@Lizzie523 I use a balm/cream/milky cleanser, am not faithful to any in particular, but I really like the ones by Ren (cleansing milk from their sensitive skin line, and hot cloth cleanser from the rosa centifolia line). Balm cleansers may be too rich if you have oily skin. Cetaphil is a good brand, so you may not need to change this step if it’s working for you.
I always remove cleansers with a wet cloth (superdrug bamboo cloth is my favourite). If my skin is feeling a bit oily I follow with a very gentle gel cleanser, like Ren’s rosa centifolia or a “top to toe” baby wash (Asda make an excellent one!).
I went through a few deluxe samples of high-end vitamin C (Sunday Riley, Omorovicza, Kiehl’s and others) and did not like any of them. I’m going back to the one from SR skincare that costs £5.
I don’t use toners at the moment, but I like to spritz rosewater after cleansing and before serum/moisturiser. I sometimes use a hydrating serum with hyaluronic acid, but most I’ve tried don’t seem to make much of a difference. Most moisturisers (and some vitamin C serums) contain hyaluronic acid these days anyway…
I like to use any gentle moisturiser that doesn’t make any ambitious claims. At the moment I’m using a night cream from Simple, or Versed gel cream moisturiser on really hot days (it’s great and should work well on oily skin). I really liked the texture of Drunk Elephant Protini but I don’t think it’s worth the £55 so I haven’t bought it again. I love E45 cream as an eye cream, face mask or even all-over-face cream if my skin is feeling dry, but I imagine it would make many people break out.
I also like using oils as moisturisers at night. Rosehip, squalane and jojoba are my favourites, but it’s really important to test on a small area of your face before going all out, to make sure it won’t break you out. If my skin is not feeling too dry, I use oils around my eye area only.
In terms of actives, I normally use tretinoin (prescription retinoid) 2-3 times a week, but I’m pregnant so am not using it for the time being. I use The Ordinary lactic acid 5% or 10% a few times a week - I think this makes a massive difference to the texture and look of my skin. The effect is similar to the old version of Sunday Riley Good Genes, which was made with lactic acid until a couple of years ago… now they changed the EU/UK version to glycolic acid and I can’t use it because glycolic irritates my skin too much.
Although I’m not oily (I took Accutane 10 years ago for cystic acne, it left my skin extremely dry for a couple of years and normal/dry-ish since then) I usually get spots on the sides of my face, some of them are the painful cyst type. Tretinoin helps prevent and treat them. Luckily during pregnancy I’ve not had much acne, but I’m missing the tretinoin anyway, and will go back on it as soon as I can.
It’s good to try changing one step at a time rather than anything at once, so you know what works and what may cause irritation, breakouts etc.