A Skincare Routine for Men, Done Properly

In my day a gentleman did not wash. He perfumed. The drawing rooms of Mayfair smelled of musk, civet and whatever the musk and civet had been engaged to conceal, and a man's reputation for elegance was quite compatible with a neck that had not seen water since Michaelmas. I took the contrary view, at some length and at considerable expense, and London followed. Clean skin, clean linen and a close shave were the whole of my secret. They remain the whole of yours.

Nobody requires two hours of you. What follows takes ten minutes in the morning and rather less at night. It asks for six or seven excellent things, not thirty adequate ones, and it rewards constancy over enthusiasm. The modern bathroom cabinet has become a pharmacy of good intentions: serums for this, essences for that, a small army of bottles bought in a moment of resolve and abandoned within the month. A gentleman owns fewer things and uses all of them.

The principle: fewer things, done properly

The case for spending well on skin is the same as the case for spending well on a shirt. You wear it every day, it is the first thing anyone sees, and the difference between the good and the indifferent is not visible on the first morning but is unmistakable after ten years. Spend where the product remains on the face all day, which is to say the moisturiser and the sunscreen. Spend sensibly on what is rinsed away within a minute. And spend nothing at all on what promises to transform you, because nothing in a jar will, and the men who look well at sixty are invariably the ones who did the dull things daily.

Morning: wash, moisturise, protect

Wash first, in warm water rather than hot, with Augustinus Bader's The Cream Cleansing Gel. It is a modest, decent cleanser that does its work and leaves the skin as it found it, minus the night. That is all one asks of a cleanser, and more than most deliver.

Then the moisturiser, which is where the money belongs. The Cream by Augustinus Bader was developed by a German professor of stem cell biology, and it has the great merit in a man's routine of being light enough to vanish within a minute. It does not shine, it does not smell of a florist's back room, and it does not announce itself. A good moisturiser should behave like a good valet: indispensable, and never seen.

Last, and without exception, sunscreen. The American Academy of Dermatology advises a broad-spectrum SPF of 30 or higher every day, cloudy or not, and a man who ignores the advice will find the consequences recorded faithfully on his face. Most sunscreens are greasy, chalky or both, which is why most men neglect them. Dr. Barbara Sturm's Sun Drops SPF 50 are a few drops of fluid that disappear into the moisturiser. The doctor practises in Düsseldorf, and her drops ask nothing of a man but thirty seconds.

The shave: a brush, a bowl and a single blade

The shave is the one part of a man's toilet that rewards ceremony, and even here the ceremony is short. Foam from a can is air with ambitions. A proper cream, worked into a lather with a brush, lifts the beard, cushions the blade and leaves the face in better order than it found it.

The cream should be Truefitt & Hill's Trafalgar Shaving Cream, from the barber that Guinness World Records lists as the oldest in the world. It smells faintly of cedar and sandalwood, which is to say of a gentleman's dressing room rather than a chemist's. The brush should be silvertip badger, the finest grade there is, and Mühle's Classic, made by hand in the Erzgebirge, will outlast several razors. The razor itself should be a single, honest blade: the Mühle R89 safety razor, heavy enough to do the work under its own weight.

The method is brief. Shave after washing, when the beard is soft. Lather generously, shave with the grain, and do not press: a weighted razor needs a steady hand, not an earnest one. Rinse in cold water, pat dry, and proceed to the moisturiser. The entire business takes five minutes, and it is the best five minutes of the morning.

Evening: wash again, and something richer

At night the face has spent a day in offices, aircraft and the company of other people, and it should be washed again with the same gel. Then a heavier cream, because the skin repairs itself while you sleep, and it is grateful for assistance.

Crème de la Mer is the obvious choice and, unusually for the obvious choice, the correct one. By the house's own account it was devised by an aerospace physicist, Dr Max Huber, after a laboratory accident left him with burns, and it took him twelve years and some six thousand experiments with fermented sea kelp. One need not believe every word of a legend to enjoy the cream. It is rich without being greasy, and a small jar lasts a surprisingly long time, because a little is the correct amount.

Once a week: polish, and the barber

Once a week, in place of the evening gel, use Dr. Barbara Sturm's Enzyme Cleanser. It is a fine powder that turns to foam in wet hands and removes dead skin without the gravel of a scrub. The face looks rested, which is the entire object. More often than weekly is excessive; the skin is not a doorstep.

The rest of the week's maintenance belongs to a professional. A good barber every three or four weeks does more for a man's appearance than any jar. Truefitt & Hill opened in 1805 and has been at 71 St James's Street since 1994, a short walk from where I lived and a shorter one from the clubs. The address is a sound guide to the standard. If you cannot be shaved in St James's, find the man nearest you who keeps the same habits: hot towels, a straight razor and a disinclination to talk.

What to leave out

Almost everything. The face mask, the jade roller, the ten-step regimen, the toner that tones nothing, the overnight treatment marketed with the vocabulary of a spa. None of it is wicked, but a man who owns all of it has mistaken shopping for discipline.

Scent belongs here as well. I held, and was quoted, that a gentleman should smell of nothing but clean linen. If you insist on a fragrance, apply it to the skin and not the clothes, use one spray rather than three, and let it fade before dinner.

That is the other half of the argument, and it is worth stating plainly. To take care of one's face is not vanity. Neglect, worn as a badge of seriousness, is the vainer pose. The man who looks rested, close-shaven and well kept has simply done the dull things daily, and then forgotten about them.

The routine at a glance

• Morning: wash with The Cream Cleansing Gel; shave if it is a shaving day; The Cream; Sun Drops SPF 50.
• The shave: Trafalgar Shaving Cream, a silvertip badger brush and an R89 safety razor; with the grain, then cold water.
• Evening: wash again; Crème de la Mer.
• Weekly: the Enzyme Cleanser in place of the evening wash; the barber every three or four weeks.

Seven products, ten minutes and no ceremony beyond the shave. Do it every day, and nobody will ever ask what you use, which is precisely the point. For the rest of a well-kept life, see [things worth spending money on](/a/expensive-but-worth-it).

Sources: Captain William Jesse, The Life of George Brummell (1844); Harriette Wilson, Memoirs (1825); Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope (1845); Brummell, Male and Female Costume (written c. 1822, published 1932); American Academy of Dermatology sunscreen guidance; Guinness World Records, oldest barber shop; Truefitt & Hill company history; La Mer company history. Prices are approximate US retail at the time of writing.