What's actually in it.
Skincare is sold on names and marketed on hope, and most people cannot tell which of the things in their bathroom are doing anything. This is a plain reference to the ingredients that actually change skin — what each one is, what it does, and what it will not do.
A reference, not a recommendation.
Knowing what niacinamide is will not tell you whether you should be using it, at what strength, or alongside what else. Those depend on what your skin is doing, what you already own, and what you will realistically keep up.
So this page will not build you a routine, and that is deliberate. Plenty of sites will. What they cannot do is look at your skin, and the answer changes completely once someone has.
What it is good for: understanding what you are already using, working out why something stopped working, and being able to ask a better question when you do sit down with a nurse.
Eight things that actually do something.
Most of a skincare aisle is texture and fragrance. This is the short list of ingredients with real evidence behind them.
- Retinoids
- A family — retinol, retinal, retinoic acid — that speeds cell turnover. Used at night, because light degrades them. Almost always causes a period of dryness and flaking first, which is not a reaction and is not a reason to stop.
- Vitamin C
- An antioxidant, used in the morning. Unstable: it oxidises with light and air, and a bottle that has gone orange has stopped working. Small packaging is a feature, not a con.
- Niacinamide
- Vitamin B3. Supports the barrier and is one of the few actives most skin tolerates easily. High percentages are marketed hard and are not obviously better than moderate ones.
- AHAs
- Water-soluble acids — glycolic, lactic, mandelic — that loosen the bond between surface cells. They increase sun sensitivity, which is the part people skip.
- BHAs
- Oil-soluble, so salicylic acid gets into a pore where an AHA does not. That difference is the whole reason to choose one over the other.
- Sunscreen
- The one product with the strongest evidence and the least glamour. In Australia it carries an SPF rating regulated by the TGA. Nothing else on this list works as well without it.
- Barrier ingredients
- Ceramides, fatty acids, cholesterol, squalane. They do not change skin so much as let it recover — which is often what is actually needed after a period of over-treating.
- Peptides
- Short chains of amino acids used to signal rather than to exfoliate. Gentler than the acids and retinoids, slower to show, and the category with the widest gap between marketing and evidence.
Pregnancy changes what is appropriate here considerably. That conversation belongs with your nurse and your GP, not a web page.
Eight, properly explained.
One page each, with the honest limit attached. Reference, never a recommendation for your face.
The vitamin A family, the strength ladder, and why most people start too strong. Set aside entirely in pregnancy.
Vitamin CWhat it does, what it doesn’t, why it browns in the bottle, and why the expensive one isn’t automatically better.
NiacinamideThe quiet all-rounder that’s in almost everything now — and the honest limit on what it changes alone.
AHAs and BHAsWhich acid suits what, how often, and why over-exfoliation is the commonest self-inflicted problem we see.
SPF, properlyThe least interesting page here and the one that outperforms everything else over ten years. Mostly about how much you apply.
Barrier repairWhat the barrier is, what a worn-down one feels like, and why repair usually means removing things rather than adding them.
Actives in pregnancyWhat’s set aside, what generally remains, and why the caution is usually absent evidence rather than demonstrated harm.
Routine orderThe shape of a routine — thinnest to thickest, one new thing at a time. The shape, never your answer.
None of these tells you what to use. That needs someone to look at your skin.
What we actually stock.
A small range rather than a wall. We stock what our nurses put in plans, which means the list is short and occasionally has gaps — if the right product for you is one we do not sell, we will tell you what to buy elsewhere.
Every product page lists its ingredients, its size and how to use it. If something you already own does the same job, keep using it.