Toning My Mug

Following along with my skincare routine series, after cleanser (morning and night!) comes toner.

I first used toner when I was about 13 or 14 and my mother was getting a bit concerned about the acne on my face. She showed me how to apply it and told me to do it twice a day, every day. However, I had absolutely no clue what toner was doing for my skin and, unsurprisingly, stopped doing it after a while and didn’t bother going back to it.

For the record, it was this one:

During my search for effective makeup that would make my skin look gorgeous, the same advice kept popping up: makeup can only do so much, and at the end of the day it is your skin that has to look good for you to look good. Thus, toner came flying up onto my radar once more, recommended for use every day just as my mother suggested. But what precisely does it do?

As it turns out, that bottle of fragrant water has several important uses. Its first and original one, apparently, is as an astringent.

According to blogging gurus and beautician friends alike, cleaning your face daily is a multi-step process, as below:

1. Open up your pores by putting a warm, steamy towel on your face, or by being in the shower.
2. Use a face cleanser to clean out your face, using circular motions to get the cleanser into those pores.
3. Rinse the cleanser off and pat your skin dry.
4. Close your pores to prevent dirt from getting in after they’ve been cleaned.

Essentially, toner covers step 4, closing your pores by using astringent ingredients like witch hazel water to tighten your skin. This prevents dirt and grime from entering the wide open pores you just cleaned out, which also tends to prevent your skin from getting too oily because, well, your pores are now “smaller” so there’s less oil they can whack on your face!

This particular function for toner isn’t that necessary if you have dry skin. However, if your skin tends towards combination or oily, then this is almost a must-do, even if it’s just a few times a week rather than daily.

SIDENOTE: Your pores will not actually become smaller; they just tighten and can appear smaller (and function as though they were smaller) and less noticeable than before.

Toners also have other benefits, such as:

pH balancing - Our faces tend toward the slightly acidic side (usually a 5 to 6.5 pH score), which basically prevents bacteria and other crap from being absorbed into our skin. Cleansers tend toward the alkaline side of things, which can end up messing up the balance on our skin (especially on dryer skin), resulting in redness or dryness. pH balancing toners can help remedy some of this.

Residue clearing - Some cleansers will leave residue on your face, which in and of itself isn’t the worst thing in the world, but piling moisturizer on top of this stuff can potentially clog pores or irritate your skin. It can also serve to remove any leftover makeup that your cleanser didn’t get to in the first place. Almost all toners do this as a side benefit.

Humectant - Where the astringent function of toner isn’t that necessary (i.e., for dry skin), toners can also be used as humectants, which seals in moisture in the upper layers of your skin. Most alcohol-free toners are basically humectant toners.

Other, less common benefits (dependant on the type of toner) include mattifying oily skin and soothing redness (tea tree toners are good at this).

Generally, if you have dry or sensitive skin, you should be avoiding alcohol-based toners (i.e., ones containing witch hazel water), which can dry out your skin and create more problems than they solve, and instead stick to milder, humectant toners like rosewater. If you have sensitive and very oily skin, there are essential oils that can act like astringents without the alcohol, such as sandalwood, coconut, and almond oil.

Toners come as clear liquids, oils, or sometimes mists. It’s up to you to decide what you like best (though it may just depend on your overall method of cleansing and the type of toner you end up using).

This is a great mist toner, and it also smells beautiful:

Liquid toners are best applied using a cotton pad. Drip a few drops onto it and then gently swipe the cotton pad over your most problematic areas first (i.e, T-zone or other blemish-prone spots), then to the rest of your face.

NOTE: Witch hazel, while a totally natural ingredient, by nature has a notable alcohol content of up to about 15% in its purest forms. You might find toners out there claiming to have “no added alcohol,” which is meant to imply that they are alcohol-free, but they contain witch hazel water. Be wary of this, as I fell into this trap with my current toner!