Serious skin care products don’t have to be the most expensive, they just need to work. Don’t choose products based strictly on price, popularity, or advertising.

Below are 7 tips for making your serious skin care regimen work for you. Remember that your skin is unique, and what works for someone else may not work for you. You’ll have to experiment until you find the right routine.

1. Selecting products — Your skin care product choices should be based on whether or not they work rather than price or advertising hype. In addition to proper application, effectiveness is a matter of matching products to skin type and weather conditions.

2. Skin type — Different products may be right for you (or wrong) depending upon your skin type. Remember that different products will respond differently depending upon whether you have normal, dry, oily, combination, or sensitive skin type.

3. Remove make up daily — If you wear make up, make sure to thoroughly remove it with a make up remover daily. Some make up products can clog the pores and lead to skin problems.

4. Thoroughly cleanse — It doesn’t do any good to apply quality skin care products to a dirty face. Cleanse your skin at least daily with an appropriate cleanser for your skin type. Prior to applying moisturizers, be sure to thoroughly cleanse your skin.

5. Use products correctly — Removal of make up and thorough cleansing, as well as ensuring that your skin is warm and damp when applying the product is important. Applying products correctly is important to the long term success of your skin care regimen.

6. Change is good — Well, sometimes change can be good. Skin types can change over time, and manufacturers may change their formulas. Even the weather can make a difference in the way that products interact with your skin. Be prepared to change products if needed.

7. Follow directions — Your skin care efforts will be more effective if you follow the product manufacturer’s directions on how to use the product. This includes both storage and usage instructions.

If you follow these recommendations, your skin care efforts will get better results. Choose your products well, test them to make sure you’re getting the best results possible, and be willing to change products if needed.