What Order Do You Apply Skincare In? A Quick Guide to Toner, Serum, and Lotion Steps for Morning and Night

Skincare order comes down to texture: thinnest to thickest, water before oil. In the morning it goes cleanse, toner, serum, lotion, sunscreen. At night it goes makeup remover, cleanse, toner, serum, lotion, and if you use a cream, it comes right after the lotion. The two pairs people most often apply in the wrong order are serum and lotion, and lotion and cream.

The scenario in this article is adapted from everyday situations, and the name used is a pseudonym. The content is only a reference for a daily routine, so please adjust it to your own situation.

The sticky note next to Wei's mirror

Wei just started a new job, and her bathroom sink has five bottles lined up on it: toner, serum, lotion, cream, and sunscreen. Some were recommended by friends, and some came home with her from an anniversary sale when she was adding items to reach the spending threshold. She uses them every day, but the order changes every day. In the morning, rushing out the door, she grabs whichever bottle is closest. At night, halfway through a show, she uses whichever one comes to mind.

One day she lined up all five bottles and thought about it for a long time, but she still couldn't say why serum goes before lotion. She decided to spend a weekend settling on a morning and night order. She wrote it on a sticky note, with the five morning steps on the top half and the five night steps on the bottom half, and stuck it next to the mirror.

How the order on the sink gets mixed up

If your order changes a lot too, check whether you're sorting your products in one of these ways:

• By bottle size: big bottles get used first, and small ones are an afterthought.
• By where they sit: whatever is within reach gets picked up first, and anything put away in the cabinet often gets skipped.
• By how new they are: new purchases are exciting so they go on first, and older ones get pushed to the back.
• The same routine morning and night: no difference between heading out in the morning and removing makeup at night.

None of these four approaches looks at what's actually inside the bottle. Once you switch to sorting by texture, the order falls into place.

Check the texture on the back of your hand

The thinner and more watery a product is, the earlier it goes on. The thicker and more oily it is, the later it goes on. Toner is the thinnest, so it's the first thing after washing your face. Serum is usually a bit richer than toner, so it comes second. Lotion is thicker than serum, so it's third. Cream is heavier than lotion, so if you layer it, it goes after the lotion.

If you have a bottle and can't tell which type it is, put a little on the back of your hand and tilt your hand. If it runs and feels like water, it goes earlier. If it feels stickier and heavier when you spread it, it goes later. When two bottles look about the same, follow the order of use written on the packaging. If the serum you have is especially thick, also go by what the packaging says.

Morning: five steps from washing your face to sunscreen

1. Cleanse: wash with warm water and pat dry.
2. Toner: pour it into your palm or onto a cotton pad and gently pat it over your whole face.
3. Serum: take an appropriate amount and spread it outward from the center of your face.
4. Lotion: apply a thin layer, and you can carry it down to your neck while you're at it.
5. Sunscreen: the last step of your skincare, spread evenly over your whole face.

After sunscreen, don't rush into makeup. Wait until it no longer feels sticky to the touch. On mornings when you're short on time, you can keep just one of serum or lotion, but don't skip toner and sunscreen. Apply the steps you keep in their usual order.

If you'd like to put the rest of your pre-work morning in order too, take a look at a set order for the half hour before leaving for work and fit your skincare into one of the steps.

Night: remove makeup first, and cream goes after lotion

1. Makeup remover: on days you wore makeup or sunscreen, remove it first.
2. Cleanse: after removing makeup, wash once more with a facial cleanser.
3. Toner: gently pat it over your whole face, just like in the morning.
4. Serum: the same bottle you used in the morning works fine.
5. Lotion: if you use a cream, apply it after the lotion.

Compared with the morning, the night routine adds makeup removal at the start and leaves out sunscreen at the end. The three middle steps, toner, serum, and lotion, can be exactly the same morning and night, so you don't need a separate set on the sink just for nighttime.

If you want to plan your skincare together with everything else after you get home from work, read it alongside an evening checklist for after work.

Serum and lotion, lotion and cream: the two pairs that get mixed up

Serum bottles are small, so next to a row of big bottles they look like the one you finish with. Cream jars are chunky, so they look like they should go on first as a base. For both pairs, go back to checking the texture on the back of your hand, and they'll fall back into their proper places.

When the weather changes, swap the bottles

When the seasons change, what you change is which bottle you use for each step, not the order. For example, you might switch to a different lotion, or replace the cream you use at night. When you get a new bottle, do the same thing: put a little on the back of your hand, check it, and slot it into the step where it belongs. The order on the sticky note stays the same.

Too many bottles, and how long to wait between layers

When the sink is full and you can't work out the order, sort your bottles into five groups: toner, serum, lotion, cream, and sunscreen. Keep just one bottle from each group on the sink and put the rest in the cabinet. When the bottle on the sink runs out, take one of the stored ones from the same group out to replace it.

You don't need to time each layer. Once the previous layer is spread out and no longer feels slippery, you can move on to the next one.

If you still can't remember, that's what the sticky note by the mirror is for. Take a quick look before you start each time.

Try it once tonight and once tomorrow morning

Tonight, after washing your face, go through the five night steps once. Tomorrow morning, go through the five morning steps once. After two rounds, the order on the sticky note will start turning into muscle memory. If you'd like more practical everyday tips like these, you can subscribe to our lifestyle column, and we'll send you each new article as soon as it's ready.