Ingredients 101: What's In Toners?
This is probably one of the most misunderstood skincare products. Toners are usually overlooked when choosing skincare products, thought to be something for oilier skin types. This couldn’t be less true!
Toners are an amazing addition to a daily skincare routine, they provide hydration, help balance your acid mantle and even help keep things clean when treating a pimple. In this blog, I am going to keep them separated into three groups- astringents, hydrators, and toners - and explain the common ingredients found within those categories.
Hopefully, when you’re finished with this blog, you will be so well versed on which toner you need that your skin will be hydrated, glowing, and balanced from this moment on!
“What is a toner?
Toners, also called toning agents, astringents, and beauty water. They penetrate very quickly into the skin giving instant hydration, removing dead skin cells, picking up the dirt your cleanser may have missed, picking up the cleanser water may have missed...and restore pH balance.”
Before we dive into the ingredients, let’s make sure you are confident in identifying the different types of toners.
I did break all of this down in my Back To Basics Blog series, but just in case you haven't read it just yet, there are three types of toners and easy ways to distinguish which is which.
The Three Types:
Astringent:
These have the highest alcohol content, they are meant for oily skin types or those with acne-prone skin.
Hydrators:
The lowest in the alcohol content, Hydrators are for your all-around anytime mist and perfect for all skin types. The Cucumber Hydration Toner from Skin Script is hands down my favorite, and it doubles as a probiotic for the skin’s surface. Feeding your acid mantle is key, and something you toner can help you with.
Toners:
This is your general or classic ‘toner’ consisting of some parts alcohol and some parts distilled water to both hydrate and ‘tone’ the skin. The phrase ‘tone the skin’ here means to give a restrictive or tightening feel to the surface of the skin, which can make pores appear to be smaller. This is also great to use after cleansing to help remove extra debris and leftover cleanser.
Knowing what they are called is half the battle, the other half is understanding the ingredients which will help you to always discern which is which when you shop.
All three of them do share some ingredients, but for the most part, they require different functional ingredients to get the right job done. For example, you wouldn’t want mint in a hydrator, it functions as an astringent on the skin and would serve better in an astrigent type toner.
Being armed with the understanding of what ingredients do what to the skin will allow you to ignore the hype speak skincare companies use on their bottles, and actually understand who this product is really for, and if you’re that person/skin type.
Astringents
Astringents are the ones with the highest alcohol content and for good reason.
Now, I know when you hear alcohol it’s hard to believe that putting alcohol on your skin is in any way good. The type of alcohol used in skincare is not the same as the 70% you have under your sink (or wherever you keep cleaning products), there are actually different types of alcohol.
Cetearyl Alcohol is a fatty alcohol, not alcohol in the sense you might be thinking, meaning it is more of an emollient (think moisturizing) agent for the skin.
The stronger type of alcohols, the ones potentially under your sink, like alcohol denat or isopropyl alcohol, do offer a lightweight feel to products but can lead to dryness in the wrong skin. Is alcohol a terrible ingredient? On the wrong skin type, yes.
Common Ingredients In Astringent Toners:
Alcohol Denat: Unfortunately very common in many skincare ingredient lists, this type of alcohol can be very drying and irritating to the skin, especially in high concentrations. This is best avoided as there are other, better, options for your astringent.
Witch Hazel: Now we’re talking! This is an amazing astringent for the skin, and has many benefits other than just toning the skin’s surface.
“Most often applied to the skin and scalp, witch hazel is widely known for its ability to ease inflammation and soothe sensitive skin.”
- 8 Benefits and Uses of Witch Hazel, https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/witch-hazel-benefits-uses
As you can see, there are many reasons to love witch hazel, and there are a lot of skincare companies who use this as their base for astringents. Thayers is the most common and can be picked up anywhere from Target to your local Natural Food Store.
Rose Water: Another amazing ingredient for oilier skin, or even skin dealing with pigmentation from acne breakouts. Having been around for thousands of years, this ingredient is best for acne-prone or post-acne pigmentation skin types. (More on this ingredient in the “general toners” section.)
Acids: There are a few acid-based toners you might see pop-up on the market, one that I have at home is the Glycolic Toner from the Ordinary. The trick to these is knowing a. the percentage of the acid being used b. the type of acid being use and c. how to properly incorporate this into your homecare routine. My quick answers to these are:
Anything over 10% is probably too high to call it a “toner”, we’d be moving into “exfoliant” town
Glycolic- anti-aging/acne/sun-damage Lactic- pigmentation/everyone Salicylic- acne/oilier skin types
Typically you will use these at night, I would say start using them 2-3x a week, if there is no Irritation but an improvement on the skin you can up it to 4x a week.
Hydrators
Commonly called “beauty water”, this type of toner is perfect for all skin types, and my personal favorite. I retail a toner called the Cucumber Hydration Toner that hydrates skin, balances the flora and fauna of your skin’s surface, and smells amazing!
Although you might find some alcohol on the ingredient list, it isn’t the first ingredient and contains more water than alcohol.
Common Ingredients in Hydrators
Water (aqua): Literally the MOST COMMON INGREDIENT! Water is used in 99.99% of skincare products as a functional ingredient (it helps the product’s consistency/feel) but really, it doesn't do much more than that. Even though this is found in nature, it does need to be purified or distilled to remove bacteria that could be harmful to us. For this reason, water is considered a synthetic or lab-processed ingredient. Water is naturally alkaline, so the other ingredients in the hydrator help restore your skin’s pH balance back to its acidic home of 4.5-5.5.
Micellar Water: Not really an “ingredient”, this is basically purified water that can be infused with botanicals, surfactants (to break down surface oil), and emollients (hydrating ingredients).
Glycerin: I actually talk about this ingredient back in my Moisturizer Ingredient Blog, so go check that out to learn about this little guy! Pretty much any of the ingredients on that blog under the list “humectants” are also used in hydrating toners.
You can start to see how ingredients overlap into different products, moisturizers having the same ingredients as toners or serums.
By the end of this blog series, you are going to be so well-versed on what all those crazy names on skincare ingredient lists really mean! At least that’s my goal.
Toners are a general category for the spritz that falls in the middle of astringent and hydrating. With some alcohol content, amongst a variety of essential oils and additives, these are typically what you find out on the market.
Toner Ingredients For Everyone
Rose Water (Rosa Damascena): Ok, so technically you can find this in all three of these categories, but I wanted to make more space for it here as it really is good for everyone. Rosewater is created by distilling rose petals through steaming according to Healthline. Could you do this at home? Maybe? Do you want to? That is 100% up to you, but also not what I want to talk about when it comes to this as an ingredient in toner. Firstly - this is a natural toner, similar to Witch Hazel and Apple Cider Vinegar (more on this one in a bit). Secondly - although it is hydrating, it’s best when paired with other emollient-rich, hydrating ingredients and followed by your skin’s appropriate weight moisturizer. Rosewater also provides anti-bacterial and antioxidant benefits, hence why you can find it in astringents as well.
Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice: Aloe is an all-around amazing gift from Mother Nature. It has so many benefits, my favorite being using it on treating skin over-exposed to the sun or burns of any kind. As a toner ingredient, it provides a lot of benefits:
“Among Aloe vera’s active components, we have lipophilic and hydro-soluble vitamins, minerals, enzymes, simple and complex polysaccharides, phenolic compounds, and organic acids, which together are responsible for its properties.”
All these benefits put together function to help balance the skin’s acid mantle or protective barrier. Remember, your skin is your body’s armor protecting softer tissue, the acid mantle is the superficial protective layer that keeps microbes and bacteria out.
Apple Cider Vinegar: This is great for almost everyone, just not those with sensitive or reactive skin. You can literally buy it at the grocery store, pour a little on a cotton ball, and voila! You have another amazing gift from Mother Nature, with a little help from the distillation process of apples of course. Don’t worry, my best friends over at Healthline have some help for us here, check out their article HERE to learn how to make your own ACV at home and a DIY recipe for at-home ACV toner.
Speaking of DIY, I’ve mentioned a lot of ingredients, and some of them you might already have in your kitchen. Two of them you can make from scratch at home! With that knowledge, what’s the big deal in buying a toner at a store when you can just make your own?
Well, I don’t actually have an argument against either side, but really for both of them, it’s up to you to decide what you want and are willing to do. If you choose to make your own facial toner, there are a few things to note:
DIY Toner Good To Know Tips:
Always use fresh ingredients! Remember that everything has a shelf life, so make sure you know the shelf life of your homemade toner. If you’re not sure what that is, a good rule of thumb is to go off the natural ingredient in the highest concentration whose shelf life you do know, like your bottle of Witch Hazel or ACV.
Consider keeping it in the fridge. This will help to extend that shelf life, also makes your mist quite refreshing.
If using essential oils, and you’re not sure if your skin will like it, do a patch test right behind your jawline, below your ear. If you react there, then it’s a no for your face.
Label your product! This goes without saying, but I’m saying it. You don’t want someone to accidentally toss your sacred skincare away, or even worse…drink it!
If you want some recipe ideas for making your own, you can click THIS LINK for those recipes for Rosewater, HERE for the one about Apple Cider Vinegar, or visit my Skincare Pinterest board for more ideas. The thing about making your own skincare is that it takes time, can make a slight mess, requires bottles to put it in (not everyone has these handy), and commitment to making it when you run out. If those don’t sound like hindrances to you, then maybe making your own is the perfect toner.
If however, you do not want to do all that, then buying your toner OTC (over the counter) is a perfect option. There are so so many skincare brands and options when it comes to buying facial toners. Just look it up on Google and you’ll get pages and pages of ads!
The trick to buying the right one comes down to a few key points:
Tips To Buying The Right Toner:
Know key ingredients. You already know the basics from this blog, so go out there armed with the knowledge of what your skin needs, and find it!
Keep it within a product line you already use. Don’t get me wrong, I love way too many different skincare companies, but I don’t use all of them at the same time, I phase some in and phase some out. Use no more than 2-3 different skincare companies’ products in your routine at any given time.
The first five ingredients matter! Those are the ones with the highest concentration in your product. After that, skincare companies can list ingredients in whatever order they want.
That doesn’t sound like much, but it is a lot to keep in mind when choosing one of the least expensive, most readily available skincare products on the market. Like I always say, it isn’t just having the right product that matters, it’s using them regularly. So definitely make sure you are consistent with your AM and PM skincare routine, but feel free to give yourself a midday mist of your hydrating toner anytime!
I hope all of this information helps you be a more focused and confident facial toner buyer, I know it has helped me brush up on my ingredient knowledge! Next time we will be chatting about exfoliants, and there are A LOT of ingredients to cover there!
If you need a review of the steps to a skincare routine, check out my blog HERE. Right now it’s the end of Spring and the beginning of Summer here in California, so if you need to refresh your skincare routine to match the season and aren’t sure where to begin, check out this blog HERE.
Until next time, be good to your skin and even better to your whole self.
xx eri