Skincare routine
A skincare routine app that gives you four steps, not twelve
Most routines fail because they are too long to keep. Dermly builds a short morning and evening routine from one scan, at the category level, and then asks you to actually do it.
Free on the App Store
Why the 12 step routine keeps failing you
A long routine has two problems, and neither of them is the ingredients. First, it is fragile: miss two evenings and the whole sequence collapses, because there was never a version of it you could do in ninety seconds. Second, it is unmeasurable. If you start eight products at once and your skin changes, you have learned nothing about which of the eight did it.
A short routine survives a bad week and lets you change one variable at a time. That is the whole argument.
What Dermly builds after a scan
Morning
Protect the day
A light cleanse, a moisturizer matched to how your surface read, and sun protection on top. Sun protection is the step that keeps whatever the evening does.
Evening
Remove and repair
Take the day off properly, then one active chosen for the dimension that scored lowest, at a strength appropriate to your age band and stated skin type.
Both halves are assembled from your scan, the goal you picked during onboarding and how much of a routine you said you already have. Someone who answered "none" does not get the same list as someone who answered "full".
Categories, never brands
Dermly names cleanser, moisturizer, SPF and classes of proven actives. It does not name a product, does not link to a shop and earns nothing from what you buy. The routine tells you what slot to fill and why; filling it is your call, at your budget, from whatever is actually on the shelf near you.
The part that makes it stick
- A daily checklist. The routine is a list you tick off, morning and evening, not a document you read once.
- A streak. Consecutive days you completed. Small mechanism, disproportionate effect on whether a routine reaches week six.
- Reminders. Optional evening nudges and a note when your weekly rescan is due.
- A weekly recap. How many steps of how many you completed, so the streak is honest rather than decorative.
Routine questions
How do I build a skincare routine if I have never had one?
Start with four things and keep them: a cleanser at night, a moisturizer twice a day, sun protection every morning, and one active you actually tolerate. That order is not arbitrary. Cleansing and moisturizing set the baseline, sun protection preserves whatever progress you make, and a single active gives you something to evaluate. Dermly builds this shape automatically from your scan and your stated goal, so you do not have to assemble it yourself.
Why does Dermly not recommend specific products?
Because the moment an app names brands, you cannot tell whether it is advising you or selling to you. Dermly recommends categories: cleanser, moisturizer, SPF, and named classes of proven actives. What you buy in each slot, at what price, from whichever shop you like, is your decision. It also means the routine still works when a product is discontinued or unavailable where you live.
What is the difference between an AM and a PM routine?
Morning is about protection: clean the surface lightly, moisturize, and put sun protection on top of everything. Evening is about repair and removal: take the day off your face, then apply anything active while nothing has to survive daylight. Some actives are best kept to the evening, which is exactly why the split exists rather than one long list.
How long before a routine shows anything?
Weeks, not days. Skin turns over slowly, and most visible change from a consistent routine shows up somewhere between four and twelve weeks. This is the single most common reason people abandon a routine that was working. Dermly shows a 12 week trajectory for exactly that reason, and asks for weekly rescans instead of daily ones.
Is a routine from an app as good as one from a professional?
No, and it is not trying to be. A dermatologist can examine your skin physically, take a history, and prescribe. Dermly reads a photograph and suggests general categories of care based on how the surface looks. If you have a condition, a reaction, or anything that concerns you, that belongs with a doctor. An app routine is for the ordinary case of wanting to look after your skin sensibly.
Does the routine work in my language?
In eleven of them: English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Turkish, Arabic, Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese. Both the interface and the analysis follow your device language, so the routine steps and the reminders arrive in the language you think in.
Get a routine built from your own scan
Dermly is free to download on the App Store. No account, no email, no sign up. Available in 11 languages.
More on reading your own skin
What your skin score means
The seven cosmetic dimensions Dermly reads, and how to make sense of each number.
Skin age test
What an AI skin age estimate is, what it is not, and why it moves between photos.
Track skincare progress
How to photograph and measure your skin so a twelve week change is actually visible.
Where your selfie goes
The honest answer: a server, once, then gone. Written out step by step.
App or dermatologist
What a phone camera can answer, and the much longer list of what only a doctor can.