Beauty, Skin Care

Facial Toner- What is it? And why you need it?

I am often surprised by the people who have access to luxurious serums and creams and yet don’t know the importance of the humble- Toner. Even if they do know they are almost always confused about why this needs to be an important step in their skincare routine. To be honest I was one of those people at some point, so I thought I need to share my knowledge about this misunderstood skincare staple.

Skincare Essential - The Facial Toner, What is a toner, Reasons to incorporate a Toner into your skin care routine. Best toners in India

Skincare Essential – The Facial Toner

Why use a Toner?

The purpose of toners is to balance the skin by replenishing the skin after removing makeup and cleansing, a step that can significantly help the skin. Even after cleaning with the gentlest of cleansers, our skin still needs to be replenished with what the cleanser removes. A toner can provide skin with generous amounts of antioxidants, soothing agents, and vital hydrating ingredients.

The Ordinary - Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution, what is a toner, Reasons to incorporate a Toner into your skin care routine. Best toners in India

The Ordinary – Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution: Glycolic Acid exfoliates the skin. This 7% toning solution offers mild exfoliation for improved skin radiance and clarity. The formula also improves the appearance of skin texture with continued use. This formula contains a studied Tasmanian Pepperberry derivative to help reduce irritation associated with acid use. The formula is further supported with inclusion of Ginseng root and Aloe Vera for both visible radiance and soothing benefits. Buy Online: https://goo.gl/mXr2Ra

Obsolete narrative surrounding Toners

The original concept of toner was introduced ages ago, this liquid product was often associated with acne-prone skin and using astringents full of alcohol claiming to close pores and clean out the remaining makeup to get squeaky clean skin. This dried out the epidermis and give impression of shrinking the pores – hence the tightening and ‘toning’ narrative. This is no longer true! The Toner technology has advanced and now they are actually quite hydrating and packed with active ingredients to treat and soothe the skin.

Clinique-Clarifying Lotion, what is a toner, Reasons to incorporate a Toner into your skin care routine. Best toners in India

Clinique-Clarifying Lotion: This is a gentle, oil-free exfoliating lotion for dry or combination skin. (contains alcohol) This second step in Clinique’s 3-Step Skin Care System. The cool, refreshing formula removes dead cells from the surface of the skin helping moisturizer and makeup to apply evenly. Check my Review for this: here Buy Online http://amzn.to/2sZfjjQ

Functions of a Toner

  • Balance

Cleansing temporarily changes the PH level of the skin. This is the same as cleaning any part of your body, think why you apply conditioner after shampoo. A good toner will gently reset the balance. Our skin is capable of doing this by itself, but it takes close to half an hour to do so, during this time oily skin continues to generate more oil to combat the dehydration from the cleansing and dry skins will end up becoming more dry creating that ‘tight- stretched’ feeling.

  • Hydration

An effective toner (nowadays most often labeled as a lotion) will have ingredients that act as humectants – attracting moisture from the atmosphere and confining it on the top layers of the skin. Hydrating toners have ingredients like hyaluronic acid, glycerin or aloe vera. Our skin is not capable of doing this naturally and since we are almost always dehydrated this is an important function of a toner. This in turn will also help the layers put on top like a moisturizer or a serum penetrate better and be more effective.

  • Exfoliation

Lot of new Toners contain Acids which can be a very effective way of exfoliation even better than using scrubs with abrasive material that tend to create micro scratches on the epidermis.

Pixi Glow Tonic, what is a toner, Reasons to incorporate a Toner into your skin care routine. Best toners in India

Pixi Skintreats- Glow Tonic: This is an exfoliating toner that purifies the skin with Glycolic Acid. Ginseng improves circulation and energizes, Aloe Vera soothes and hydrates, refining the appearance of pores and accelerates cell renewal. Buy online http://amzn.to/2u95CyN

Toner Myths

  • Toner closes Pores

A toner containing alcohol will give an impression of pores shrinkingbut it’s not. It’s actually just drying the skin which will after a while make it oilier as the skin starts over-compensating.

  • Toner is meant to remove the last bits of your makeup

Toner is not a cleanser, it is not supposed to do that! If while using the Toner the cotton wool/round comes back dirty that means the cleanser used prior has not done a good job at cleaning.

Mario Badescu Skincare - Glycolic Acid Toner, what is a toner, Reasons to incorporate a Toner into your skin care routine. Best toners in India

Mario Badescu- Glycolic Acid Toner : This is a mild resurfacing toner that brightens and balances skin post-cleanse. Glycolic Acid, Grapefruit, and Aloe combine to refine pores and diminish the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, and uneven skin tone. Buy online http://amzn.to/2u96OSN

How and when to apply?

After cleansing the skin thoroughly (“Thorough” doesn’t mean rough, I mean after removing all traces of makeup / SPF/ dirt etc by using a makeup remover and then a face-wash) –  saturate a Cotton Ball/ Cotton round with your Toner and gently swipe over to cover the whole surface area of face and neck. There is no need to exert pressure or go over the same surface repeatedly. Think of it as a first step in moisturizing and follow it up with Serum/ Moisturizer.

Clarins- Toning Lotion, what is a toner, Reasons to incorporate a Toner into your skin care routine. Best toners in India

Clarins- Toning Lotion: This is an Alcohol-free toner for normal skin. It contains Camomile and Linden extracts that purify and removes last trace of cleanser, leaving skin pH-balanced, clean and refreshed. Buy Online http://amzn.to/2u8NTat

Closing Thoughts

When I got introduced to this, my first thought was I don’t have the time for this after a hard days of work. But then I had to push my self to actually test if this works, and it did. So taking those few extra minutes will make all the difference and your skin will thank you for it.

Are you already on the Toner band wagon? Let me know your experience in the comments.

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21 thoughts on “Facial Toner- What is it? And why you need it?

  1. sukriti says:

    Pretty informative! Could you do a feature on the budget toners? Some of the products above are quite expensive.

    • Sukriti, thanks for stopping by. I will try, but I do believe you get what you pay for.. also don’t believe Amazon India prices…some are just crazy.

  2. I do have a toner but I seldom ever use it.. I was like what’s the purpose when there is a cleanser and a face wash I already use reguarly as a part of my skincare routine. This post was helpful in understanding why we really need to use it. Thanks !!

  3. Pingback: Review | Estée Lauder- Advanced Time Zone Age Reversing Line/Wrinkle Creme | Ms. Plainspoken

  4. Pingback: The Ordinary: Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution | Review | Ms. Plainspoken

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