Dot & Key Skincare August 2026: A Four-Step Routine From Rs. 1,488

Two hundred and forty-nine rupees for a hundred millilitres, which is Rs. 2.49 a millilitre by our own arithmetic on the stated pack size. Seven of Dot and Key's face washes sit at exactly this price, so within the cleansing step the price is not a decision at all - you are choosing a formula, not a budget. This is the one the brand points at oily and congested skin: cica and salicylic acid, though unlike the serums further down the listing states no concentration for either, and we are not going to invent one. Salicylic acid in a wash has a short contact time with the skin, which is worth knowing before you expect it to do what a leave-on does; if blackheads are the actual problem, the Rs. 399 2% serum in step three is the product built for it and this is the cleanser that goes underneath. We have not used this on skin and neither the feed nor any listing here carries a rating or a review count, so nothing on this page shows a rating pill. Buy it as the Rs. 249 opening of a routine, not as a treatment.

• Price: Rs. 249 for 100 ml
• Routine step: Step one, cleanse
• What the listing states: Cica and salicylic acid, no concentration stated
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: Cleanser for oily and congested skin - the cheapest opening to the acne-leaning routine

The same two hundred and forty-nine rupees, the same hundred millilitres. What separates it is what the listing actually commits to in writing: five ceramides, hyaluronic, pH 5.5, no fragrance and no sulphates. Those are specific, checkable claims rather than mood words, and they are the four things that matter most if your skin stings after washing. A cleanser cannot repair anything - it is on your face for thirty seconds - so the honest framing is that this is the wash least likely to strip you, not one that will fix a compromised barrier. That job belongs to the Rs. 599 barrier serum and the Rs. 395 barrier moisturiser further down, and the three of them plus the Rs. 445 barrier sunscreen make the complete dry-skin routine we price at Rs. 1,688. Fragrance-free is the single most useful line on this listing for anyone reactive. We have not tested it; what we can tell you is that at Rs. 249 it costs the same as every other wash here, so choosing the gentle one costs nothing.

• Price: Rs. 249 for 100 ml
• Routine step: Step one, cleanse
• What the listing states: Five ceramides and hyaluronic, pH 5.5, fragrance- and sulphate-free per the listing
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: Cleanser for dry and sensitive skin - the gentle wash, at no premium

Two hundred and forty-nine rupees, a hundred millilitres, and by now the pattern in this step is obvious: three different formulas, one price. This is the one that starts the brightening routine, and it is worth being blunt about what a vitamin C cleanser can and cannot be. Vitamin C is a leave-on active in every serious formulation - the Rs. 499 serum in step three is where the brand actually states a concentration, ten per cent - and in a wash it is rinsed off within a minute. So buy this because you want a light gel cleanser that fits the rest of a vitamin C routine, not because you expect the vitamin C in it to do the brightening. There is also a Rs. 295 vitamin C foaming wash in the feed at 80 ml, which is Rs. 3.69 a millilitre against Rs. 2.49 here - the same brand, the same active, a fifty per cent higher rate for the foam format. That comparison is our own arithmetic on the brand's stated pack sizes. No ratings are published anywhere in this feed.

• Price: Rs. 249 for 100 ml
• Routine step: Step one, cleanse
• What the listing states: Vitamin C and vitamin E, no concentration stated
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: Cleanser for dull-looking skin - the brightening routine's first step

Four hundred and ninety-nine rupees for seventy millilitres, which works out at Rs. 7.13 a millilitre against Rs. 2.49 for the gel washes above - roughly three times the rate, on our arithmetic from the stated sizes. That sounds like a lot until you place what it is for. If you are going to buy sunscreen, and this page argues at some length that you should, then you need something that takes it off, and a water-based gel cleanser is not reliably that. An oil or balm cleanser dissolves the film; the gel wash then takes the residue. That is the whole logic of double cleansing and it is the only reason this Rs. 499 belongs in a routine that otherwise costs Rs. 1,488. Two honest caveats. It is an evening product only, so a jar lasts a good while at the smaller nightly amounts a balm needs. And if you are not wearing sunscreen or makeup, you do not need it - skip this card, keep the Rs. 499, and put it towards the tinted SPF at the end instead.

• Price: Rs. 499 for 70 ml
• Routine step: Step one, cleanse
• What the listing states: Cleansing balm - no active concentration stated
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: The second cleanse - the sunscreen-removal step

Three hundred and ninety-five rupees for a hundred and fifty millilitres, Rs. 2.63 a millilitre by our own arithmetic. All four of Dot and Key's face toners sit between Rs. 395 and Rs. 399, so again the price is not the decision. What deserves saying plainly is that this step is optional, and we have put it second rather than dropped it because of what the brand's own bundles show. Three of its CTM regimes - cleanse, tone, moisturise - are listed at Rs. 1,139, and each is exactly a Rs. 249 wash plus a Rs. 395 toner plus a Rs. 495 moisturiser, to the rupee and to the stated total volume. So the brand itself treats the toner as a routine component rather than an extra. Our view is different: if your budget is Rs. 1,500, spend it on cleanse, treat, moisturise and sunscreen and add the toner later. This one carries cica, niacinamide and green tea with no concentration stated for any of them, which is the general pattern outside the serums.

• Price: Rs. 395 for 150 ml
• Routine step: Step two, tone
• What the listing states: Cica, niacinamide and green tea, no concentration stated
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: Toner for oily skin - the optional step, priced honestly

Three hundred and ninety-five rupees for a hundred and fifty millilitres, the same rate as every other toner here. This is the exfoliating one, and it is the pick on this page we would ask you to think hardest about, for a reason that has nothing to do with the price. Glycolic acid is a surface exfoliant; salicylic acid works inside the pore; retinol does something different again. Stacking two or three of them into one evening is the most common way people end up with a stinging, flaking face and then blame whichever product they bought last. If you already use the Rs. 399 salicylic serum or the Rs. 599 retinol serum, this toner is not an addition to your routine, it is an alternative on different nights. Note also what the listing does not say: the brand states 10% for the glycolic serum in step three but states no percentage here, so you cannot compare the two on strength. Where a number is not printed, we will not supply one. Nothing here has been tested by us on skin.

• Price: Rs. 395 for 150 ml
• Routine step: Step two, tone
• What the listing states: Glycolic acid, no concentration stated on the toner
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: The exfoliating toner - exfoliant - alternate, do not stack

Three hundred and ninety-five rupees, a hundred and fifty millilitres, and the third toner at an identical price. The distinguishing line on this listing is alcohol-free, which is the reason a lot of people gave up on toners in the first place: the traditional astringent format left skin tight, and this category has spent a decade moving away from it. Ceramides and rice water are the stated components, with no concentration given for either. Read it as a hydrating layer rather than as an active step - it is the toner that belongs in the dry-skin routine alongside the Rs. 249 barrier wash, the Rs. 599 barrier serum and the Rs. 395 barrier moisturiser, and it takes that routine from Rs. 1,688 to Rs. 2,083. There is also a Rs. 399 blueberry milk toner in the feed at the same 150 ml, four rupees dearer, which is the milkier texture of the same idea. That four-rupee gap is the entire price variation across Dot and Key's toner shelf, which tells you how little the price is doing here.

• Price: Rs. 395 for 150 ml
• Routine step: Step two, tone
• What the listing states: Ceramides and rice water, alcohol-free per the listing
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: Toner for dry and reactive skin - hydrating, not active

Three hundred and ninety-nine rupees for twenty millilitres, Rs. 19.95 a millilitre on our arithmetic, and it is the cheapest of the eight serums in this feed. It is also where this page's most useful observation starts. Of the sixty-seven single products Dot and Key lists, only nine have a number and a per cent sign in the title, and seven of those nine are serums. The brand prints its concentrations on the leave-on step and stays quiet on the cleansers, toners, moisturisers and sunscreens - which is not unusual in this market, but it does mean the serum shelf is the only part of the catalogue you can compare on strength rather than on marketing. Here the number is two per cent salicylic acid, with zinc alongside it. Two per cent is the standard leave-on level for salicylic acid in an over-the-counter product. Whether it suits your skin is a question for a dermatologist and not for a price feed, and we have not put it on anyone's face. What we can tell you is that it is Rs. 399 and that the number is printed.

• Price: Rs. 399 for 20 ml
• Routine step: Step three, treat
• What the listing states: 2% salicylic acid with zinc - concentration stated by the brand
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: Best value serum - cheapest stated-concentration active

Four hundred and forty-nine rupees for twenty millilitres, Rs. 22.45 a millilitre. Ten per cent niacinamide, stated by the brand, and this is the simpler of the two ten-per-cent serums on this shelf - the other, directly below, is the same Rs. 449 and adds three per cent tranexamic acid. Buy this one if your concern is general dullness and uneven tone; buy that one if your concern is specifically stubborn dark marks, because that is what the extra ingredient is aimed at. Since they cost the same, that is a straightforward choice and not a budget one. Worth flagging: niacinamide appears at three different price points in this catalogue and at two stated strengths. Ten per cent here at Rs. 449 for 20 ml, five per cent in the Rs. 499 vitamin C serum, five per cent again in the Rs. 395 oil-free moisturiser at 50 g, and unstated in the Rs. 395 cica toner. If you already own the moisturiser, you are not starting from zero. We have tested none of these and Dot and Key publishes no ratings.

• Price: Rs. 449 for 20 ml
• Routine step: Step three, treat
• What the listing states: 10% niacinamide - concentration stated by the brand
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: The 10% niacinamide, plain - the plain version of the same active

Four hundred and forty-nine rupees for twenty millilitres, exactly what the Strawberry Bright serum above costs, and with the same stated ten per cent niacinamide. What the extra buys - because you are paying nothing extra - is three per cent tranexamic acid, which is used against stubborn pigmentation and post-acne marks specifically. When two products cost the same and one has more in it, the reflex is to take the fuller one. We would resist that reflex a little. Tranexamic acid is aimed at a particular problem, and if your concern is general dullness rather than marks that have sat there for months, you gain nothing by adding an ingredient targeted at something you do not have, and you add one more thing your skin can react to. The reverse is also true: if a dermatologist has already used the word pigmentation with you, this is the rational Rs. 449 of the two. Neither is a treatment and neither has been tested by us. The concentrations here are the brand's own, printed on its own listing.

• Price: Rs. 449 for 20 ml
• Routine step: Step three, treat
• What the listing states: 10% niacinamide with 3% tranexamic acid - both stated by the brand
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: Same price, one ingredient more - targeted, at no extra cost

Four hundred and ninety-nine rupees for twenty millilitres, Rs. 24.95 a millilitre, which makes it the most expensive serum here per millilitre despite not being the most expensive bottle. Ten per cent vitamin C with vitamin E, plus five per cent niacinamide, all three figures the brand's own. Ten per cent is the gentler end of the vitamin C range - twenty per cent formulations exist elsewhere and are considerably more likely to sting - and the brand's own listing describes this one as beginner-friendly, which is consistent with that number rather than a marketing flourish. Having niacinamide in the same bottle is what makes this the efficient pick: you do not need to buy the Rs. 449 niacinamide serum as well, and the brightening routine we price at Rs. 1,688 uses this one bottle for the whole treat step. Cost per millilitre is the reason to think twice: the two thirty-millilitre serums below cost Rs. 599 and work out at Rs. 19.97 a millilitre, a fifth cheaper per drop than this twenty-millilitre bottle. Bigger bottles are cheaper here, as they usually are.

• Price: Rs. 499 for 20 ml
• Routine step: Step three, treat
• What the listing states: 10% vitamin C and 5% niacinamide - both stated by the brand
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: Best starter serum - one bottle for the brightening routine

Five hundred and ninety-nine rupees for thirty millilitres, which is Rs. 19.97 a millilitre by our own arithmetic and therefore a better rate than the Rs. 449 twenty-millilitre serums at Rs. 22.45. That is worth pausing on, because the instinct in a shop is to reach for the cheaper number on the shelf. Here the cheaper number is the more expensive product per use. Hyaluronic and ceramides are the stated components and the twelve per cent in the name refers to the brand's blend rather than to any single ingredient, so we will not present it as a concentration in the way the ten per cent niacinamide is one. This is the treat step of the dry and reactive routine: Rs. 249 barrier wash, this at Rs. 599, the Rs. 395 barrier moisturiser and the Rs. 445 barrier sunscreen, Rs. 1,688 for the four. Nothing on this page is a treatment for a skin condition, we have applied none of it, and if your barrier is genuinely damaged the right next step is a dermatologist rather than a fourth product.

• Price: Rs. 599 for 30 ml
• Routine step: Step three, treat
• What the listing states: 12% blend of hyaluronic and ceramides per the brand's name for it
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: Best serum for dry skin - best rate per millilitre here

Five hundred and ninety-nine rupees for thirty millilitres, Rs. 19.97 a millilitre, and the reason it closes this chapter is the number in its name. Retinol appears three times in Dot and Key's range - this serum at Rs. 599, the Rs. 599 night cream in the next chapter and the Rs. 495 eye cream after it - and this is the only one of the three whose listing states a strength. Nought point two per cent is a beginner-to-intermediate level; retinol products run from about 0.1% to 1% and the difference matters a great deal. On the other two you are buying an ingredient without a quantity, which is not a criticism of the brand so much as a fact to weigh when you compare. Practical notes that apply to all retinol and not just this bottle: it is an evening product, it does not combine happily with the glycolic toner or the salicylic serum in the same session, and it takes months rather than days. We have not used it, no rating exists in this feed, and how any retinol suits your skin is a question for a doctor.

• Price: Rs. 599 for 30 ml
• Routine step: Step three, treat
• What the listing states: 0.2% retinol complex - concentration stated by the brand
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: The retinol, with a number on it - the only stated retinol strength

Three hundred and ninety-five rupees for fifty grams, Rs. 7.90 a gram on our arithmetic. This is the fourth and last component of the cheapest complete routine on this page: Rs. 249 cica wash, Rs. 399 salicylic serum, this at Rs. 395 and the Rs. 445 cica sunscreen, Rs. 1,488 for a full cleanse, treat, moisturise and protect. Oil-free and fragrance-free are both stated on the listing, and both are the right defaults for skin that breaks out. The listing also gives five per cent niacinamide, which is the same active as the Rs. 449 serums at half the strength and in a leave-on base you are using every day anyway - so if you are assembling a first routine and cannot afford both, this moisturiser gets you some niacinamide without a separate purchase. Read the next card before you buy, though. The barrier moisturiser is also Rs. 395 and comes in a hundred-gram jar rather than fifty, so it is Rs. 3.95 a gram - the same money for twice the product, in a formula aimed at different skin.

• Price: Rs. 395 for 50 g
• Routine step: Step four, moisturise
• What the listing states: 5% niacinamide per the listing, oil-free, fragrance-free
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: Moisturiser for oily skin - closes the Rs. 1,488 routine

Three hundred and ninety-five rupees for a hundred grams, Rs. 3.95 a gram - exactly half the rate of the fifty-gram cica gel directly above at the identical price. Two moisturisers, one price, one jar twice the size. That is not a pricing anomaly to get worked up about, because they are different formulas for different skin, but it is the single largest quantity-per-rupee gap on this page and you should know it exists before you pick. This is the dry and sensitive one: hyaluronic and ceramides, fragrance-free, no concentration stated. Ceramides are the lipids that sit between skin cells and a ceramide moisturiser is the standard category answer for skin that feels tight and flaky, which is category understanding rather than a claim about this jar. It is the moisturise step of the Rs. 1,688 dry-skin routine. One honest limitation on the size advantage: a hundred-gram jar of a cream you use twice a day will be open for months, and a jar you dip fingers into is a less hygienic format than a pump, whatever the formula.

• Price: Rs. 395 for 100 g
• Routine step: Step four, moisturise
• What the listing states: Hyaluronic and ceramides, fragrance-free per the listing
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: Twice the jar, same price - most product per rupee here

Four hundred and ninety-five rupees for sixty millilitres, Rs. 8.25 a millilitre. Eight of Dot and Key's single products sit at exactly Rs. 495, which by our count makes it the joint most crowded price in the range along with Rs. 395 - so once more, within this step you are choosing a formula rather than a budget. This is the one that completes the brightening routine: Rs. 249 vitamin C wash, Rs. 499 vitamin C serum with its stated ten per cent, this at Rs. 495 and the Rs. 445 vitamin C sunscreen, Rs. 1,688 for four steps. No concentration is stated for the vitamin C here, and that is the honest way to think about it - the serum is where the number is, and the moisturiser is a light gel base that keeps the routine consistent rather than a second dose of anything. A gel texture suits combination skin and hot months; if you are dry, the Rs. 395 hundred-gram barrier cream above is both richer and cheaper. Dot and Key publishes no ratings on any of this, and we have not tested it.

• Price: Rs. 495 for 60 ml
• Routine step: Step four, moisturise
• What the listing states: Vitamin C and vitamin E, no concentration stated
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: Moisturiser for the brightening routine - matches the vitamin C serum

Five hundred and ninety-nine rupees for sixty millilitres, Rs. 9.98 a millilitre, which makes it half the rate of the Rs. 599 retinol serum at thirty millilitres - twice the product for the same money, in a cream base rather than a serum. Before you take that as a straightforward win, note the trade: the serum states 0.2% retinol and this cream states no concentration at all. So you are choosing between a smaller bottle with a number on it and a larger jar without one, at the same price. Which is better depends on what you value, and we are not going to pretend the feed answers it. Our own preference on a first retinol purchase is the stated number, because knowing the strength is what lets you tell whether irritation means back off or means keep going. As a routine component this replaces your night moisturiser rather than adding to it, so it does not stack on top of the Rs. 395 or Rs. 495 creams above - use those in the morning. Retinol and pregnancy are a conversation for a doctor, not a blog.

• Price: Rs. 599 for 60 ml
• Routine step: Step four, moisturise
• What the listing states: Retinol with ceramides - no concentration stated on the cream
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: The night step - twice the retinol serum's volume

Four hundred and ninety-five rupees for twenty millilitres, Rs. 24.75 a millilitre, which is the highest rate per millilitre of any of the twenty-two products here. Eye creams almost always are, because the bottles are small. We have seated it last in this chapter and framed it as optional deliberately. If your four-step routine is not yet complete, an eye cream is the wrong Rs. 495 - the sunscreen in the next chapter is Rs. 445 and does more for how the skin around your eyes ages than any cream will. If your routine is complete and dark circles are your specific concern, this is the product the brand points at it, with retinol and pomegranate and no stated strength. One more thing worth saying plainly: a great deal of what people call dark circles is anatomy and shadow rather than pigment, and no cream at any price changes bone structure. We cannot tell you whether this one does anything, we have not used it, and there is no rating in the feed. What we can tell you is the price per millilitre and the order in which to spend.

• Price: Rs. 495 for 20 ml
• Routine step: Step four, moisturise
• What the listing states: Retinol - no concentration stated on the eye cream
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: The optional extra - buy last, if at all

Four hundred and forty-five rupees for fifty grams, Rs. 8.90 a gram. Seven of the brand's sunscreens sit at exactly Rs. 445, which is the tightest cluster in the catalogue and means the choice here is texture and finish, full stop. This is the one built for oily and acne-prone skin, with cica and niacinamide, SPF 50+ and PA++++, and the listing describes it as in-vivo tested - that phrase means the SPF was measured on human skin rather than in a lab plate, which is the more meaningful of the two testing routes and is worth looking for on any sunscreen. It completes the Rs. 1,488 routine. The most important thing about sunscreen is not which of these seven you buy, it is that you use enough of it and reapply, and a fifty-gram tube used properly on the face does not last as long as people expect. That is the argument for the Rs. 445 tube over anything dearer: you should be running out. We have not worn it and no rating is published anywhere in this feed.

• Price: Rs. 445 for 50 g
• Routine step: Step five, protect
• What the listing states: SPF 50+ PA++++, in-vivo tested per the listing
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: Sunscreen for oily skin - the mattifying one

Four hundred and forty-five rupees, fifty grams, the identical price and the identical stated protection as the card above: SPF 50+, PA++++, in-vivo tested. The formula is the barrier-repair one, which in practice means a more emollient finish rather than a mattifying one, and it is the pick if the mattifying sunscreens have left your skin feeling tight. It is also the last component of the dry and reactive routine on this page - Rs. 249 wash, Rs. 599 serum, Rs. 395 moisturiser, this at Rs. 445, Rs. 1,688 in total. Since all seven of the Rs. 445 sunscreens carry the same SPF and PA rating, there is genuinely nothing to choose between them on protection as stated, and everything to choose on whether you will actually put it on every morning. That is not a soft point: the best sunscreen is the one whose texture you do not resent. If you have never got on with any of them, the Rs. 595 stick and the Rs. 595 body spray in the feed are different formats of the same job. We have tested none of them.

• Price: Rs. 445 for 50 g
• Routine step: Step five, protect
• What the listing states: SPF 50+ PA++++, in-vivo tested per the listing
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: Sunscreen for dry skin - closes the dry-skin routine

Four hundred and forty-five rupees for fifty grams, the same as the two cards above, and the reason it is here is routine consistency rather than any claim that it protects better. It does not: SPF 50+ and PA++++ are the same stated figures as its siblings. What it does is complete the vitamin C set - wash at Rs. 249, serum at Rs. 499, moisturiser at Rs. 495, this at Rs. 445, Rs. 1,688 - and there is a real argument for sunscreen mattering more in a brightening routine than in any other. Whatever you are using to even out tone, ultraviolet is what undoes it, so the sunscreen is not the optional garnish on that routine, it is the part that makes the rest worth buying. Note that the brand lists this product twice, at the same Rs. 445, under two slightly different titles; we picked one and mention the duplicate rather than seating it twice. Ordinary catalogue clutter, but it means a search may show you two results for one tube. No concentration of vitamin C is stated on the sunscreen.

• Price: Rs. 445 for 50 g
• Routine step: Step five, protect
• What the listing states: SPF 50+ PA++++, filters described as new-age by the brand
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: Sunscreen for the brightening routine - the step that protects the rest

Five hundred and forty-nine rupees, and the pack-of-two listing at Rs. 1,098 for a hundred grams tells us the single is fifty grams, which puts it at Rs. 10.98 a gram against Rs. 8.90 for the untinted tubes. A hundred and four rupees more than the plain sunscreens, then, for a tint - and twelve shades all at the same Rs. 549, so the shade you need costs what any other shade costs, which is not universal in this category and is worth confirming wherever you shop. We have closed the page on this one because it is the pick that most changes the arithmetic of a routine. If a tinted sunscreen means you skip a foundation, the Rs. 549 is not an addition to the skincare budget, it is a subtraction from a different one, and this is the only product on this page that can be argued for on those grounds. If you do wear it as a base, the Rs. 499 cleansing balm in step one stops being optional. We have not worn this and cannot speak to shade accuracy, coverage or how it wears through an Indian afternoon.

• Price: Rs. 549 for 50 g, cheapest shade (Peony 00, very light)
• Routine step: Step five, protect
• What the listing states: SPF 50+ PA++++ with a tint - twelve shades, all Rs. 549
• Discount: none - Dot and Key lists this at its own price with no higher MRP beside it
• Rating: none published - Dot and Key's product feed carries no ratings or review counts
• Role: The one that replaces a base - sunscreen and base in one