Ethan spent his early career in investment banking, working ninety-hour weeks and somehow never looking it. A year ago he left for finance at a startup, and his evenings finally caught up with his skincare ambitions. The routine is now old-life discipline with new-life time to enjoy it, and it comes with one firm rule: nothing reaches his shelf without a recommendation from someone who actually knows. “The hours changed,” he says. “The standards didn’t.”
I spent the first years of my career in investment banking, it had the kind of hours where the lights never fully go off and sleep feels like a dream. Through it all, I was determined not to let it show on my face. It didn’t, but it took effort. It was process. I watched people three to six years ahead of me loose their hair and look older in general, and I decided that wasn’t going to be me. I couldn’t change the schedule, so I approached my skin the way I approach work: rigorous inputs, no shortcuts, and nothing allowed in without a source I trust. In that life, the routine was a twelve-minute sprint at one or two in the morning before trying to jam as much sleep in as I could. A year ago I left for finance at a startup, and for the first time as an adult I have evenings to myself. So the routine got longer, slower, and a lot more enjoyable, and I did what any former analyst does with a newly empty calendar: I over-researched it. The goal is glass skin, held for as long as humanly possible.
Before the shower
I get home around 7:30 now, which in my old life would have counted as an early day. The routine itself hasn’t changed. It just has room to breathe. Back then the double cleanse happened at one in the morning while I was checking my phone for any new follow up that needed to get done before the morning. Now it’s the first thing I do, before I’ve even changed. Tatcha The Camellia Cleansing Oil goes on first. It’s the most elegant oil cleanser I’ve used: silky, weightless, and it turns milky the second water touches it, which I find unreasonably satisfying. It lifts sunscreen and the whole day without leaving a film, and I have never once felt like I was rinsing off an oil slick.
Then the Gentlerist Halcyon Cleanser. A lot of brands green-dust a sprinkle of botanicals for the label, and Halcyon is about as literal as a botanical cleanser gets. It’s a clean-rinsing gel that does exactly what a cleanser should, and my skin never feels tight afterward, it just feels like a revival that simultaneously refreshes and calms my skin down after washing, which is the best feeling I think one can get with a cleanser. Double cleansing feels tedious to some, but the oil and the gel together are the two steps I would never cut.
Then a mask while I put dinner together, an actual dinner, which is something I’ve been spending more time devoted to since I have more time in the evenings. There is no gourmet grocery in Manhattan I have not tried. But back to the mask: most nights it’s the SkinCeuticals Biocellulose Restorative Mask. It’s a clinical product, built for skin coming out of lasers and peels, and that’s exactly why I trust it as a daily post-work mask. It’s a sheet of juice-soaked biocellulose that hugs your face like a cold compress. There are no actives to second-guess. And the biocellulose feels like silicone skin. Thirty minutes and my face just looks like I had an intensive treatment.
On nights I want something less involved it’s the Medicube Collagen Night Wrapping Mask. It’s a gel that sets into a thin, glossy film, like a second skin, and it’s designed to be slept in. But I do not sleep in it because of FOMO. If I wore it to bed I’d skip my serums, and then I’d think about my serums all night. So I let it set while I eat, peel it off in the shower, and my skin comes out plush and slightly dewy.
In the shower
Hair is the one category where I have no loyalty. Oribe is the closest thing to a mainstay, and I’ll admit some of that is the bottle: heavy, gold, looks like it belongs in a hotel lobby. But it earns its does earn its place. My hair is thick, straight, and coarse in the way a lot of Asian hair is, which means it’s strong and also has identity issues where the hair and scalp can’t be kept happy by the same system. Oribe Moisture & Control Shampoo and Conditioner are the base, and they have enough slip to get through the density without leaving it limp. When I want something more reparative, Virtue Recovery Shampoo rotates in. It immediately makes a difference when I’ve over-washed to keep my scalp happy, and my hair feels slightly straw-like.
At the start of the shower I work David Mallett Elixir Hair and Scalp Rescue into my scalp, it keeps it fully healthy and not so reactive or flaky. Once a week the David Mallett Mask No.1 L’Hydratation goes on and stays while I do everything else. It’s rich and repairing, and it gives coarse hair the one thing it wants, which is to be softened without being weighed down. On towel-dry ends, a few drops of Virtue Healing Oil finishes the job. It’s really good for keeping color-treated hair healthy.
For body, I find that I gravitate toward the feel because performance is very much about the same. Lately, my obsession is with a brand called Future Society, which is a fragrance house first. I use the Floating Forest Body Cleanser, the scent was reimagined from an extinct Borneo rainforest tree, which is precisely the kind of origin story that gets me to buy something. It opens crisp with bergamot and black pepper, goes watery and floral, then settles into cedar, salted musk, and wet stones. It smells like a rainstorm in a forest near the sea. The cleanser lathers richly without stripping, and it’s the single most calming ninety seconds of my day.
Right out of the shower
I pat dry and put on the Floating Forest Body Cream while my skin is still slightly damp. It sinks in fast enough that I can get dressed without waiting, and it keeps the scent going. Then, at the sink, the step that begins my skincare and evening wind down face routine: Biologique Recherche L’eauxygenante Face Mist. Biologique Recherche’s whole philosophy is that they diagnose before they prescribe, with a skin analysis before they match you to products. As someone who spent years doing diligence for a living, I respect that. Most of the line smells like vinegar and fermented acids, which is part of its cult, but this face mist is the outlier. It’s built around orange and kiwi, with a little edelweiss and silk, and it’s fresh, herbal, and a bit citrusy. It still feels like it’s doing something, which is my entire brief for any product.
Ethan's Pre-Shower Routine
The Camellia Cleansing Oil
Halcyon Cleanser
Biocellulose Restorative Mask
Collagen Night Wrapping Mask
Recovery Shampoo
Floating Forest Body Wash
Iso-Placenta Serum
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The Rotation
I run a strict rotation, and the one rule is that acids and retinol never share a night. Underneath all of it is a baseline that goes on every night: a plant-derived placenta serum, either Biologique Recherche ISO Placenta Serum or Gentlerist Ambrosia Beauty Nectar. Before anyone panics: both are vegetable placenta extract meant to mimic the placenta fluid as a serum. Restoring the barrier and overall skin condition is what makes everything else tolerable, so this is the constant, and I alternate between the two. The Ambrosia has the added benefit of antioxidants and deeply hydration, so it gets the call after a dry, stressful, ‘need to heal from some damage’ kind of week.
On top of that baseline, every two to three nights it’s acid toning with Eadem Cashmere Peel. It’s a milky exfoliating essence, which sounds like a contradiction but isn’t: it feels like a Korean essence and works like a peel. It blends lactic, azelaic, and tranexamic acids with a PHA, and I sweep it on with a cotton pad. I like that it was formulated with melanin-rich skin in mind, with dark marks and texture as the targets. Every third night, as long as it isn’t right next to an acid night, it’s retinol, currently NeoStrata Potent Retinol Complex. I’d rather be consistent than aggressive with retinol. I started low and slow, I think the mistake people make is thinking the retinol burn means results are coming, and I’ve always been very mindful about never overdoing it because it can and will destroy your barrier if you aren’t careful.
Then, on every night I’m not doing retinol, I add NEOGENESIS Recovery over the baseline. It’s a growth factor serum, built on molecules released by stem cells rather than the stem cells themselves, a distinction I enjoy being pedantic about. It’s the kind of serum clinics reach for after treatments, which makes it a natural follow-up to an acid night. Retinol nights are the only nights it sits out. On a calmer night I also spray Tatcha Luminous Dewy Skin Mist between layers. I just like the milkiness of it. It gives the skin a soft-focus quality, like a filter that exists only in person.
Eyes, oil, moisturizer
Under the eyes is Allies of Skin Peptides & Omegas Firming Eye Cream. It’s silky, it melts in, and it leaves a subtle dewiness with no stickiness. It has vitamin C, peptides, and bakuchiol, and basically everyone I could want for my undereye area. My eyes are the one place the hours used to take their toll on, and I find this to lift and refresh. A little on the ring finger, tapped along the bone, never dragged.
Face oils: Some people don’t like oils, but I literally have two oils just for my hair. I just think if you know how to make oils work for you, they really just boost how everything looks and feels. So when it comes to face oils: I like them, I believe in them, but I want them direct and straightforward. No huge ingredients, no gimmiks, no mermaid tears story about how the ingredients came about. I want my oil deliberate, and lately I just repurchased my third bottle of the Gentler Essentials Rosehip Reverence oil, which I consider the best rosehip oil I’ve used. It’s simple and direct, very performance-oriented, great for aging and brightness, light and fast absorbing, and it sinks in instead of sitting on top. It feels like a skin drink and a clinical treatment at the same time, and I love it.
Moisturizer goes over the oil: my current one is Dr. Diamond’s Metacine HYDR/O Bioactive Hydrolipid Barrier Moisturizer. It’s lightweight, very serum-lotion hybrid in texture, but it’s built on ceramides, lipids, cholesterol, and several weights of hyaluronic acid to pull its weight, and my skin feels cushioned the next morning. It is, to be clear, a three-figure moisturizer. Does it feel overboard? Maybe. Am I going to downgrade? No.
The Finish
Last, Hims Minoxidil on a dry scalp, because you can never start too early. Since leaving investment banking, I’ve noticed my hair shed drastically reduce, so I don’t think it’s a genetic/age-related thing on its own, treatment is worth it. And then the part I’m most indulgent about: a night-time scent. I wear one shortly before bed so that by the time I’m under the covers it has faded and I get only whiffs of opulence. It’s a luxury I only discovered once I had an evening to wear it in. Right now it’s Margiela Tender Defiance from the Scentsorium collection. It opens with anise and a black licorice accord, which I expected to hate, since licorice reminds me of being nine at a candy counter. Instead it’s smooth and nostalgic, then it goes smoky with fir balsam and amber. The scent is like a seductive situationship: velvety, mysterious, sweet in the middle, and crisp enough to keep you at a distance. It’s so much bolder than anything from Margiela’s more mainstream Replica line, and it’s done so well. One spray on the chest is plenty.
How I Source
My old life taught me one useful thing: nobody trusts a deck that doesn’t cite a source. So I hold my shelf to the same standard, and every product here came with a face attached. The SkinCeuticals mask and NEOGENESIS came from a fabulous Singaporean doctor whose skin is the definition of glass skin goals, so I didn’t need a second opinion. Tatcha came from an influencer who I’ve seen bare faced, as far as I can tell, has never had a bad skin day. Dr. Diamond’s came from a friend who moved here from LA, whose mother who looks like she’s been 40 for the past 25 years has sworn by him.
The recommendation for Gentlerist came from a former colleague at my old job—an heiress who used to sit across from me as we ate dinner in front of our computers, waiting for feedback on a deck. We had a pastime where we’d look at which celebrity got a new face. She would scroll through the faces of some of the most beautiful people in Chinese entertainment, all of whom went to the founder of Gentlerist to maintain their appearance. I think I purchased their entire line—dove right into the deep end and have no regrets. My monthly appointment at Idriss is the one recurring meeting I’ve never once moved. If a product comes to me through a person, I’ll buy it without a second thought. If it comes through an algorithm like Medicube, it can wait six months and prove itself.
A question for the community
I’m hunting for my next night scent, and I’m picky about how it should develop: something that opens with real curiosity and then fades into a whisper by the time I’m in bed. And if there’s a dermatologist or facialist you’d put your name behind, I’m always taking referrals.
