How to Build Your Intoxicated Cosmetics Skincare Routine

One of the questions we hear most often is, “What order should I use my products?”

Building an effective skin routine involves more than choosing products that target your skin concerns. The order in which those products are applied helps prepare your skin for each step that follows, allowing your routine to work together from beginning to end. 

At Intoxicated Cosmetics, every product has a specific place within the routine. Some products prepare the skin, others target individual concerns, and the final steps help support hydration and protect the skin throughout the day. Understanding where each product fits makes it easier to build a routine that works together from morning to night. 

Why Routine Order Matters

Every skincare product is designed with a specific purpose, but no product is intended to do everything on its own. A well-built routine allows each step to complement the next, creating an approach that addresses multiple skin concerns while supporting the overall health and appearance of your complexion. 

Applying products in the proper order also helps ensure your routine performs as intended. Cleansing creates a fresh foundation, exfoliation helps prepare the skin, treatment products address your individual concerns, eye care focuses on one of the most delicate areas of the face, antioxidant protection helps defend against daily environmental stress, and moisturizer helps seal in hydration as the final step. 

Rather than thinking of your routine as a collection of individual products, think of it as a system. Each step has its own role, but together they create a routine designed to support everything from hydration and uneven skin tone to visible signs of aging, congestion, firmness, and long-term skin health. 

Morning Routine

Your morning routine prepares your skin for the day ahead while helping address the concerns that matter most to you. Beginning each day with the proper routine helps create a clean foundation before layering products that support hydration, target individual concerns, and help maintain healthier-looking skin throughout the day. 

Step 1: Cleanse | Clean Queen Glycolic Cleanser

Every morning should begin with Clean Queen Glycolic Cleanser. While your skin naturally repairs overnight, oil, sweat, and impurities can still accumulate on the surface. Clean Queen helps remove dirt, oil, and pore-clogging debris without leaving the skin feeling stripped, creating a fresh foundation for the rest of your routine.

Step 2: Exfoliation | Peel Pads

After cleansing, exfoliation helps remove dead skin cells that can contribute to dullness, uneven tone, clogged pores, and congestion while preparing the skin for the rest of your routine. Intoxicated Cosmetics offers three levels of exfoliation based on your skin’s needs and experience. Power Wash Peel Pads are best for beginners or sensitive skin; Power Correct Peel Pads are ideal for medium-level exfoliation users looking to improve discoloration, texture, and visible signs of aging; and Power Pro Peel Pads are designed for advanced exfoliation users seeking a deeper resurfacing treatment. No matter which peel pad you choose, we always recommend starting slowly and increasing frequency as your skin builds tolerance. 

Step 3: Vitamin C Serum | E.C.Dysis Vitamin C Serum 

Once the skin has been cleansed and exfoliated, E.C.Dysis Vitamin C Serum is the next step in your morning routine. This formula helps brighten the complexion, improve the appearance of uneven tone and discoloration, and provide antioxidant support throughout the day. It also targets fine lines and wrinkles while supporting hydration, making it an ideal first treatment step before applying your signature serum. 

Step 4: Signature Serums | Bee Serum, Snake Serum, and/or Snail Serum

Your signature serum is where the routine becomes more personalized. Bee Serum is ideal for balancing excess oil, supporting blemish-prone skin, improving the appearance of pores, and maintaining hydration. Snake Serum is designed to target expression lines, wrinkles, firmness, and visible redness. While Snail Serum can be used in the morning, it is most commonly recommended in the evening for additional hydration and regenerative support. For daytime, we typically recommend Bee Serum and/or Snake Serum. If layering multiple signature serums, apply them in this order: Bee Serum → Snake Serum → Snail Serum. 

Step 5: Eye Serum | Snake Eyes Eye Serum

After your facial serums, apply Snake Eyes Eye Serum around both the upper and lower eye areas. Unlike many eye treatments that focus only on the under-eye area, Snake Eyes is designed to target hooding, crow’s feet, fine lines, puffiness, and dark circles while supporting hydration around the entire eye contour. 

Step 6: Antioxidant Protection | Dragon Serum

Dragon Serum is applied as the final serum step before moisturizer. This placement allows it to complement the treatment products applied before it while helping defend against daily environmental stress, calm visible redness, support the skin barrier, and maintain hydration throughout the day. 

Step 7: Moisturize | Antidote Moisturizer 

Finish your morning routine with Antidote Moisturizer. As the final step, it helps lock in hydration, support the skin barrier, and seal in the benefits of the products applied before it. Antidote was designed to complement the Intoxicated Cosmetics serum routine while keeping the skin hydrated, balanced, and supported throughout the day. 

Night Routine

While your morning routine helps prepare your skin for the day ahead, your nighttime routine focuses on renewal and recovery. After a full day of makeup, sunscreen, excess oil, and environmental exposure, the evening routine helps remove daily buildup while incorporating products that support the skin as it naturally renews overnight. 

Step 1: Cleanse | Clean Queen Glycolic Cleanser

Every evening begins with Clean Queen Glycolic Cleanser. Throughout the day, oil, makeup, sunscreen, and environmental impurities accumulate on the skin, making cleansing an essential first step before applying your nighttime treatments. Clean Queen thoroughly removes buildup without leaving the skin feeling stripped, creating a clean foundation for the rest of your routine. 

Step 2: Exfoliation | Peel Pads

After cleansing, exfoliation helps remove dead skin cells that can contribute to rough texture, congestion, clogged pores, and uneven tone while preparing the skin for the products that follow. Power Wash Peel Pads are best for beginners or sensitive skin; Power Correct Peel Pads are ideal for medium-level exfoliation users looking to improve discoloration, texture, and visible signs of aging; and Power Pro Peel Pads are designed for advanced exfoliation users seeking deeper resurfacing. As always, we recommend introducing exfoliation gradually and increasing frequency as your skin builds tolerance. 

Step 3: Retinal | Sea Venom Retinal 

Once the skin has been cleansed and exfoliated, Sea Venom Retinal is the next step in your evening routine. Formulated with time-released retinaldehyde, it helps improve the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, uneven skin tone, rough texture, and visible pores while supporting the skin’s natural renewal process overnight. If you’re new to retinal, begin by using it two or three nights per week before gradually increasing frequency. 

Step 4: Signature Serums | Bee Serum, Snake Serum, and/or Snail Serum

After Sea Venom Retinal, apply your signature serum based on your skin’s needs. At night, we most commonly recommend Snail Serum because it provides intense hydration and regenerative support while the skin naturally repairs overnight. Bee Serum can be incorporated if your goal is balancing excess oil or supporting blemish-prone skin, while Snake Serum targets expression lines, wrinkles, firmness, and visible redness. If layering multiple signature serums, apply them in this order: Bee Serum → Snake Serum → Snail Serum. 

Step 5: Eye Serum | Snake Eyes Eye Serum

After your facial serums, apply Snake Eyes Eye Serum around both the upper and lower eye areas. Consistent morning and evening use helps address hooding, crow’s feet, fine lines, puffiness, and dark circles while providing hydration to the entire eye contour. 

Step 6: Antioxidant Protection | Dragon Serum

Dragon Serum remains the final serum step before moisturizer. Applying it after your treatment products helps support the skin barrier, calm visible redness, provide antioxidant protection, and maintain hydration while complementing the rest of your evening routine. 

Step 7: Moisturize | Antidote Moisturizer 

Finish your nighttime routine with Antidote Moisturizer. As the final step, it helps lock in hydration, support the skin barrier, and seal in the benefits of the products applied beforehand, allowing your skin to remain hydrated and supported throughout the night. 

Building a Routine That Works Together

An effective skincare routine isn’t about using the most products. It’s about using the right products in the right order and staying consistent. Each step in the Intoxicated Cosmetics routine is designed to build upon the one before it, helping your products work together from morning to night. 

Whether your focus is fine lines, wrinkles, hydration, congestion, uneven tone, or long-term skin health, consistency is what allows your routine to deliver its best results. When each product is layered in the proper order, every step works together to support healthier-looking skin over time.