Five-Product Skincare Routine - Recommended By Two Leading Dermatologists
What a recent conversation between Peter Attia and dermatologists Dr Tanuj Nakra and Dr Suzan Obagi reveals about preventing facial ageing — and why it’s simpler than the industry wants you to believe.
The skincare industry sells complexity: ten-step routines, dozens of actives, serums layered on serums. So it’s worth knowing that when two respected dermatologists were asked to describe a genuinely evidence-based routine on Peter Attia’s podcast, what they described was strikingly simple. Five products. Two routines. A handful of principles that actually hold up.
It aligns closely with how we think about skin at the clinic: a few things done consistently beats many things done occasionally.
Five products. The discipline is in consistency, not in adding more.
The morning routine
Start with a proper facial cleanser — not body wash, which strips the oils your face needs and compromises its barrier.
Then a vitamin C serum. It works as an antioxidant against daily sun and pollution damage, supports collagen synthesis, and helps even out skin tone. One caveat: vitamin C is chemically unstable, and cheap formulations degrade before they reach your skin. This is a category where quality genuinely matters — choose a stabilised or microencapsulated product.
Finish with sunscreen — the single highest-value step. The dermatologists called daily sunscreen the ultimate “no-regret” action, and preferred mineral filters (zinc oxide or titanium dioxide) over chemical ones. If you do one thing from this entire routine, make it this.
The evening routine
Cleanse again, to remove the day’s sebum, pollution, and remaining sunscreen.
Then a retinoid — the workhorse of evidence-based skincare. Retinoids signal the skin to keep producing collagen and elastin, the structural proteins whose loss shows up as fine lines. Use only a “fingertip unit” for the whole face, and pay attention to the under-eye area and neck, where skin is thinnest and ages first. If it irritates at first, step down rather than stop: a gentler retinaldehyde most nights, full-strength a couple of nights a week, until your skin acclimatises.
Moisturiser is optional — useful for most, but match it to your skin type rather than applying it as a universal rule.
One point worth dwelling on
The dermatologists noted that facial ageing differs by sex — female facial skin tends to lose bone density and facial fat substantially faster than male skin, which makes early, preventative intervention especially valuable.
That’s the principle underpinning how we think about skin: prevention and consistency, started before significant change rather than after. A good daily routine is the foundation everything else builds on. In-clinic treatments work best on skin already being looked after well at home.
If you’d like to talk through how an at-home routine fits alongside our in-clinic approach, that conversation is part of every consultation.
This summarises a podcast discussion for general education. It is not medical advice. Retinoids aren’t suitable for everyone, including during pregnancy — check with a pharmacist, GP, or dermatologist before starting anything new.
