The Best Skincare Routine For Men In Their 20s, 30s And 40s (2025)

What if I were to tell you that your skincare regimen ages faster than you?

While we’re all busy lamenting the changes in our faces and bodies thanks to the cruel tide of time, we often forget to look at what we’re doing (or aren’t doing enough) to help cope with those changes. Especially when that’s the area that warrants our attention so much more. From our diets to workouts, everything needs a change as the decades go by. You can’t be eating and doing the same thing as you enter a new decade.

It’s the same with your skincare regime – you've got to upgrade it every few years since your skin isn’t going to stay the same.

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Cleansing, toning and moisturising – these are the 3 key pillars for your skin at every age. But how you build on these pillars should be dictated by the age you are.

Here are things you should add to your skincare routine during your 20s, 30s and 40s.

When you’re in your 20s

Yes, you’ve got the strongest skincare ally – youth – with you but things won’t be the same forever. Your 20s are the time for you to build a solid foundation for your skin so when it starts to age, it does so at its best, most fabulous self.

This is the decade for you to start inculcating the right skincare habits – start using sunscreen every single day. Nothing will help your skin, if you aren’t using a generous dose of SPF. No other factor will make your skin age faster than the harmful rays of the sun.

What we recommend:

Thank You Farmer Sun Project Water Sun Cream

₹2,159 (50 ml)

d’You Unkissed Serum Sunscreen

₹2,200 (50 ml)

While you’re in your 20s, also start using an exfoliator, at least twice a week. While cleansers are great and effective, it’s imperative to use an exfoliator that goes deeper and removes all the dirt, muck and pollutants that tend to clog your pores.

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What we recommend:

L’occitane Cade Daily Exfoliating Face Cleanser

₹2,250 (150 ml)

Forest Essentials Revitalising Kashmiri Walnut Gel Scrub

₹1,650 (50 g)

When you’re in your 30s

By this time, unless you’re truly lucky, your skin would start showing the first few signs of ageing. Youth is fleeting and it would’ve started to fade away from your life. A few lines here, a few wrinkles there – nothing too drastic yet but small yet noticeable changes to the way you look.

Before it starts to all good downhill (spoiler alert: it eventually will!), you need to start repairing your skin and nourishing it with good things that help your skin cope with the changes it is undergoing.

In skincare parlance, it’s called ‘treatment’. But unlike the ones you’ll need to go to an aesthetician for, these ones you can do on your own. Essentially, the vitamins, acids and derivatives that help fight those signs of ageing.

Start using Retinol in your 30s, if you haven’t been using it already. It has a host of benefits from reducing fine lines and wrinkles to boosting collagen production in your skin. Though it’s no miracle worker, it’s certainly one of the most effective skincare solutions out there.

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Go slow (introduce it once or twice a week, at first) and build it up over time. You could use it as a serum or moisturiser.

What we recommend:

Sunday Riley A+ High Dose Retinoid Serum

₹8,200 (30 ml)

Augustinus Bader The Retinol Serum

₹33,000 (30 ml)

When you’re in your 40s

By this time, your skin has gone through a lot. If you’ve been good with skincare, it would show. If you haven’t, it would show as well. Basically, it’s the result at the end of an examination – too late to change things as you can’t go back and redo the test.

What you can do instead is ensure it doesn’t go worse. And what you can work towards is ensuring your skin stays supple and glowing.

One of the first things to do in this decade of your life is replenish antioxidants in your skin that have declined with age. A serum full of good antioxidants can help make your skin more resilient to damage from sun’s rays, free radicals and pollutants.

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Additionally, it’s time to age-induced dark spots and pigmentation. One of the most common skincare issues faced by people in their 40s, these dark spots are caused by a combination of factors: exposure of UV rays, acne/eczema/rashes from younger years and inflammation. Addressing this with a specific product that’s meant to target this hyperpigmentation will help give your skin a healthy glow.

What we recommend:

Caudalie Vinoperfect Brightening Dark Spot Serum

₹5,800 (30 ml)

Murad Rapid Dark Spot Correcting Serum

₹6,800 (30 ml)