My friend Lauren is getting married in October. In January she sent me a screenshot of her bathroom shelf and asked me to help her cut. Twenty-three products. We got it down to eight in about an hour. Here's the shelf.

Three of them are non-negotiable. Five are situational. Six of the eight cost less than $25. None of them require a counter visit. Most of them are at CVS.

The non-negotiable three

1. CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser, $16. Cream, water-based, no foam, no fragrance. The classic. La Roche-Posay Toleriane is the same idea for $20 if you prefer the French label. Either one twice a day will outperform anything more expensive.

2. Maelove Glow Maker vitamin C serum, $27. 15% L-ascorbic acid in an opaque bottle. SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic is the famous version at $182 — same active ingredient, six times the price. The blind comparisons on YouTube are pretty convincing. Three drops in the morning, on damp skin.

3. EltaMD UV Clear SPF 46, $38. Mineral, doesn't pill under makeup, the one most dermatologists actually use. Single most important product in the routine. Skip it and the rest is wasted.

That's $81. The whole non-negotiable shelf.

The situational five

4. Avene Retrinal 0.05, $58. Only if you're starting at least four months out. Two or three nights a week. Closer to the wedding than that, skip it — your face shouldn't meet a new ingredient in the last quarter.

5. The Ordinary's Buffet peptide serum, $13. For the nights you're not using retinol. Skinmedica TNS Advanced is the version for people who want to spend $295. Buffet is fine. Genuinely fine.

6. CeraVe PM moisturizer, $16. The night cream. Augustinus Bader's The Rich Cream is the famous one at $295. The CeraVe is what most dermatologists' kids use. Pick your fight.

7. Kosas Plump and Juicy face oil, $24. One drop pressed into the cheekbones in the morning, after moisturizer, before SPF. Vintner's Daughter is the splurge at $195. Kosas is what I actually use.

8. Avene Thermal Spring Water mist, $14. For the dry hotel air, the long flight to wherever, the morning of when your face is tight. Carry-on size, $9.

What to skip

The acid toners. The LED mask (a $400 device that doesn't beat sleep). The gua sha (it's just face massage, you can use your hands). The eye cream — it's moisturizer in a smaller jar at twice the price. The strip-off masks. The ten-step Korean routine someone said was the secret. Anything new in the four weeks before the wedding.

The eight products above add up to $206 if you buy them all today. Most people already own three or four of them. Start tonight. Don't tell yourself it's too late — even three months of consistency shows up in the photos.