My sister got engaged in October and called me crying about skincare in November. She'd been to a counter at Sephora and walked out with $340 of products. I told her to return six of the eight. Here's what I told her to keep.

The whole routine is three products and takes four minutes. Two of them cost less than $20 at CVS. The third is the only thing worth spending real money on, and even that is $38, which is half of one bridesmaid's hair appointment.

The morning, in order

CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser, $16 at CVS. Cream, no foam, no fragrance. Wash your face for thirty seconds with lukewarm water. Pat dry with a clean cotton towel — not the one you dried your hair with.

Maelove Glow Maker vitamin C serum, $27. Three drops, smoothed in while your skin is still a little damp. Wait twenty seconds. (SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic is the famous version of this product. It costs $182. Maelove is the same percentage of L-ascorbic acid for $155 less. There are blind tests on YouTube. Watch one.)

EltaMD UV Clear SPF 46, $38. Mineral, light, doesn't pill under makeup. This is the one to spend on. Apply it like you mean it — a nickel-sized amount, all the way down the neck. The single most important step in the routine. Skip it and the rest is wasted.

That's the morning. Done in four minutes.

The night, in order

Same cleanser. (If you wore makeup or sunscreen, do it twice — first round to break it down, second round to actually wash.) Then your night moisturizer, which can be CeraVe PM ($16) or whatever you've already been using. That's it.

Two or three nights a week, you can add a low-dose retinol — but only if you're starting at least four months before the wedding. Avene Retrinal 0.05 is the gentle one. If you're closer than four months out, skip it. Now is not the time to teach your face a new trick.

The skincare that actually shows up in wedding photos is the stuff you've been using for three months and have forgotten about.

What to skip

Anything that says "miracle." The LED mask. The gua sha. The ten-step routine you saw on TikTok. The peel you bought on a whim. The eye cream — that's just moisturizer in a smaller jar at twice the price. The acid toner. Strip-off masks of any kind. Anything new in the four weeks before the wedding.

Sleep matters more than any of this. The eight hours nobody schedules — that's the actual routine.

The week of the wedding

Don't try anything new. Stop the retinol seven days out. Drink water like it's a hobby. Same three products, every morning, every night. The morning of the wedding: cleanser, vitamin C, the heavier night moisturizer instead of your day one, SPF. Then hand your face to the makeup artist. They want unbothered skin to work on, not over-prepped skin.

The total

Three products: $81. Refilled, maybe $200 over a year. The Sephora bag my sister came home with would have lasted three months and not done as much. We returned six items the next day. She used the difference toward shoes.