A skincare routine with ten steps is not ten times better than one with two. It is usually a sign that nobody involved could decide what mattered.
The uncomfortable fact about the whole category is that the effective ingredients are few, well studied, and cheap. Cleanser. Moisturiser. Sunscreen. A retinoid, if you want one. Almost everything else is either a marginal variation on those or a texture you happen to enjoy.
Why the shelves keep growing
Because a product that does nothing is indistinguishable from a product that works, if you are judging by how it feels going on.
The things that actually change skin over months — sun protection, retinoids — are boring to apply and show no immediate result. The things that feel like they are doing something are usually just occlusives and humectants, which is fine, but they are not the point.
So the market optimises for the sensation of efficacy rather than efficacy, and the routine grows.
What consistency buys
Sun protection applied daily for a decade does more than any combination of serums applied enthusiastically for a month. This is not a subtle finding. It is one of the better-established things in the field, and it is the least interesting to talk about.
The same pattern shows up in sleep, in exercise, in most of health: the interventions that work are unglamorous and cumulative, and the ones that get marketed are immediate and marginal.
A test for any routine
Ask what happens if you skip this step for a year. If the honest answer is “probably nothing,” it is optional, and optional things accumulate until the routine is unsustainable and you abandon all of it — including the parts that mattered.
Fewer steps you actually do beats a complete routine you keep meaning to get back to.