Oil, serum, cream: the order that works

Most body routines fail for the same reason most flat-pack furniture does: the right parts, in the wrong order. Put an oil on dry skin and it slides about. Put a cream over an oil and it sits there, sulking. Get the order right and three products take about two minutes, and keep working until the next shower.

Start damp

Everything begins in the bathroom, not the bedroom. Skin straight out of the shower holds a little water in its outer layer, and that water is the point of the whole exercise. Pat yourself roughly dry, enough that you aren’t dripping, and start within a minute or two. Wait until you’re dressed and the water has gone into the bath mat.

Keep the water warm rather than hot. A very hot shower takes more of the skin’s own oils with it, which is half the reason legs feel tight afterwards.

1. 01

   Serum, to drench

   Two or three pumps, legs and arms first. Hyaluronic acid and sodium PCA draw water into the skin’s surface layers, and on damp skin they have plenty to work with. It sinks in faster than a lotion, so you won’t be standing about.

   Body Serum
2. 02

   Oil, to seal

   Three pumps, pressed in rather than rubbed. Seven plant oils sit over the serum and slow down how fast that water leaves. Give it a minute before you dress: it absorbs, it doesn’t need to be chased.

   Body Oil
3. 03

   Cream, on the rough bits

   A little more where it’s roughest: elbows, knees, heels, shins. 5% hydroxyethyl urea softens thickened patches and 2% panthenol calms them. You don’t need it everywhere, unless everywhere is rough.

   Body Cream

Why that order

Think of it as thin to thick, water to oil. A water-light serum can only reach skin that nothing else has covered yet, and an oil can’t hold in water that was never there. Cream goes last because it is the richest, and because it only goes where it’s needed, which saves you a bottle or two a year.

Water first, oil second. Everything else is a footnote.

Short on time

Some mornings are shorter than two minutes. On warm days the serum alone is plenty. On cold ones, skip the serum and use the oil on damp skin: the shower water stands in for it. If only one thing happens, make it the cream on whatever is roughest. Elbows have long memories.

How much, and where

Three pumps of oil covers legs and arms on most people; a fourth if you’re tall, or if it’s January. The serum goes further than you’d think: two pumps for the limbs, one more if your back and shoulders get dry. The cream is the one to be generous with on the rough bits and sparing with everywhere else.

All three carry their own scent: cardamom and galbanum in the oil, pink pepper and sandalwood in the serum, cucumber and lemon in the cream. Layered, they settle into something warm and green within a few minutes. If you’d rather wear a perfume of your own, the cream is the quietest of the three.

Once a week

On Sunday, or whichever night is yours, start with the Face & Body Scrub in the shower: small circles on damp skin, then rinse. With the dry flakes gone, the serum and the oil land on smooth skin and the glow has somewhere to show. Then carry on as usual.

New to a product? Try it on the inside of your arm first, and skip broken or irritated skin.