Basics of Skincare

Published 2026-04-25 • Original post

Day 24/30 of writing daily.

In this post, I describe some of the more simple skincare methods most people can keep in mind. I will leave more complex methods for different post

TLDR

The most important tips:

• Wear SPF, cover up your skin, and wear hats and sunglasses to limit sun exposure which can cause premature aging.

• Use Retinol to make skin look younger

• Limit your alcohol, avoid tobacco, avoid hard drugs and keep an active lifestyle.

• Use Hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, vit C in some cases.

• Exfoliate for temporarily smoother skin

Photoaging

Basically the largest factor to improve long-term skin quality, is to attempt to reduce aging caused by sun exposure.

Sunscreen

The single most important thing is also the most boring. You should be applying sunscreen to your face everyday. For the most part, it doesn’t matter which sun cream you get as long at the SPF is high enough, though there are marginal differences I will discuss.

Sunscreen protects against UVA (320–400 nm) and UVB (290–320 nm) radiation.

There is a lot of evidence on how effective sun-cream is at preventing photo aging, and wearing it everyday is better than wearing it often.1 You should wear sunscreen even if you only stay indoors but next to a window, as UVA is only partially blocked through glass, and can still have effects on aging of skin.

You should likely prefer chemical sunscreen filters (rather than mineral ones). US FDA has banned most of the best sun blocking ingredients, so it is better to get ones not non-US ones. East Asian and Australian SPF products are generally the highest regarded. Much of this is in large part that they work on making the texture of sun cream when applied more tolerable.

If you want to really optimize, most sunscreens are quite weak in the 380-400nm range, but there are two options that help here:

• The first is Iron Oxides/Titanium Oxide, which have the downside of having a tint and thus being visible on the skin. These are rarely used in products for this reason.2

• The other option is Mexoryl 400, which is particularly effective in the 360−400 nm range, but is still under patent by L’Oréal.

Thus, the “best” suncreams are mostly from L’Oreal, such as La Roche Posay UVMune 400 products. See review by Lab Muffin. But these are somewhat on the pricer end, and I find the texture not as good as some other suncreams.

I have personally found Korean and Japanese have the best texture, and personally like SkinAqua products the most out of various things I have tried (especially SkinAqua UV Super Moisture milk, as it is unscented and has a pleasant texture). But I am no expert on this, you may be better trusting a real reviewer such as Lab Muffin.

If you want a flowchart to choose a sunscreen, here is a nice one: Sunscreen Flowchart

Physical Sun Blocks

You can also physically block the sun with shadow. This means wearing hats and clothes to prevent the sun from hitting you.

This is helpful, but should be done in addition to sunscreens, rather than instead of using sunscreens.

Retinoids

Eg: Retinol, Retialdehyde, Tretinoin, Adapeline, isotretinoin

Causes skin to churn more often, and makes it more fresh. These are all essentially forms of Vitamin A. These can have many positive effects on the skin. But these also can tend to feel harsh on the skin, and are contraindicated with many things (eg: pregnancy, hair removal, eye issues, etc).

There are older and newer retinoids, some are studied for different aspects. Most help a lot with acne and effects of photo-aging, and can even help slightly reverse some of the photo-aging at the end of a day. They can also help, to a lesser extent, with hyperpigmentation, pore visibility, and slightly with scarring appearance and laxity.

It is possible to take a form of retinoid orally, such as isotretinoin,and it can be quite effective. though this has more chance of side effects or mental effects than topical solutions.

There are many topical solutions. It is usually worth starting with lower concentrations less frequently (eg: 1-2x per week), then working up to higher concentrations and/or more frequency over time (eg: daily)

• Retinol is a simple weak form of retinol, that can be used as a starter dose.

• Tretinoin is the strongest, most studied form of retinoid, that has the best results, but also has the highest risk of sensitivity issues. It is very easy to apply too much and leave your skin texture feel burned.

• Adapalene is the newest form, and has much better tolerability. It is mostly studied in 0.1% form as an anti-acne medicine, but there is some limited research showing that 0.3% adapalene might be as effective as 0.05% tretinoin for photoaging effects.

I would recommend adapalene overall, starting with 0.1% and moving up to 0.3%, and if you prefer that tretinoin has a much larger evidence base than adapalene, then you can upgrade to tretinoin afterwards.

Other things

Here are some other things that can help.

Lifestyle

Some general things, such as:

• avoiding smoking and some hard drugs (eg: Heavy cigarette smokers (greater than 50 pack-years) were 4.7 times more likely to be wrinkled than nonsmokers)

• limiting alcohol consumption (evidence here exists but is weaker)

• exercising regularly (“significantly improved skin elasticity and upper dermal structure, and RT also improved dermal thickness”)

Niacinamide

Slightly improves fine lines, tone, radiance, and barrier function, and does not irritate skin. It pairs well with retinoids, as it can reduce irritation while maintaining efficacy.

Sensitive / damaged / dry skin

Ceramides can help somewhat if your skin barrier is damaged or your skin feels sensitive (such as after too much retinoids)

Hyaluronic acid can also help to moisturise your skin.

Vitamin C and derivatives

There is some limited evidence this might slightly reduce photo-aging, but the effect is far smaller and more marginal compared to suncreams. It can also slightly exfoliate.

Callogen supplements

Multiple RCT meta-analyses show modest benefits for skin hydration/elasticity after ~8–12 weeks. Source seems less important than dose and hydrolysis.3

Exfoliants

There are some exfoliating solutions (acids, scrubs, etc) that temporarily brighten & smooth the skin, but at the cost of damaging the skin’s moisture barrier and being generally harsh. You can try these, but I generally err towards thinking gentler skincare is better.

Red light therapy

Some early results says it helps with modest anti-aging and laxity benefits, but requires consistent daily use for 8-10+ weeks. Home devices have lower irradiance than professional panels. Low risk but there is a lot of inconsistency on best techniques.

Closing

These are some of the main basic things with skincare. I will discuss more complex specialized methods another day