The short answer
Skip the toner, and skip one of the two acids. Not both acids — one. That takes the routine from $274.39 to about $147.98, and for most people it works better, not worse.
Which acid you drop depends on what your skin is actually doing. That's the rest of this page.
Six-step routines are how skincare gets sold, and there's nothing wrong with the six products on the skincare page — I picked them. But laid out in order, that routine has a problem most people won't spot until their face is stinging.
There are two acids in here
Step three is Alpha-H Liquid Gold, a 5% glycolic that you sweep on at night and leave. Step four is the Paula's Choice 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant, salicylic acid that works inside the pore rather than on the surface.
Both are exfoliants. They do different jobs and either is defensible on its own. Running both, on the same face, several nights a week, is how people end up with a barrier that stings when they put water on it.
The step numbering doesn't help. Numbering something 3 and 4 implies you do 3 and then 4, which is fine for cleanser-then-toner and actively bad here. That's on me for laying the page out that way, and it's why this article exists.
Keep the glycolic if
- Your complaint is dullness, rough texture, or fine lines rather than breakouts.
- You want the visible-in-a-fortnight result — glycolic works on the surface, so it shows sooner.
- You can live with a sting. It's $84.95, and the label says start at two nights a week for a reason.
Keep the salicylic if
- You get blackheads, or the small bumps that never come to a head.
- Your skin is oily or congested rather than dry.
- You'd rather have the cheaper one — it's $54.00, and it's the more useful of the two for most Australian faces in summer.
Nothing about the salicylic feels like it's working, which is a feature. If a product tingles, that's the product telling you something, and it isn't always good news.
The toner is the other one to skip
LANEIGE Cream Skin Cerapeptide Toner is $41.46 and it's genuinely nice — it has the slip of a light moisturiser and it softens skin in one step instead of two.
That's exactly the problem. It behaves like a light moisturiser, and step five is already a moisturiser. If your skin is dry enough to want both, buy the richer cream and use more of it; if it isn't, you're spending $41.46 to do a job the next product does anyway.
Toners earn their place when they do something the rest of the routine doesn't — a clarifying one for oily skin, say. A hydrating toner sandwiched between a cream cleanser and a ceramide cream is the most skippable thing on the shelf.
What I wouldn't skip
Two things, and they're the cheapest and the second cheapest.
The cleanser. Tatcha The Rice Wash is $22 and it takes the day off without leaving your face tight, which is the entire job. One caveat worth knowing: it won't shift heavy sunscreen on its own, so on days you've properly applied SPF, cleanse twice.
The sunscreen. La Roche-Posay Anthelios UVMune 400 at $35.99 does more for how your skin looks in five years than every other product on this page combined, and it isn't close. It's alcohol-forward, so if you run very dry, put the moisturiser underneath rather than skipping it.
The version I'd actually buy
| Step | Product | Price | Keep? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cleanser | Tatcha The Rice Wash | $22 | Yes |
| Toner | LANEIGE Cream Skin Cerapeptide Toner | $41.46 | Skip |
| Exfoliant | Alpha-H Liquid Gold | $84.95 | One of these |
| Serum | Paula's Choice 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant | $54 | One of these |
| Moisturiser | La Roche-Posay Toleriane Sensitive Riche | $35.99 | Yes |
| Sunscreen | La Roche-Posay Anthelios UVMune 400 | $35.99 | Yes |
Four products instead of six. $147.98 if you keep the salicylic, $178.93 if you keep the glycolic, against $274.39 for the lot. You save somewhere between $95.46 and $126.41 and your face is less likely to complain.
If you're starting from nothing
Buy the sunscreen and the cleanser. That's $57.99 and it is a real routine — most of the benefit people attribute to eight-step regimens comes from washing properly and wearing SPF.
Add the moisturiser when your skin feels tight. Add an acid when you've done the first three consistently for a month and want more. Buying all six on day one is how products end up unused in a drawer, and how people decide skincare doesn't work for them.
All six, with what Amazon Australia is charging today, are on the skincare page.