties first, because it is the only step in the routine that is meant to be reapplied during the day.
How Often, and What to Change
- Cleanse morning and evening. The cream cleanser is set out for both, and for as often as needed in between.
- Mist whenever the face is bare and about to have something applied, and again after sun or a treatment. It has no daily limit.
- Two to three drops of serum, morning and evening. More is not a faster route to anything.
- Sunscreen every morning, then every two hours in the sun, and again after swimming or towelling dry.
- Add one product at a time and give it a fortnight before adding the next. A routine that changes in four places at once tells you nothing about any of them.
Five steps in the morning, four at night, in the same order every day. It is meant to be dull. A routine for sensitive skin earns its keep by being the thing you stop thinking about.
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