Short answer: vitamin C first, sunscreen last.
Long answer worth two minutes of your time, because the reasoning tells you how to sequence everything else too.
The rule underneath the rule
Skincare goes on thinnest to thickest. That's it. That's the whole principle, and almost every "what order?" question resolves to it.
A watery serum can't get through a layer of sunscreen. Sunscreen can sit perfectly well on top of a serum. So the serum goes first, the sunscreen goes last, and anything in between goes in order of how heavy it feels.
Sunscreen is always last in a morning routine. Not because it's precious, but because it needs to form an even film across the surface, and anything applied over the top disturbs that film.
A sensible morning
- Cleanse, or just rinse with water if your skin is dry
- Vitamin C serum. Three or four drops, pressed in, not rubbed
- Moisturiser if you use one
- Sunscreen. Generously, and this is the step people skimp on
Give the serum a moment between steps. Not the fifteen minutes some people insist on. Thirty seconds to a minute is plenty, and mostly it's about not smearing a wet layer around with the next one.
Does vitamin C replace sunscreen?
No, and it's worth being blunt about it because the marketing gets slippery here.
You'll see vitamin C described as protective, as an antioxidant that defends against environmental damage. That's a reasonable description of what antioxidants do in general. It is not a substitute for a physical barrier between your face and the sun, and in Australia the gap between those two things is not academic.
Think of the serum as something that supports the look of your skin, and the sunscreen as the thing actually doing the protecting. If you have to pick one, pick the sunscreen. That advice costs us a serum sale and we'd still give it.
The pilling problem
If your sunscreen rolls into little balls over your serum, it's usually one of two things. Either you didn't let the serum settle, or you're layering too many products with incompatible textures.
Fix in order: wait longer between layers, then use less of each, then drop a step. Most routines have one product in them that isn't earning its place.
Evenings
Same principle, no sunscreen. Cleanse, serum, moisturiser. If you use light therapy, it goes after the serum and before the moisturiser. Clean skin and a thin layer let the light do what it does without a barrier of thick cream in the way.
General information, not personal advice.
