Buying La Mer Powder comes down to a few checks you can do from the product page. Everything else is preference. Give anything new four weeks before you judge it. Introduce one active at a time, otherwise you cannot tell what worked. Texture matters more than the ingredient list for whether you will actually use it. The groups below run from the decision that matters most to the ones you make afterwards.

What decides this is formula, texture and where it sits in your routine. Everything else is preference. Two from the first group show the range: RoC Skincare's Hydration+ Serum Capsules at $33, and MUTHA's OIL-TO-GEL CLEANSER at $42. The first is the easy entry point; the second is where the money goes. Introduce one active at a time, otherwise you cannot tell what worked. Texture matters more than the ingredient list for whether you will actually use it. A higher price mostly buys materials and finishing, and occasionally it buys nothing at all.

Thinnest texture first, richest last. Consistency beats the number of steps. From the second group, carvedesigns.com's COOLA Classic Face Sunscreen: White Tea ($32) is the one that earns its place, because it works in more than one context without being restyled. The third group is smaller and deliberately narrower, skincare, for the decisions you make after the main one. None of this needs the whole group. One piece from each is usually enough.

There are 20 skincare here from 16 brands, $12 to $128, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. e.l.f. Cosmetics's Holy Hydration! Triple Bounce Serum at $12 is the low-risk way in, and Chantecaille's Magnolia, Jasmine and Lily Moisturizer at $128 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. Read as a set, they get you close to La Mer Powder without any single purchase being compulsory. Nothing here is included because it is famous, and price is not used as a proxy for quality anywhere on this page. If you take one thing away: pay for the thing that touches your body and economise on the thing that sits on top of it.