Where a Lipid Serum Goes in a Routine

Despite the name, a lipid serum or balm usually goes where your moisturizer goes, not alongside your other serums. It belongs in the moisturizing step, after cleansing and any treatments that need to go first, and in the morning, sunscreen follows.^{1, 2} If your skin still feels dry with it, the fix is a water-based layer underneath, not a different order.

Lipid serums and moisturizing balms are built around oils and related ingredients that soften skin and help slow water loss. Keeping water in is one way to moisturize, a bit like a lid on a pot that slows the water boiling off, so even a waterless formula can help skin stay hydrated. Depending on the formula and your skin, it may provide enough moisturizing care on its own.^{3, 4}

How to layer it

1. Cleanse, then apply any treatments according to their instructions. Some treatments need dry skin or a particular order.^{1, 6}
2. Moisturize. A lipid serum or balm can be your moisturizer. If you're using it as the final layer to help hold moisture in, apply any water-based serum or cream underneath.^{3, 4}
3. Finish with sunscreen in the morning. Apply it as a separate layer.²

Say your evening routine is a cleanser, a water-based serum and a lipid serum. You'd cleanse, smooth on the water-based serum, then finish with the lipid serum, so it sits on top and helps hold in the water underneath. In the morning, the same order works, with sunscreen as its own layer at the end.

What changes when you use retinoids or exfoliants?

Treatment directions take priority over the general sequence, so when a product tells you how to apply it, follow its directions first and fit the lipid serum in afterward. For example, one tretinoin cream's instructions say to wait 20 to 30 minutes after washing so skin is fully dry before applying the medicine.⁶ Your lipid serum then goes on after the tretinoin, as the moisturizing step.

With an exfoliant, complete any rinse-off step before moisturizing. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends moisturizing after exfoliation and cautions that exfoliating while using retinol or prescription retinoids can worsen dryness.⁷

If a prescribed treatment keeps causing irritation, ask the prescriber about the amount, frequency, and moisturizing step.⁶

Do you need a cream underneath?

If your skin stays comfortable with the lipid serum or balm alone, you don't need to add a cream simply to complete the routine.

If your skin still feels dry or tight, a water-based serum or cream containing glycerin may help. Glycerin attracts and holds water in skin's outer layer, while the lipid product helps slow its loss, so the glycerin draws water in and the lipid layer keeps it there.⁴ The guide to humectants, emollients, and occlusives explains each kind of moisturizing ingredient in more detail.

Applying your moisturizer while skin is still damp after cleansing can also help hold water in.⁵ The exception is a treatment that needs dry skin, like the tretinoin cream; its directions come first.

Using Omnia

We designed Omnia as a waterless solid serum. Its lipid base contains softening ingredients such as squalane and jojoba esters and is designed to help slow water loss.⁴ The same base carries oil-soluble actives, including THD ascorbate, a form of vitamin C.⁸

Use Omnia as your moisturizing step, after any treatments that need to go first. Apply it to damp skin to help hold water in, or over a water-based product when your skin needs extra hydration.⁵

Tonight, try your lipid serum as the last step on its own, and notice whether your skin still feels comfortable in the morning. If it doesn't, add a water-based layer underneath next time.

Sources

1. American Academy of Dermatology. Should I apply my skin care products in a certain order?
2. Cleveland Clinic. How To Order Your Skin Care Routine. September 5, 2025.
3. NHS. Emollients.
4. Sethi A, et al. Moisturizers: The Slippery Road. Indian Journal of Dermatology, 2016.
5. American Academy of Dermatology. Dermatologists' top tips for relieving dry skin.
6. DailyMed. Tretinoin cream: patient instructions.
7. American Academy of Dermatology. How to safely exfoliate at home.
8. Swindell WR, et al. Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate (THDC) Degrades Rapidly under Oxidative Stress but Can Be Stabilized by Acetyl Zingerone to Enhance Collagen Production and Antioxidant Effects. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2021.