The Best Skincare Routine for Men

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Reviewed by Dr. Diana Rangaves, PharmD

Having the right skincare routine is something of an art, but it’s also essential for a healthy and handsome complexion. Are you stuck finding a regimen that fits? Check out the kits we’ve put together that represent the best skincare routines for men.

What Should Be in a Skincare Routine for Men?

Every basic skincare routine starts with these three steps: cleansing, exfoliating, and moisturizing. From there, you can build in other products that make sense for your skin. The first step is finding the right cleanser for you, which means considering your skin type and what you’re hoping to get out of a cleanser. Do you want something that removes excess oil so you can go about your day without worrying about a greasy sheen on your face? Or are you looking for something mild that won’t upset your sensitive skin, but will help you feel clean?

Next comes exfoliating, which is necessary for all skin types to rid your skin of dead skin cells that build up and block pores, stopping the helpful skincare ingredients from sinking in. Depending on your skin type, you may want to look for chemical or physical exfoliants – either ingredients that work by loosening the bonds that hold dead skin, or particles that actually remove them.

Typically, you’ll use a cleanser twice a day most days of the week, throwing an exfoliator in your routine instead of a cleanser 1-3 times a week. Of course this is all depending on what your needs are, and what your skin can handle. After cleansing, you have a lot of options. Men with especially oily skin may want to use a toner, which removes any impurities that may have stayed put even after cleansing. Then, you may want to use a serum, which is typically a highly concentrated formula built to deliver a lot of benefits to skin, such as anti-aging benefits or brightening benefits.

Next comes moisturizer, which is essential for men of all skin types. After moisturizing your skin, you may want to apply sunscreen to block harmful UV rays and an eye cream to boost the skin around your eyes. Some men may want a face mask to apply 1-3 times a week to deliver deeper, longer-lasting benefits, and some may look for spot treatment for blemishes or an anti-aging night cream to address wrinkles while you sleep. As long as you have a cleanser, exfoliator, and moisturizer, you should be all set.

What to Look for in a Skincare Kit

Here is what to keep in mind when looking at skincare kits:

• Your Skin Type. Is your skin dry, combination, normal, or oily? Do you have sensitive skin that reacts to harsh products? Think about your skin type as you look through kits and find one that suits you. For example, don’t opt for an ultra-hydrating kit if your skin is oily.
• Covers All the Bases. Whatever the skincare kit, make sure it covers the bases. At the very least, you’ll want a cleanser, exfoliator, and moisturizer. While not all kits contain these three products, look for ones that have the products you’re looking for.
• A Regimen You’ll Stick To. It’s also important to be honest with yourself about the level of skincare commitment you’re looking for. If you’re new to a skincare routine for example, you may not be ready to jump in with a six-step regimen. Take it slow and start with the basics, moving on from there. Make sure you’ll actually use all the products in the kit before purchasing it.
• Clean Formulas. Last but not least, you want to make sure that the skincare kit contains products with clean formulas that don’t contain ingredients like parabens, sulfates, silicones, phthalates, formaldehyde, and artificial dyes and fragrances. These can irritate skin or even be toxic to your body, so look for products that specifically mention the harsh chemicals they’re free from.

1. Blu Atlas Advanced Skincare Kit

The key to the best skincare routine for men is finding a collection of products you can’t live without. Luckily for you, this Advanced Skincare Kit from Blu Atlas is full of exactly that. By harnessing the power of nature in clean, vegan formulas and creating two scent options to spice up your life, Blu Atlas has really got the whole daily skincare regimen thing down. Their products work great on all skin types (yes, even sensitive!), come in glass bottles that make you feel like a classy gentleman, and give you results that you can see and feel. Let’s talk about the products included to better understand why you should make this skincare kit your routine.

Products Included: 

• Volcanic Ash Cleanser. You want your face wash to make you really feel clean, which is just what this Volcanic Ash Cleanser does. Using charcoal and bentonite clay, it digs dirt out of your pores and tones skin, then balances with lactobacillus ferment filtrate, and renews with pomegranate seed oil product you’ll want to use every day! 
• Vitamin C Serum.There’s this vitamin C serum for men who want to fight discoloration or shave a few years off their appearance. It’s packed with a potent vitamin C complex for brightening benefits, plus calming mulberry root, antioxidant-rich apple extract, and conditioning aloe juice.
• Exfoliating Scrub. When you feel like putting your best face forward, there’s this exfoliating scrub. It cleans out pores, protects, softens, and nourishes with ingredients like hibiscus, jojoba oil, bamboo extract, and calming matricaria. 
• Purifying Mask. Every once in a while some pampering is in order, and when that time comes pull out the Blu Atlas Purifying Mask. It draws out impurities with kaolin clay, then revitalizes with the nutrients from goji berry, algae extract, moringa oil, and more. 
• Face Moisturizer. This product absolutely must be a part of your daily routine. Its soft, hydrating formula is lightweight enough not to bother those with oily skin, and its blend of mango seed butter, seaweed, vitamin C, and moringa oil will transform your skin’s tone, texture, and firmness. 
• Restorative Eye Stick. Every skincare routine should include a product to target the skin around your eyes, which is particularly vulnerable. This one addresses puffing, dark circles, and other pesky symptoms with vitamin C, coffee, and rose flower water. 

2. Lumin’s Badass Bundle

This bundle from Lumin provides a fairly extensive skincare routine, allowing you to refresh skin, stop wrinkles, improve dark circles, and keep skin hydrated. These products work great together to target signs of aging, and are suitable for all skin types.

Products Included: 

• Charcoal Face Wash. Activated charcoal is a great detoxifying ingredient that will help you reset your skin health and ready your pores to accept all the great ingredients to follow. This wash also includes lots of antioxidant, soothing, and nourishing benefits in the form of shea butter, green tea, gotu kola, and lots of helpful botanicals.
• Charcoal Scrub. An exfoliator is key to a healthy skincare routine, and this is a particularly good one. Charcoal powder works with lactic acid to buff skin, then important nutrients in green tea, Japanese knotweed, and licorice extract defend and brighten.
• Wrinkle Defense Serum. This serum contains antioxidant-rich vitamin C, but also veggie extracts like tomato and broccoli to diminish wrinkles and other signs of aging.
• Dark Circle Defense. With hyaluronic acid, caffeine, licorice, ginger, and more, this balm works wonders on the skin around your eyes for a more wide awake look.
• Daily Face Moisturizer. The brand’s moisturizer uses ingredients like niacinamide and meadowfoam seed oil to keep skin hydrated, plus provides extra anti-aging benefits with licorice and green tea.

3. Jack Black Skincare Best Sellers

Jack Black is definitely a favorite men’s skincare brand, so you know that their best-selling products are some of the most effective you can find. While this particular kit doesn’t have all you need for a complete skincare regimen, it does cover the basics very well. These products are mild, safe, and smell great so they’re a joy to use.

Products Included: 

• Pure Clean Daily Facial Cleanser. With this product you get both cleansing and toning capabilities so you can skip a step. There are lots of calming botanicals included in this formula, plus witch hazel that takes care of acne, sunburn, and even a blotchy skin tone.
• Double-Duty Face Moisturizer. Protecting your skin from the sun is key to avoiding rapid aging and skin damage, so we love that this moisturizer also serves as a light sunscreen. While SPF 20 goes to work on your behalf, apple and edelweiss extract combat free radical damage and sodium hyaluronate provides skin-plumping moisture.
• Intense Therapy Lip Balm. Your lips need protection from the sun, too! This lip balm provides that defense from UV rays while also smoothing lips with shea and cocoa butter.
• Deep Dive Glycolic Facial Cleanser. Use this either as a thorough cleanser or a mask to give your skin a fresh start. It works with clay to clear pores and then soothes with ingredients like oat kernel, aloe, and allantoin.

4. Kiehl’s Stop the Shine Skincare Set

This set offers the best skincare routine for men with oily skin, reducing and regulating sebum production for a clearer, more matte complexion. The best part is that you can reduce shine without stripping skin of the moisture it needs to stay calm and content! It’s as easy as this three-part set from a name that dominates the men’s skincare scene.

Products Included: 

• Ultra Facial Cleanser. To rid your face of unwanted impurities, there’s this facial cleanser. It uses coconut-derived surfactants to rid your skin of excess oil, then replenishes moisture and nourishes with sweet almond oil, apricot kernel oil, and avocado oil.
• Ultra Pure High Potency Serum. This serum will cut down on that greasy layer over your skin, but also deliver ingredients that help to soothe and plump skin, giving you that contoured look of your glory days. There’s niacinamide to lend a helping hand, sodium hyaluronate for weightless moisture, and glycerin.
• Ultra Facial Oil-Free Gel Cream. Men with oily skin still need to ensure their skin stays well moisturized, and that’s where this gel cream comes in. It’s light and absorbent enough that it won’t contribute to the greasy look or clog pores, treating skin with tocopherol, glycerin, dimethicone, and exfoliating salicylic acid.

5. Biossance Overachievers Set

There’s nothing wrong with being an overachiever, especially when that means you’ll do anything to keep your skin healthy and fresh for as long as possible. This kit from Biossance is made for men who strive to succeed in all areas of life. While you won’t find a whole skincare routine in of itself here (they assume you have a great face wash already), you will find all the products you need to maintain a youthful glow.

Products Included: 

• Squalane + Lactic Acid Resurfacing Night Serum. Before your head hits the pillow, apply this resurfacing night serum to your face. It contains lactic acid to polish your skin overnight, plus lespedeza capitata extract to help you wake up and look refreshed.
• Squalane + Marine Algae Eye Cream. Give the area around your eyes some TLC… Algae, squalane, glycerin, and jojoba esters are the key ingredients that help firm and brighten your eye area to send your appearance back in time.
• Squalane + Vitamin C Rose Oil. Rose flower extract is a potent skin soother and inflammation calmer, getting rid of redness and helping skin heal. With vitamin C and squalane as well, this oil is an instant revitalizer.
• Squalane + Probiotic Gel Moisturizer. Probiotics are important for keeping a skin microbiome that’s well harmonized, helping you avoid irritation in the long run. Ginger root extract provides antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits, and soybean steroids restore skin to its most hydrated self.
• Squalane + Omera Repair Cream. This product is for when a regular moisturizer just isn’t enough, like in the winter. It contains shea butter, hyaluronic acid, ceramides, and more to keep the moisture barrier intact.

6. Disco Complete Skincare Regimen Kit

This is one of the best skincare routines for men, because Disco’s Regimen Kit gives you all the products you need to take excellent care of your skin. Vegan formulas that eschew harmful parabens and sulfates are the norm with Disco, which is great for men with reactive skin.

Products Included: 

• Face Cleanser. Help your skin feel clean with this cleanser stick. It uses charcoal to remove buildup, then hits your face with a blast of moisture in the form of coconut oil and promotes cell regeneration with phytic acid.
• Face Moisturizer. Minimize aging, fight dryness, and protect skin with this moisturizer. It contains anti-inflammatory macadamia oil, brightening vitamin C, and calming matricaria extract.
• Face Scrub. To polish, heal, and calm, try this face scrub a couple times a week. It uses papaya extract to gently nudge old skin on its way, restores skin’s sense of calm with apricot oil, and uses aloe vera to help skin heal.
• Rejuvenating Face Mask. For help fighting acne and restoring your skin’s even tone, there’s this face mask. It works with clay and charcoal to clear your pores, then conditions deeply with aloe and panthenol.
• Repairing Eye Stick. Tackle aging, wrinkles, and puffiness all in one with this product’s blend of caffeine, pycnogenol, niacinamide, and green tea.

7. Caldera + Lab The Regimen

It’s great to have a three-step skincare regimen as a base, and this is one of the best available. Caldera + Lab has combined the only three products you need to use twice a day in order to have a clean, clear, and well-balanced complexion.

Products Included: 

• Balancing Cleanser. To set up your skin for success, this wash clarifies pores with fireweed, shields skin from damage with lotus and glacial minerals, and reinforces the moisture barrier with squalane. There are soothing, moisturizing, and skin clearing ingredients, plus probiotics to stabilize the microbiome.
• Evening Multi-Functional Serum. Your skin naturally repairs as you sleep, but this serum helps it along, boosting moisture levels, firming skin, and encouraging a clearer and brighter complexion. Apricot kernel oil and dandelion are some of the more interesting moisturizing ingredients found in this serum, astragalus root helps skin appear younger, and elderflower brightens all over.
• Fortifying Moisturizer. Men have thicker skin, so they need a formula that can keep up and whip skin into shape. This fortifying moisturizer has it all–plant stem cells and squalane for a stronger barrier to defend skin from environmental stress, sea moss for hydration, immortelle to (like its name) keep your skin immortal, and a tara tree complex to help skin recover from harm. 

8. Sunday Riley Go to Bed With Me Complete Evening Routine

With Go to Bed With Me, you get the whole kit and kaboodle, which makes up the best skincare routine for men… At least the nighttime part of it! While you certainly don’t need to use all these products every night, the kit gives you a selection to use before bedtime as you please.

Products Included: 

• Ceramic Slip Cleanser. Three types of clay work to draw the last funky stuff out of your pores at the end of the day, then rice and oil esters replace moisture and nourish. Start by cleansing your skin with this.
• Pink Drink Essence. Next, all you have to do is gently mist this stuff onto your face and rub it in. It contains peptides, ceramides, honey, chlorella, and more–hydrating heroes that will refresh and ensure that plenty of moisture seeps in overnight.
• A+ High Dose Retinoid Serum. Serum comes next! This one is a pretty intense mixture of anti-aging retinol with algae, CoQ10, and Hawaiian white honey, so you may want to mix it with the next product before applying.
• Luna Sleeping Night Oil. This oil is packed with nourishing and soothing oils, like chia seed, avocado, and green tea. That makes it great to pair with the slightly harsher retinoid serum to ensure that skin doesn’t overreact.
• Good Genes Lactic Acid Treatment. If you’re going all-in on this sleepytime regimen, follow the night oil with the lactic acid treatment, which gently exfoliates and reduces inflammation.
• 5 Stars Retinoid + Niacinamide Eye Serum. To give your eyes a chance to recuperate after a long day, there’s this eye serum at bat next. It contains retinoids to fight wrinkles, plus hydrating niacinamide and antioxidant red poppy seed extract.
• Ice Ceramide Moisturizing Cream. Once your skin has sopped up all the goodness mentioned above, it’s time to seal it all in with the brand’s Ice Ceramide Moisturizing cream. Packed with ceramides for the moisture barrier, algae and coconut for hydration, and vitamin F for moisture and wrinkle control, this is a fantastic final step in the process.

9. Bevel Skin Essentials

Bevel’s products were designed specifically for Black men, taking their unique needs into consideration. This bundle works well for all men, though, providing a quick and convenient three-step routine that will elevate your complexion.

Products Included: 

• Face Wash. This wash will quickly unclog pores and turn the level of brightness up on your face, using coconut water as a hydrating cleansing agent. Tea tree works its antifungal and antibacterial magic to keep acne away. Niacinamide may tighten pores while hydrating, and aloe calms irritation. For a little pre-toning action, there’s also witch hazel in here.
• 2-in-1 Toner. Use these exfoliating pads pre-shave to help avoid ingrown hairs and razor burns. These pads are easy to use–just swipe them across your face–but bring a whole bunch of benefits. Witch hazel helps them tone skin, removing the last impurities from pores, then aloe soothes skin and niacinamide tackles pore size and wrinkles.
• Face Gel. To seal the deal, follow up your toning process with this face gel. It provides lightweight moisture that won’t re-clog pores or trigger a breakout, using apple plus vitamins C and E for antioxidant power along the way. Honey, sunflower seed oil, and tocopherol ensure lasting hydration.

10. Oars + Alps Ultimate Oarsmen Kit

The coolest thing about this set isn’t the fact that it even comes with deodorant–it’s the kit all the products fit into! These products have got you totally covered, giving you all you need to face the world as the best, most confident version of yourself.

Products Included: 

• Natural Charcoal Solid Face Wash. This is kind of like a deodorant stick for your face, which you roll onto skin and then rinse off with water. How fun is that? It’s built with charcoal to lift away dirt and debris, alpine caribous moss to improve elasticity, and a number of mild hydrators.
• Natural Deodorant. While using a deodorant without aluminum, you can go hard on the application without worrying about its health effects. This natural deodorant comes in a number of different scents (with options for men with sensitive pits), soaks up sweat naturally with corn starch, soothes underarm skin, and keeps you confident all day long.
• Ultra-Hydrating Lip Balm. There’s no shine that comes with this lip balm, so you don’t have to worry about looking like you’ve just applied your girlfriend’s lip gloss. It keeps away that chapped lip feeling with beeswax, coconut oil, and soybean oil.
• Natural Face Moisturizer + Eye Cream. A moisturizer that works on both your face and eye area? Yes please! This one has all the moisturizing goodies to keep skin soft, plus additions like antioxidants and alpine caribou moss to fight wrinkles, dark spots, and puffiness around the eyes.
• Natural Wake Up Eye Stick. If undereye bags or dark circles are a serious problem for you, there’s also the natural eye stick. It gets at puffiness and discoloration with ingredients like caffeine, alpine caribou moss, and brightening Persian silk tree extract.

11. Harry’s Full Skincare Suite

Harry’s Full Skincare Suite has the makings of one of the best skincare routines for men, with all the essentials in tow. It will help brighten, clear, and prepare skin for the day ahead. As an added bonus, this is one of the most affordable kits on the list, allowing you to go from zero to a hundred on the skincare effort scale without breaking the bank.

Products Included:

• Exfoliating Face Wash. Dirt, dead skin, and environmental aggressors are up against this face wash, which renews skin with chemical exfoliants. Coconut water and panthenol drum up plenty of moisture within layers of skin, and willow bark gets rid of excess oil.
• Freshening Face Toner. When you need to freshen up, douse skin in this toner, which uses witch hazel and eucalyptus to ensure a crystal clear complexion.
• Targeted Blemish Treatment. When pimples pop up, you have this blemish treatment in your back pocket. Maybe not literally, but still… It treats blemishes and then imparts calming cica and wintergreen extracts, leaving skin feeling comfortable, not stripped.
• Brightening Eye Cream. Stops dark circles and improves the health of skin around your eyes with ingredients like glycerin, squalane, and niacinamide.
• Daily Face Lotion. A great product for daily use, with sunscreen to protect skin when you’re out in nature. Caffeine gets the circulation going, willow bark stops that greasy film from forming, and shea butter esters deliver satisfying hydration.
• Hydrating Night Lotion. To give skin an extra dose of moisture at night, try this lotion. It has triglycerides, niacinamide, jojoba esters, and more so you can avoid dryness when you wake up in the morning.

 

12. Asystem Performance Skincare

You may feel young in your 30s, 40s, and 50s, but your skin doesn’t. It’s constantly losing collagen and may feel dryer as the years pile up, so get ahead of the game and use this Performance Skincare routine.

Products Included: 

• Twice Daily Invigorating Cleanser. You’ll look forward to washing your face twice a day with this product. It helps remove excess skin and dirt, prep you for a comfortable, close shave, and leave skin invigorated. Bamboo stem cells provide the gentle exfoliation, lavender oil addresses inflammation, and eucalyptus works to get skin clean on the deepest levels.
• Daily Defense Moisturizer. Keeping away harmful UV rays is half the battle when it comes to managing signs of aging. This moisturizer has SPF 30 to shield skin from the sun. It also has Kiwi PFE enriched with antioxidants, a natural algae extract to keep skin bouncy, and an active ingredient made out of saponaria pumila for its protective qualities.
• Overnight Rebuilding Cream. This overnight cream works on everything from wrinkles and dark spots to dehydration, swelling, and crow’s feet. Swertia chirata extract helps skin react as it loses collagen, keeping your chin contoured and your complexion even and smooth. Avocado oil nourishes as it hydrates, and kiwi fruit extract is loaded with antioxidants for further anti-aging help.