Skin & skincare

Skincare: identify your skin type, choose a serum and take UV protection seriously

By Rocío Furger · Published August 24, 2026 · Updated August 26, 2026

Four building blocks are enough for facial care: cleansing, moisturiser, one active ingredient, often in a serum, and sunscreen. Everything else is optional. This guide explains how to estimate your skin type at home, what ingredients such as vitamin C, retinol and niacinamide can demonstrably do, and why sunscreen is the only skincare step supported by a randomised trial on the prevention of skin ageing. We do not sell skincare products, so no brand names appear here.

Estimate your skin type at home

Gently wash your face in the evening and apply nothing afterwards. After 30 minutes, press or wipe a paper tissue over your forehead, nose, chin and cheeks.

• Nothing on the tissue and the skin feels tight: more likely dry.
• Oily marks from every area: more likely oily.
• Oily marks only from the forehead, nose and chin: combination skin.
• Neither tightness nor shine: normal.

Sensitive skin is not one of these categories but a tendency to react, which can occur with any of them. The result is a rough guide, not a diagnosis.

Skin condition and skin type are not the same

Type is the underlying tendency; condition describes what the skin is doing now. The condition changes with the season, indoor heating, medication and cleansing habits. Oily skin can feel dry in February. If you adapt care to the current condition, changing it two or three times a year can be entirely appropriate.

Why skin-type classifications are criticised

Self-assessment has been studied for the Fitzpatrick classification, which describes the skin's response to sun. Of 270 participants, 42 per cent could not classify their own reaction using the standard definitions (JAMA Dermatology, 2013). The system says nothing about dryness or oiliness. Cosmetic classifications are also debated; one proposal replaces four broad groups with 16 types (Baumann, 2008). Every facial at Beauty Rocío therefore begins by looking at the skin rather than assigning a category over the phone.

Four steps are enough: cleanse, moisturise, active ingredient, sunscreen

• Cleanse. Remove in the evening what was applied or accumulated during the day. Water alone is enough for many people in the morning.
• Moisturise. Use a cream that feels comfortable and that you will apply daily.
• Choose one active. Use a serum with one deliberately selected ingredient rather than three new actives at once.
• Protect from the sun. Apply in the morning throughout the year.

Why the specific moisturiser often matters less than regular use

The largest comparison comes from eczema care: 77 randomised studies with 6,603 participants, summarised for the Cochrane Collaboration. It found no convincing evidence that one moisturiser was better than another; creams containing urea and glycerine performed well. These data come from diseased skin, so they cannot be transferred in every detail. The useful principle is that the moisturiser you use consistently is the one most likely to help.

What you can omit

For home use, the research known to us does not show that toner, essence, facial oil, eye cream or sheet masks add something the four basic steps cannot provide. If time is limited, remove these first.

Active ingredients one by one: what a facial serum can do

A serum is a formulation, not a promise. What matters is the ingredient, its concentration and how the product is formulated.

Vitamin C

The important question is not simply whether vitamin C is present, but how it is formulated. In classic absorption studies, L-ascorbic acid needed a pH below 3.5 to enter the skin (Pinnell, 2001). Common derivatives did not increase tissue levels even though they are sold as equivalent, more stable alternatives. The work used pig skin and is old, so the question remains open.

Retinol and retinoic acid

Retinoic acid is a medicine in Switzerland and belongs under medical supervision; a beauty salon may neither use nor recommend it. Few skincare ingredients have as much research. A meta-analysis of eight studies involving 1,361 people found a significant improvement in fine and coarse wrinkles. Adverse effects were also significantly more common than with the comparator lotion (odds ratio 3.1).

Cosmetic retinol is weaker but not inactive. In a double-blind study of 36 very elderly people, a lotion containing 0.4 per cent retinol improved fine wrinkles more than its vehicle over 24 weeks. It was tested on the forearm rather than the face and on naturally aged skin. Initial dryness, flaking and burning are real; how long this adaptation phase lasts has not been established.

What changed for products newly placed on the market from November 2025

Since 1 November 2025, maximum levels apply: 0.3 per cent retinol equivalent in facial products and 0.05 per cent in body lotion, together with a warning to consider vitamin A intake from other sources. The rule comes from EU cosmetics law and applies in Switzerland through Article 54 of the Foodstuffs and Utility Articles Ordinance (LGV). Under the EU act, products placed on the market earlier may continue to be supplied until 1 May 2027, so higher-dose stock may still appear on shelves.

Retinol during pregnancy

Evidence and recommendations do not fully align. A Nordic cohort study of 2,172 pregnancies exposed to topical retinoids in the first trimester found no substantial increase in major malformations. It recorded prescribed medicines; comparable data for cosmetic retinol are unavailable. The authors still consider a precautionary approach justified, and Swissmedic lists retinoids as contraindicated during pregnancy. This is a decision for your doctor, not for us.

Niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, acids and ceramides

Niacinamide is supported by one frequently cited study. In a 12-week, placebo-controlled study of 50 women, the half of the face treated with five per cent niacinamide improved in fine lines, texture and red blotchiness. All authors were employees of the manufacturer.

Hyaluronic acid behaves differently depending on molecular size. Small molecules can pass through the stratum corneum; large ones remain on top as a moisture-retaining film. Whether the advertising claim that it binds a thousand times its weight in water is exact is secondary: a hyaluronic serum does not replace moisturiser but sits beneath it.

Alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) loosen connections between the outermost corneocytes; salicylic acid (a BHA) is oil-soluble. A 2024 review considers effects on skin appearance and photoageing broadly documented but says optimum concentrations remain undefined. We prefer to schedule fruit-acid treatments in months with less sun.

Ceramides are lipids in the skin barrier. In a manufacturer-funded study of 100 adults with moderate eczema, barrier measurements improved substantially over 28 days, but the eczema score did not improve more than with placebo. A measurement and a visible clinical result are not the same thing.

Combinations that can be difficult

The common warning that vitamin C and niacinamide must not be applied together is not supported by clinical data. It has not been disproved; it simply has not been studied, and the same applies to the opposite claim. Retinol and fruit acids, however, can both irritate. Applying them on the same evening makes it harder to identify what caused a reaction.

The guide to skincare for men covers what changes on shaved skin. For eyelash serums, continue with eyelash tinting and serums.

UV protection: the step with the strongest evidence

No other skincare step has randomised evidence for preventing visible skin ageing. The trial came from Nambour, Queensland, and followed 903 adults for four and a half years. Daily sunscreen users showed 24 per cent less skin ageing than the comparison group. Queensland lies at 26 degrees south: the direction of effect is relevant elsewhere, but the exact percentage should not be transferred to Switzerland.

The wider Nambour trial randomised 1,621 people, used sunscreen from 1992 to 1996 and followed participants until 2006. In that analysis, 11 melanomas occurred in the daily sunscreen group and 22 in the comparison group. For melanoma overall, the difference narrowly missed conventional statistical significance (p = 0.051); it was significant only for invasive melanomas.

Amount matters more than the number on the bottle

Sun protection factor is measured using two milligrams per square centimetre. For the whole body, that is around six teaspoons, more than most people apply. At half the tested amount, protection can fall by two thirds. The Swiss Society of Dermatology and Venereology therefore recommends applying twice, using at least SPF 30 and SPF 50+ for children. Reapplication restores protection after swimming but does not extend the maximum safe exposure time.

What SPF does not measure

SPF mainly describes protection against UVB. UVA has a separate requirement: protection of at least one third of the stated SPF and a critical wavelength of 370 nanometres. Products meeting both requirements carry the UVA logo, the one UVA indication that can be checked at a glance.

What matters specifically in Switzerland

• UV increases by around ten per cent per 1,000 metres of altitude.
• Snow reflects 50 to 90 per cent of UV radiation.
• Cloud can let through up to 80 per cent of UV radiation.
• March, April, September and October can be deceptive: the air feels cool while UV intensity is already substantial. The Swiss Cancer League recommends active protection from UV Index 3 and shade from 8.

The Federal Office of Public Health and the Swiss Cancer League put the same measures first: shade, clothing, a hat and sunglasses provide the primary protection; sunscreen supplements them. Avoiding direct sun between 11:00 and 15:00 costs nothing and has the greatest effect. Sunbeds do not safely “prepare” the skin; the Swiss Society of Dermatology and Venereology explicitly advises against them.

Korean skincare: what remains of the ten-step routine

The multi-step routine is more considered than its reputation suggests: two-stage cleansing, light-to-rich layers, actives in the middle and sunscreen at the end. What is missing is a comparison. We found no randomised medical study comparing ten steps with four. That is not evidence against the routine; the question has simply not been studied. Individual ingredients have evidence, not the ritual as a whole.

There is evidence for one objection to long routines: more cosmetic products are used on the face than on any other body area, and cosmetic contact allergy commonly appears there. If you react after applying ten products, you have ten suspects. With four, you have four.

“Non-comedogenic” and what such claims are worth

The term is intended to mean that a product does not clog pores. It has no statutory definition and no standardised test. A 2025 review, for which we could only access the abstract, describes the gap: no standard test, no oversight, testing on rabbit ears rather than human skin and tests on individual ingredients rather than finished formulas.

The claim may not simply be invented. Under the Swiss Ordinance on Cosmetics, every advertising claim must be substantiated; anyone transferring an ingredient property to the finished product must demonstrate that the effective concentration is present. “Non-comedogenic” is undefined, but that does not make the claim unrestricted.

When skincare is not the answer and a doctor should assess the skin

Under Swiss law, cosmetics may clean, perfume, change appearance, protect, keep the body in good condition and influence body odour. They may do no more. Inflamed nodules, a changing mole, eczema that does not settle with basic care and any lesion that bleeds belong in a medical practice. A beautician does not diagnose, and neither do we.

Sometimes the right answer is less. Skin that has burned for weeks does not need a new active routine but a pause from everything except gentle cleansing, moisturiser and sun protection. Rocío Furger has worked in the profession since earning her diploma in 2001 and will also tell you when the right answer is “nothing new for now”.

Sources & review date

• van Zuuren et al.: Emollients and moisturisers for eczema – Cochrane review of 77 randomised studies.
• Samuel et al.: Interventions for photodamaged skin – systematic review of randomised studies on photodamaged skin.
• Hughes et al.: Sunscreen and prevention of skin aging – randomised long-term study of daily sunscreen.
• Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office: claims made for cosmetics – Swiss rules on substantiation and misleading claims.

Sources reviewed: 24 August 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best facial skincare?

There is no single product answer. The largest comparison of moisturisers found no convincing evidence that one worked better than another. What makes the practical difference is whether you use it every day.

What skincare suits dry skin?

Choose a richer moisturiser, cleanse less often and more gently, and avoid introducing several irritating actives together. First consider whether heating or frequent washing has caused temporary dryness rather than revealing your underlying skin type.

What skincare suits sensitive skin?

Keep the routine short and introduce new products one by one. Sensitivity is not a separate category alongside dry and oily skin but a tendency to react. If a product burns, stop using it and give the barrier time to settle.

Does a vitamin C serum do anything?

It depends on the formulation. In classic studies, L-ascorbic acid entered the skin only at an acidic pH, while common derivatives did not raise tissue levels. Give a new serum weeks rather than days before judging it.

Does serum go before or after moisturiser?

Apply serum to cleansed skin first, then moisturiser. Thin to thick is the only sequencing rule most people need; a serum does not replace moisturiser.

May I use retinol during pregnancy?

Ask your doctor. Swissmedic lists retinoids as contraindicated during pregnancy. The section above explains what studies show and where their limits lie.

Is natural skincare better?

An ingredient's origin says nothing by itself about effectiveness or tolerance. The requirement to substantiate advertising claims applies equally to plant-derived products. We sell no skincare products and recommend no ideology.

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