The Wirecutter Show Episode 35: Simple and Affordable Skin Care

New York Times

09-04-2025

DR. DHINGRA: One of my favorite guilty pleasures I go on the skincare subreddit-
CHRISTINE: Oh, yeah.
DR. DHINGRA: ...just to see what people are talking about. And it's funny because I'm actually nodding proudly at people when they use scientifically sound advice there.
CHRISTINE: I'm Christine Cyr Clisset.
CAIRA: I'm Caira Blackwell.
ROSIE: I'm Rosie Guerin, and you're listening to The Wirecutter Show .
CAIRA: This episode is called Simple and Affordable Skincare.
ROSIE: Hi, guys.
CAIRA: Hey there.
CAIRA: I'm so excited about our topic today, it's Skincare...which is a new subject area for Wirecutter, right?
CHRISTINE: Yeah, we've never had much on the site about this but now there's a complete new section. It's great.
ROSIE: I mean, personally I've been a skincare minimalist, but if you go on social media...
CAIRA: There's always something.
ROSIE: There's always something. You're constantly marketed, this is the best face cream, this is the best vitamin C, this is the thing that's going to change your life and give you a chemical facelift or whatever."
CHRISTINE: It's not even just Instagram, it's magazines. You never really know who to trust. It feels like everyone is getting paid under the table to promote different products and I never feel like I can quite trust what I'm reading.
CAIRA: Yeah, somebody who is a minimalist in skincare like you, Rosie, I think that our coverage is exactly what you need because we really cut through all the noise and we try to figure out what are the basic things that you actually need that won't break your bank and it will actually work.
CHRISTINE: We have a variety of guides that we just came out with. We came out with a guide to facial moisturizers, vitamin C serums, retinols, chemical exfoliants, and body lotions. I think like the overall theme of all of these guides is that we have a lot of really affordable picks in these pieces. There are some like splurge worthy things, but a lot of things that you can buy at a drugstore, at maybe a Sephora if you're getting fancy, but by and large it's stuff that is really, really accessible to most people.
CAIRA: Yeah, I'm so happy that we're finally doing this. Skincare has kind of been a latent interest of mine. I've also done a lot of reporting on sunscreen, so this intersects with some of the things that I have been reporting on and that we get to talk about today.
Our first guest is Dr. Nikhil Dhingra, who is a board certified dermatologist and one of my OG sources back in the day for our facial sunscreen guide. So he's going to tell us how to determine what kind of skin you have and the most important things to keep in mind before you go out and try anything new. And then we're going to speak with Rory Evans, a senior staff writer on our beauty team here at Wirecutter. And Rory is going to talk about her testing methods and how to build an inexpensive drugstore skincare routine your skin will love and your wallet too.
CHRISTINE: After the break, Dr. Dhingra's expert advice for taking care of your skin. We'll be right back.
CAIRA: Welcome back. With us now is Dr. Nikhil Dhingra, who's a board certified dermatologist at Spring Street Dermatology. So one quick disclosure, Dr. Dhingra is actually Rosie's really good friend, but before I even met Rosie, I've used him as a source for my research on facial sunscreens multiple times. Dr. Dhingra also used to read all the ingredients on skincare products as a little kid, so he's got a real love for dermatology and helping people figure out what's going on with their skin.
CHRISTINE: Welcome.
DR. DHINGRA: Thank you. Very excited to be here.
CHRISTINE: I'm really excited to talk to you today because I feel like I'm going to get to get into all the nitty-gritty details that I'm always curious about. You know, skincare is a really hard topic to cover. It's very individual, everybody's skin is different. So I'd like to know from your perspective as a dermatologist, what is the single best thing that people can do for their skin?
DR. DHINGRA: I think avoiding doing too much to it. I think the concept of like more is better both in terms of like the number of ingredients and how much they're spending, I think those are both counterproductive. I think a very stripped down routine where you're just doing some very basic things is actually going to yield you better results than doing too much all at the same time especially.
CHRISTINE: So less is more basically.
DR. DHINGRA: Less is more.
CHRISTINE: And would you say that's true for all age groups? I'm in my 40s, I feel like that's different than Caira, who's in her 20s.
CAIRA: I'm a baby.
DR. DHINGRA: Yes, I think that is generally true for all age groups. You know, I think the panic of aging definitely kicks in as you get older, but your skin also can be more sensitive as you get older. It tends to start drying out, you start making less oil. So as a result, if you do too much to it's going to still work out counterproductively. I typically will tell people when you're picking things, be intentional.
CAIRA: That's really good to know. But I think also like when it just comes to knowing your own skin, I feel like it's hard for people to really figure out what kind of skin they have. Is it dry? Is it combo? Is it oily? How can people figure out what kind of skin they have?
DR. DHINGRA: It's funny, people come to the office all the time for medical appointments and they'll ask me, "Can you tell me what skin type I have?" But a lot of it is subjective observation. It's kind of getting a sense, especially from a young age of what your skin looks like, what it feels like, and also how it reacts to things in the environment and also to things that you're applying to the skin. I think getting a good sense of what your skin looks like and how it feels before you do a lot to it is kind of critical because once you start introducing one product after another, it kind of changes the dynamic also.
CAIRA: Right. When we spoke last, you told me something really surprising, which is that dry skin is actually more prone to being sensitive vs oily skin. Oily skin is pretty hardy and you can try more out on it, right?
DR. DHINGRA: Yeah, there's overlap. I think the skin type I actually struggle with the most in the office are oily skin types with sensitive skin because it's a very hard combo to deal with sometimes. A lot of times dry skin tends to be prone to aggravation, especially in the age of too many active ingredients, a lot of which actually disrupt skin barriers. Having a baseline sort of oily layer of skin tends to protect the skin a little bit. It's creating a little bit of a buffer, whereas people who are prone to dryness, they add other things that make them drier, it starts to irritate their skin and it causes them to flare up with things like eczema for example.
CHRISTINE: Is there any difference when we talk about melanated skin or olive-toned skin in terms of the sensitivity or how you assess the skin?
DR. DHINGRA: Yes and no. I think it changes how we approach things in terms of what ingredients to introduce because I think obviously issues of hyperpigmentation are a little more common with more melanin in the skin. So bigger emphasis on sunscreen for example, especially if there are other medical issues at play, things like rashes for example, or acne.
CAIRA: Which is really interesting because I know a lot of black people in my life are like, "I don't need sunscreen."
DR. DHINGRA: Right, but I think the thing is...I have melanin in my skin too. I have a bit of an olive complexion. You get a single pimple and it can leave a dark mark for six months or longer. You get a little bit of sunlight and that's going to prolong that.
CAIRA: Preaching to the choir.
DR. DHINGRA: Right? Our melanocytes are ready to shoot out extra layers of melanin and protection, but that also is a typical response to sun exposure no matter what. Beyond that, I don't think there's a change in sensitivity. I think things like rosacea, for example, are really under-diagnosed in skin of color. People with rosacea have very sensitive skin. They tend to be very reactive, prone to redness, and I think if you have some melanin, it's harder to assess that redness. And so I see people all the time, they go and they buy a couple of products and then all of a sudden they're just, it's not suiting them. Their skin's getting redder and it just doesn't totally work out. So there are some things to take into account. There are some exceptions to the rule.
CHRISTINE: So once you've taken the step of assessing your skin, kind of understanding what your skin needs, what's the next step? Are there kind of foundational types of products you should be focused on?
DR. DHINGRA: I think the key thing when you're trying to build a fundamental skincare routine is you have to start with the basics. A cleanser, a moisturizer and a sunscreen that you'll like the feel of. Cleansers, first of all, I emphasize it's very different than soap. I have people who still come to the office and they're using a bar soap on their face. Conceptually they're the same. They contain things called surfactants that sort of lift dirt and debris off the skin. But soaps have a lot more, they're harsher, they tend to be rougher on the skin and our body can handle it in some cases, but our faces not so much. So getting a good cleanser, usually starting with something really gentle and boring and basic is kind of a good starting point. You can always tweak things in the future.
After you cleanse, you want to make sure that you're repairing that skin barrier using a moisturizer that's also suitable for your skin type. A couple of things that always drive me crazy, there are things like the use of oils and fragrances in skin moisturizers, I think those are both counterproductive. Oils are not great hydrators, they're there to trap water into the skin. But a lot of good skincare products already have ingredients that do that. So finding something that's not greasy, that's not going to break you out, that's not going to irritate your skin really helpful because it encourages you to stick to that product. I think the same thing goes for sunscreen too. I'm not saying go and buy like Coppertone for the beach to walk around New York City on a day-to-day basis, a good moisturizer again with the same principles that just has some SPF in it is a good start.
CAIRA: So, our skincare team at Wirecutter hasn't tested cleansers yet. That is in the works, though. What are some good affordable ones that you'd recommend?
DR. DHINGRA: I think I tend to stick with the basics, Cetaphil and CeraVe, and then my favorite personally, I like La Roche-Posay. I say if you want to go to the drugstore and feel a little bougie, that's kind of the best way to do it.
CHRISTINE: Yeah, I do. I like to get La Roche-Posay for that reason.
CAIRA: See?
DR. DHINGRA: Specifically, they have a product line called the Toleriane, I tend to start a lot of my patients on. I like that line, one, because the ingredient list is really short. I'll switch patients off, they'll come in using an organic cleanser or something very clean beauty. Those clean beauty products have really long ingredient lists still, a lot of room for irritation, whereas the Toleriane line is really short. They have a hydrating option, they have a purifying one that's gel-based, and then they have a nice in-between creamy mousse too. So it kind of covers everyone's needs.
CHRISTINE: All right. You've addressed like the holy trinity of skincare, right? It's the face wash, it's the moisturizer, it's the sunscreen, but we are all inundated constantly with so many products. Are there product categories that you think are actually worth it? Things that really work when you have somebody coming to you and asking like, "I want anti-aging," or, "I want my skin to look better," what are the products that you recommend?
DR. DHINGRA: I think there are a couple of non-negotiables if you're trying to start with anti-aging. And I think the first is just a retinol. You have your moisturizer, your sunscreen, and your cleanser on board. And when I say on board, I mean do it for a few months, make sure you don't react to them. A retinol just has so much evidence behind it. In medicine, we tend to think about the evidence, right? Where is the data strong? And I tend to look for things that are tested in humans and actual patients and retinol just has a lot of science behind it.
Originally it was derived for acne, but retinols are easily available over the counter. Every company has them now. You don't need to break the bank anymore if you're trying to start here. We know that it has lots of perks, it helps with acne, especially in prescription form. It helps with fine lines and wrinkles because it stimulates collagen production. It sort of inhibits the breakdown of your skin's supportive structure, something called the extracellular matrix. It helps with hyperpigmentation issues and melasma, it helps with sun damage. Also, there's some data to suggest that retinoids in particular, which are prescription strength, seem to combat some of the sort of damage done by sun, so potentially cancer protective effects too.
So really there's such a body of evidence to suggest that that's helpful. I think it sort of drives me up the wall sometimes when someone tries to start other things that are not as driven as much by data and they end up irritating themselves and then they don't give themselves a chance with something like a retinol. So that's always step number one, especially when you're starting to think about anti-aging maybe in like your 20s, late 20s.
CHRISTINE: Can you explain the difference between a retinol and a retinoid?
DR. DHINGRA: Most retinoids tend to require a prescription, an exception being something like Adapalene or different over the counter. People will interchange the two terms all the time, but a retinol is much milder in terms of intensity. It's a great target for someone looking for fine lines and wrinkles, something that maybe won't aggravate their skin too much, but it's not going to do a lot when you're dealing with things like acne. On average, I'd say a retinoid is at least 20 times stronger than a retinol. If someone hasn't started with anything, start with a retinol first unless you're dealing with specific medical issues like acne, in which case you'd want to see a professional.
CHRISTINE: So beyond a retinoid or a retinol, what are the other products that you'd recommend?
DR. DHINGRA: Vitamin C probably second in line. I don't think it's a must-have. First of all, there's a lot of variation in quality. I think there's a lot of hype behind it. There's not a lot of data to support it in general.
CHRISTINE: Interesting.
DR. DHINGRA: We do know that there is some benefit to collagen production. We know that it has antioxidant benefits. Antioxidant benefits typically help people, especially when they have a lot of sun damage. And we know that vitamin C can help clear up things like melasma or marks from acne. But at the same time, vitamin C is an acid and acids and things like retinols don't always play well together. So I think prioritizing a vitamin C over a retinol still, not necessarily the order I would go. It's a nice-to-have once you're doing a retinoid consistently.
One of my favorite sort of guilty pleasures, I go on the skincare subreddit.
CAIRA: Oh, yeah.
DR. DHINGRA: ...just to see what people are talking about. And it's funny because I'm actually kind of like nodding proudly at people when they like use scientifically sound advice there. And you see people reacting all the time in like very specific patterns. Some people get eczema-like reactions. Some people get rosacea flareups because of the potential irritation factor there. And then the other thing is a lot of vitamin C's are often oil-based. And I said earlier I don't like oil-based ingredients in general because it's hard to predict what it'll do to people's skin.
CHRISTINE: What do you think about exfoliants?
DR. DHINGRA: I think exfoliants can be done in moderation. A retinol is an exfoliant for example. Beyond that, I tend to prefer chemical exfoliants over physical exfoliants. Physical exfoliants are things like the St. Ives.
CAIRA: Oh, my god.
DR. DHINGRA: I think we all had a phase of using it some point.
CAIRA: Middle school, we loved St. Ives.
DR. DHINGRA: Yeah, but it turns out you're just making micro injuries to the skin. You're creating a lot of trauma. It really induces sort of a reactivity if your skin is very sensitive. But you know, certainly very abrasive, very harsh. And that abrasiveness then decreases your ability to tolerate anything else. The classic case is someone says, "Oh, I've been using this and now I put everything on, like a moisturizer, burns." I've had people say Aquaphor burns. It's pretty hard for something like Aquaphor to cause a skin irritation. So once you get to that point, your barrier is very disrupted and physically scrubbing the skin is a great shortcut to doing that.
CAIRA: I have to fight myself whenever I have a minor breakout to not just try a bunch of different things. I just want something to fix it. But what would you recommend people do if they're trying a new product? Like how long should they realistically wait to see it actually working?
DR. DHINGRA: Officially, they'll tell you a month, but I say three months, at least. One, you can react to things at any time. A lot of it is actually irritation, it's not an allergic reaction. I get people all the time who say, oh, "I tried that. I was allergic to it." That's only about one in five reactions, four out of five times, you're just irritated. Something just set a switch off whether it's maybe you're using a product and it was fine until it got really cold outside or maybe you went and added a second ingredient and it caused an issue. So start with a product every three months, see how you do first. There's no rush to any of this. And once you're starting to see the benefits, then you can start to introduce other things. And that's true whether it's over the counter product or if it's something prescription grade that your dermatologist prescribed.
CHRISTINE: I find that there's a lot of ads for hyaluronic acid. What do you think about hyaluronic acid?
DR. DHINGRA: Yeah, so hyaluronic acid inherently is what we call a humectant. It's designed to draw water to the skin, but it's a little bit over-hyped in terms of the science. There's not a lot of good data to suggest that they work the way that they claim they do. And I think beyond that, a good basic moisturizer. A lot of the drugstore companies, they already include hyaluronic acid in their ingredient list. So it almost just feels like an extraneous part of your routine, like a self-care routine to do that. But if you're doing a moisturizer with it's already unnecessary. The ingredient you're often looking for is something like sodium hyaluronate, which is on the ingredient list and a lot of these products. And if that already has it in there, and if you have like a ceramide, which is an occlusive, you already have multiple things in one. You don't need multiple products then.
CHRISTINE: Which you mentioned earlier, CeraVe, their just regular moisturizer has all those things in it.
DR. DHINGRA: It does, it does.
DR. DHINGRA: I like cost efficacy. I think the other thing is these drugstore brands actually do a lot of R and D. They do a lot of testing and they don't necessarily have the need to add things like fragrances and other additives that I think we historically and psychologically associate with being luxurious, but those things cost money for a company to include, number one. Two, you're then also paying for the marketing behind these companies that maybe they're not selling in as much volume, but they're selling it in designer stores or at Sephora. But again, these things then work against us in terms of our skin quality.
CHRISTINE: I can say from my child who watches YouTube skincare videos all the time, that very complicated skincare routines seem to be very popular. Like the 10 step, 12 step, 20 step, the fancy new trend. But you said earlier, keeping it simple is the important thing, right?
DR. DHINGRA: Be intentional with what you're doing to your skin. Every ingredient you introduce, you introduce a layer of potential irritation. And it also takes away from your ability to tolerate things. So if you want to go and enjoy skincare, it's often counterproductive to do that much to your skin because you're actually working away from being able to handle it as you get older too. Like if you start at 10 years old and you're doing a 20 step skincare routine, what's going happen at 20 when you're sensitive to a lot of ingredients or maybe you developed an allergy to something?
CHRISTINE: Oh, so it's like you've become sensitized to these ingredients and then you can't handle them anymore.
DR. DHINGRA: Right. Actually, I say this all the time to patients. A lot of times patients will come in and they'll say, "I have sensitive skin." I actually don't think a lot of people have sensitive skin. I think a lot of people sensitize their skin. I think they get into sort of the fallacy of doing too much. And then what happens is they end up reacting to things. I think there are definitely a pool of people who have sensitive skin and you can kind of identify them. They turn red, they get breakouts, they get scaly rashes. But that's not a large percent of people. Most of us tend to have fairly neutral skin. It's just when we start to do too much to it that we start to run into issues. And kids in particular, their barriers are not fully formed yet. So those irritants and allergens are more likely to penetrate deeper into the skin. And not to knock kids doing a routine, getting them into the habit of washing their faces. Again, a cleanser, a moisturizer, and sunscreen. I can't knock them doing that at the age of even nine. Getting a teenage boy to wash their face even once a day is wonderful, right? It would be a major win right there if we got them to start cleaning the greasiness and the dirt because it'll help them down the line. Not to genderize skincare, but-
CAIRA: No, I've dated many a man who'll still use like Dial.
DR. DHINGRA: Dial. Dial or Irish Spring. I don't-
CHRISTINE: Just get that bottle of CeraVe.
CAIRA: Dial hand soap for their face.
CAIRA: Above all else, keep it simple. You want a good cleanser, a good moisturizer, and a great sunscreen that you will use every single day. But if you want to spice things up a little bit, then you can add on a retinol, which you can get over the counter for fairly cheap. And that can do wonders for your skin, but you have to give it time. Same goes with vitamin C. Pretty good, but you're going to want to set your expectations a little bit lower.
CHRISTINE: We're going to take a quick break and when we're back, we're going to talk about Wirecutter's skincare coverage with senior staff writer Rory Evans. We'll be right back.
CAIRA: Welcome back. Before the break we really dove deep with Dr. Nihkil Dhingra about how to build a simple skincare routine--and the products that work. Now we're going to get into the products Wirecutter has actually tested. We've finally taken the plunge into testing skincare, and it shouldn't be surprising that we've got some great picks---and many are really, really affordable Here to talk about those with us is Rory Evans. She's Wirecutter's skincare writer who's been covering this area for over 20 years. She also previously worked at Allure, Real Simple, and Martha Stewart.
CHRISTINE: Rory, welcome to the show.
RORY: Thank you.
CHRISTINE: It's really nice to have you here.You just came out with guides to facial moisturizers, exfoliants, retinols and vitamin C.
RORY: Right.
CHRISTINE: So as you approached the testing and kind of determining what would be the recommended products in our guides, how did you make sure that the things that we're recommending will be useful and applicable to as wide a group of people as possible?
RORY: I start any guide by going to Sephora, Target, CVS, Walgreens, a local family owned pharmacy. And I'm just writing down names, snapping pictures and paying attention to like, "Oh, that's like a low shelf and it looks kind of dusty, but what's that brand?" Also, what's sold out at Target? Because clearly that's kind of a good clue. And then I also ask Wirecutter staffers, what do you use? What have you loved? What have you used and hated? What have you used and sort of outgrown or what have you brought into your skincare as you've gotten older? And then also talk to a couple of cosmetic chemists, three, sometimes four dermatologists get their what to look for. And then you go online and you read so many reviews. Again, approaching it like a shopper, but almost like a full-time shopper, like someone who really just digs into and goes to the 10th page of the reviews and all those things that I think all of us at Wirecutter kind of look at.
CAIRA: I know when I'm testing sunscreens, I will do the same process. I will go through and I'll try out all these sunscreens myself and then when I finally eliminate enough to maybe a group of four, five, six sunscreens, then I will send it out to other Wirecutter staffers to test in what we call panel testing. So what number do you usually look to narrow it down to before you start group testing your picks?
RORY: I test more than five. But I panel test more than five because we usually send to different skin types. I will maybe have a couple of different panels like dry skin, sensitive skin, oily skin, and then each of those panels gets four or five to test.
CAIRA: And what do you usually ask them to look for when they're testing?
RORY: Perceived benefits, like, "How do you feel this is working? How do you enjoy using it? Is it easy to use? What are the overall vibes? Do you hate the fragrance?" Sometimes fragrance-free products still have an aroma to them because they don't have masking agents. I also just ask them like, "What am I forgetting to ask you? When you have wet hands, is this cap too small to actually deal with?"
CHRISTINE: And one thing that I can only imagine that some listeners might be wondering, because I think in the sort of cosmetic world, there's a lot of freebies that happen. Like I think even with dermatologists, they're sent things for free. How does that play into how we test? Are you ever taking a product that a company is pushing towards you or is it truly just looking, going out as a shopper and saying these are the things that we think shoppers will be most interested in?
RORY: Yeah, it's that. And sometimes a publicist will say, "Oh, I'm going to send you such and such moisturizer, but I have three other brands and they have great moisturizers and I'm going to send those to you too." And I'm like, "No, please don't. I just can't accept it."
ROSIE: I imagine Rory, and correct me if I'm wrong, but we hear from a lot of Wirecutter experts that the testing they do is brand concealed. Was that the case with you where you're doing this panel testing and you're removing the labels?
RORY: I don't...My first interaction is with the labels. The products that I send to the panels are usually brand concealed. I tape over anything that says the brand name.
CAIRA: Well, I love how you also split up your panel testers based off of their skin type. I wanted to ask too about people specifically with melanated skin because I feel like the skincare industry has historically just kind of overlooked that category of people. Do you take that into account when you are testing for different skincare products and have you found that melanated skin does react differently to some products?
RORY: We definitely take it into account when I'm sending stuff to panel, I want panels to be age inclusive, skin type inclusive, and also like black women, white women, men, someone who has a beard, the various things. So we do take that into account a lot. We loved, there was a face cream that we tried and we loved it or two of us loved it. And then a third tester who has melanated skin, she loved the feel, she loved the vibe and she was like, "It made my skin look gray all day." And we were like, "Oh, that can't be a pick."
CHRISTINE: Earlier in the show we talked with Dr. Dhingra, our expert dermatologist, about how there's basically like a holy trinity of face care products and those include face wash, moisturizer, and sunscreen. So let's talk a little bit about what you did with moisturizer.
CHRISTINE: What was your team looking for when you were testing moisturizers and what should people know about them?
RORY: Well, we were looking for very specific ingredients because the other thing is that there's hundreds of them out there and they're all like very close in experience or they all kind of look the same or they all feel the same. So we dug into the ingredients and looked at ingredient panels on that and we talked to dermatologists and they said, look for glycerin, squalane, niacinamide, ceramides. These are all sort of like very moisturizing ingredients that will keep water in your skin, attract moisture to your skin. Those are the ingredients we really looked for. And we kind of made sure that like everything that we recommend has at least-
CHRISTINE: A good number of these ingredients.
RORY: Yeah.
CHRISTINE: How much did packaging play into it? One of my biggest pet peeves is I can feel there is more in the bottle, but I can't get to it. Like if I have a pump bottle. How did you assess packaging?
ROSIE: I've done projects where I'm slicing open pump bottles with a bread knife and there's got to be a better way.
RORY: We definitely considered packaging. I want to say for the moisturizers, a number of them are in tubes. Some of them are in tubs that have a pump. Obviously you just take the lid off and do the thing where you're kind of scraping and-
CAIRA: That's nice.
RORY: Yeah.
CHRISTINE: In this episode, Rory, we are really making an argument that you don't need to overspend on skincare. In the guides you wrote, there are products with a range of prices...And I don't know about you but I really like doing a high/low and understanding what you get at different prices. So I'm hoping you can tell us a little bit, specifically for moisturizers, what is the least expensive and what is the most expensive and what are the differences between those?
RORY: The most expensive is the Augustinus Bader.
CHRISTINE: Which is recommended by all beautiful celebrities everywhere. It's in that beautiful blue bottle and it's like $300.
RORY: Yeah, it's incredibly expensive. More than a few Wirecutter staffers recommended it, sort of said it's a holy grail. CHRISTINE:
What was the low end that you recommend in that guide?