Why Do You Need A Toner?
- preps your skin
- restore the skin’s natural pH level
- refresh your skin
- moisturize your skin
- double cleanse your skin
Toner is an essential step to good skin care routine. This bottle of liquid may look like water and feels like water, it provides nutrients and replenish our skin. At the same time, it also double-cleanse your skin and takes off all the impurities that still linger on your skin after face wash. As a result, your skin texture is enhanced, more refreshed and hydrated.
Features to look for in a toner:
- moisturizing
- simple ingredients
- no alcohol
I like my toner to be as simple as possible. Mostly I stick to moisturizing or hydrating toner. I have pretty dry skin, and I feel that moisturizing toner can prep my skin better before I put on other skin care products such as face mask and essences.
In addition, I often soak some cotton pads with my toner and treat it like a mini face mask session. Therefore, I do not like toners with harmful ingredients especially alcohol.
Don’t get me wrong, not all alcohol in skin care products are bad. Fatty alcohol such as Cetyl and Behenyl alcohol do not irritate skin. In fact, they are used as thickeners or emollients in skin care products and beneficial for dry skin.
In opposite, ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, methanol, and Benzyl Alcohol are those ingredients that create damage to your skin barrier and dry out your skin.
It’s important that you pick a toner that is beneficial to your skin as this is the first step after cleansing. You use your toner to balance your skin ph, prep your skin and mildly exfoliate your skin.
Calendula Herbal Extract Alcohol-Free Toner (Buy Now)
Kiehl’s Calendula toner has been all the time best seller in Kiehl’s worldwide. It is recommended for the normal or oily-skin type. Though it didn’t give that hydration I need for my skin, it’s extremely soothing and calming to my skin. It’s not a toner that I’ll use every single day but it’s definitely one of the toners I couldn’t live without.
This toner has a few remarkable ingredients to calm your skin. The three main ingredients Allantoin, Calendula, and Burdock Root are excellent ingredients to soothe and comfort your skin. It is 100% alcohol-free and infused with calendula petals, so it’s quite gentle to use it every day.
My skin can get sensitive due to climate change, from a new product that I used, sunburn or a pimple. Whenever that happens, I’ll take a few cotton pads and soak them with the toner then just put it on the affected area for a couple of minutes and soothe my skin. It reduces the redness and discomfort on my skin. My skin will feel better the next day.
Hence, I always keep this toner in stock even though I don’t use it every single day. It’s like an emergency soothing solution to my skin.
Mamonde Rose Water Toner (Buy Now)
Speaking of floral power, Mamonde Rose Water Toner contains a high percentage of 90.89% Damask rose water in a bottle. It’s free of artificial color and mineral oil, so if you are someone are avoiding those ingredients, this toner is for you. In addition, it has a rose scent which I really really like, it feels so relaxing when you apply it all over your face. The scent does not linger on your face, it’s a really light scent.
Rose is known for its moisturizing and soothing properties on skin. With 90% of rose water, you definitely quench your skin with intense hydration. I think this rose water is suitable for most skin types especially those suffering from dryness and dullness on their skin.
This gentle toner feels very light and absorbs to skin very quickly. It doesn’t leave any sticky feeling on your skin. I also use this as a mist, just pour some in a spray bottle and carry in your bag with you. It refreshes your makeup and moisturizes your skin at the same time whenever you spray it on your face.
HADALABO Gokujun Hyaluronic Lotion Moist 
(Buy Now)
Hada Labo Goku-Jyun Clear Lotion is a no.1 selling face lotion in Japan, with one bottle purchased in two seconds!
I first learned about the brand in the year 2006 from a Japanese magazine. That’s also the very first time that I heard of hyaluronic acid as a skin care ingredient.
I purchased this lotion a couple of times, just a toner that won’t go wrong no matter what’s my skin condition. It’s a beauty product that I would recommend to people that haven’t tried any Asian beauty product before.
This lotion only targets one thing which is serious hydration. Therefore, the ingredients are pretty simple, and the key ingredient is hyaluronic acid which holds up to 1000 times its weight in water. What’s so special about the formulation of the products is the company put different forms of hyaluronic acid in the lotion, thus it works on your skin very effectively.
Though it was named as a lotion, it’s actually a toner. You use this right after you wash your face. The texture is a little bit different from other toners. It has a slightly thicker consistency compared to other toners. Just a tad. Nevertheless, it absorbs into your skin without leaving any residue. Now, they also launched brightening, anti-aging and hydrating lotion with a light texture. So, you can pick one according to your skin condition.