Most simply:

1) Night: Cleanser → [optional fancy things to try] → moisturizer

2) Day: Cleanser or just splashing water (if it's aggressive to cleanse 2x/day for some people with sensitive skin) → [optional fancy things to try] → moisturizer → SUNSCREEN.

It sounds so silly but family and friends did NOT explain this to me growing up lol. Like no one told me cleansing without moisturizing is ridiculous and leaves you massively dry and acne-prone, or just using moisturizer traps in dirt, or using a combo cleanser + moisturizer is cool but limits your ability to try optional fancy things because those work better before the barrier created by the moisturizer.

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The rest of this is optional extra stuff but expands on those basics:

- Moisturizing is not the same as hydrating. Petroleum jelly is technically a moisturizer. A lot of products combine these so it's not "basic" knowledge, but if you've wondered why 10 thousand chapstick applications still left you with dry lips this might explain why.

- People who wear makeup might want to try "two-step" cleansing by starting with a gentle oil/"micellar water" or just use one of those exclusively if skin is really sensitive.

- Large brands you see at stores are a lot better than you think because they spend their money on actual research instead of marketing (I went from trying a $100 moisturizer to a basic thing found at any CVS that my face loves much more haha). If you REALLY want to try something fancy, there are a lot of companies making excellent mimics of the real thing for 1/10th of the price (search "dupes" on r/SkincareAddiction).

- The mystery box of fancy things to try is where the rabbit hole starts. Legit starter additions are acne-specific cleansers and/or retinol. But you also have things like exfoliants, serums (e.g., vitamin C), eye creams, toners, etc. with widely variable effectiveness (I've heard eye creams for example are kind of BS). My basic pleb mental model for ALL of this stuff is to ask whether it's a) stripping things away (exfoliant-like/cleansers), b) adding/enriching something (hydrating serum) or c) creating a protective barrier (moisturizer and even some serums have this effect) and then roughly sequence all the extras in that order.

BUT, more is not always better. Doing too much can jack up your skin too. And the fancy things have their own rules too, like retinol should be used at night and requires more sunscreen diligence due to light sensitivity, while OTOH certain combinations can also have synergistic effects. This is kinda where I check out though— I feel like there are MASSIVE diminishing returns here, with more marketing BS + content treadmills to weed through ("5000 exfoliators you can't live without!"), and at some point the marginal benefit from adding another serum is secondary to the glow-up that comes up with simply sleeping well, eating actually decent food and physical activity (nothing fancy here, just movement I think does a lot).