Routine

The method exists to remove things water cannot. If your evening face is bare skin and a moisturiser, you have been washing twice for no reason.

Twelve weeks before anything is worth judging, and most people quit at three. The schedule matters more than the strength, and almost nobody is sold the schedule.

We audited five readers' bathroom shelves against what each product was actually doing. The average was nine items and the average useful count was under three.

If you change three products in a fortnight you will never know which one worked. The most valuable thing a routine can have is the ability to be tested.