Starting from zero is actually the best position to be in. You haven't wasted money yet, and you get to build in the right order instead of around a shelf of things that didn't work. The trick is buying in sequence rather than all at once.
Two products, both cheap, both boring. This is the entire foundation of a skincare routine and everything else is optional on top of it. Use them morning and night for two weeks before you buy anything else, so you learn what your skin is actually like when it's being treated reasonably.
Added second only because you want to find a cleanser and moisturizer that don't fight with it. Once it's in, it's the product you never stop using. Try a texture you like — this is one you have to wear daily for it to do anything.
Not a kit, not a palette. One thing — usually a tinted moisturizer or a concealer — that you'd reach for on an ordinary day. Buying a full face at once is how people end up owning eleven products and using two.
A sponge or a single brush, whichever the product actually requires. Tools are worth buying one at a time, in response to a product you own, rather than as a set in advance.
Retinol, acids, brightening serums, eye products. All of these are more useful once you have a baseline, and all of them are easier to blame correctly when something goes wrong if you added them to a stable routine rather than a brand-new one.
Five products over two months, bought in that order, will get you further than fifteen bought in one afternoon. The sequence is the whole point — each thing you add tells you something about what to add next.