What Does Face Toner Do & How Should We Use It?
What Does Face Toner Do & How Should We Use It?
Navigating through the vast expanse of skincare products can be overwhelming. In the quest for healthy-looking skin, a well-crafted skincare routine is of utmost importance, and that routine should be targeted toward your unique skin concerns, celebrating your skin type. One such product that often sparks curiosity is face toner.
It's likely a product you've heard of before, but it might not be a mainstay in your current routine. Let's take the guesswork out of this potentially necessary step, and go over everything you need to know about it.
What exactly is a toner? What role does it play in your skincare routine, and more importantly, is it necessary for you?
What Is Face Toner?
A face toner is essentially a skincare product that can help balance the skin's pH while preparing the skin for the serums, creams, and moisturizers that follow in your routine. Acting as a primer for your skin, it paves the way for the absorption of skincare products, helping them work more effectively.
For different skin types—oily, dry, combination, sensitive, and normal—toners have different roles to play. For oily skin, toners with active ingredients like salicylic acid or witch hazel can help support balanced sebum production, combat visible imperfections, and unclog pores.
On the other hand, dry and sensitive skin types can benefit from toners with hydration-supporting ingredients like hyaluronic acid, aloe vera, or glycerin, which can help retain moisture and soothe the skin.
How Does Toner Work?
The functionality of toners lies in their active ingredients. For instance, salicylic acid, a powerful beta-hydroxy acid (BHA), can deeply penetrate the pores and aid in removing excess oil and impurities, making it an ally for oily skin.
Similarly, hyaluronic acid, a renowned humectant, has the potential to hold up to 1,000 times its weight in water, providing deep hydration and imparting a smooth texture to the skin.
Glycolic acid, an alpha-hydroxy acid (AHA), can help with exfoliating dead skin cells and revealing a brighter complexion. Glycerin, on the other hand, acts as a humectant, pulling moisture from the air and the formula and into your skin.
These are just a few of the ingredients you’re likely to find in face toner. But toners also work by supporting your skin's pH level. Your skin's natural pH leans towards the acidic side, which aids in keeping the skin's barrier intact and happy.
When this balance is disturbed, a toner can help support a balanced pH level, thus promoting the skin’s visible integrity and helping your skincare products be more effective.
Who Should Use Toner?
Choosing to incorporate toner into your skincare routine depends on your skin concerns. If your battle is against excess oil, breakouts, or an uneven-looking skin tone, a facial toner can be a useful addition, depending on the ingredients. While the choice of whether to go alcohol-free or alcohol-based is up to you, it’s always helpful to listen to your skin and use whatever works best.
For dry skin, a hydrating toner often refreshes the skin and can have brightening effects while minimizing the appearance of pores. Toners that include ingredients like vitamin C may also offer a boost of antioxidants to your skin, helping to encourage a youthful-looking complexion. And in general, toners can help get rid of any impurities your cleanser may have missed.
That said, if you’re looking for these benefits, toner isn’t your only option—and there can be some drawbacks to using it.
What Are the Side Effects of Toners?
When exploring the world of skincare, it's easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of products available. So is toner an integral part of your skincare regimen or an overhyped addition that might be causing more harm than good?
Understanding this begins with recognizing that, while toners can indeed provide a variety of benefits, using the wrong type of toner for your specific skin type can lead to several pitfalls. If you have dry skin and you're using a toner formulated for oily skin, it might exacerbate dryness.
Similarly, toners laden with alcohol or harsh astringents can disrupt your skin's pH balance and strip your skin of its natural oils, leading to increased sensitivity and even damaging your skin's barrier function over time.
For those with sensitive skin, certain toners can cause irritation, redness, and flakiness, especially those containing fragrances or other essential oils. If you have breakout-prone skin, a toner that's too harsh can actually cause more breakouts, while a toner that's too mild might not effectively address excess sebum and impurities.
Does this mean you should give up on toner completely? Not necessarily—but it does suggest that they can be tricky to navigate. So tricky, in fact, that many people choose to omit them entirely.
Resurfacing Compound
The Resurfacing Compound is our breakthrough formula that is designed to replace several steps in your skincare routine. Imagine having one product that addresses your skin concerns, including optimizing your skin's pH, hydrating your skin, and bolstering it with antioxidants and other brightening ingredients, thus eliminating the need for a separate face toner.
The Resurfacing Compound contains a power-packed combination of active ingredients that work harmoniously to deliver a multitude of benefits. Its formulation is enriched with antioxidants, stabilized vitamin E, and vitamin C.
This trio works together to fight off free radicals, known for causing oxidative stress and premature aging. Additionally, the stable retinol and multi-hydroxy acids in the compound can help with exfoliation, removing dead skin cells and unveiling brighter and smoother-looking skin.
Another remarkable feature of the Resurfacing Compound is its use of SIREN Capsule Technology. These capsules can lure damage-causing free radicals away from healthy-looking skin and towards the Capsule, where they neutralize the free radicals. This can help minimize the appearance of wrinkles, fine lines, and pores.
This technology also optimizes the delivery of the compound's active ingredients, ensuring they go where they are needed most. To get the most out of these innovative products, let’s talk about how to use them in a skincare regimen.
Step 1
Begin with The MANTLE Skin Conditioning Wash. This revolutionary product can help support your skin’s acid mantle, the layer that helps maintain optimal skin pH and promotes improved-looking skin.
It's enriched with prebiotic and probiotic complexes, fruit AHAs, stable vitamins C and E, chamomile, and dehydrated long-chain hyaluronic acid. These ingredients work together to cleanse and condition your skin, remove makeup, and leave your skin perfectly prepped for product application.
Step 2
Apply the Resurfacing Compound. This singular product steps in as your toner, exfoliator, and hydrating serum all in one, effectively streamlining your skincare routine. With the help of the SIREN Capsule Technology, your skin can start looking smoother, brighter, and revitalized within no time.
Step 3
Follow it up with The SUPER Hydrator. This product takes moisturizing to the next level by delivering five unique sizes of hyaluronic acid molecules deeply into the skin for sustained, multi-level hydration.
Its formulation with purified oat extract, peptides, organic argan oil, and grapeseed oil further helps your skin remain nourished, plump, and radiant throughout the day.
Step 4
Lastly, don't forget to apply the Multimodal Defender Broad Spectrum SPF 30. This sunscreen formula provides broad-spectrum protection against the visible effects of UVA, UVB, infrared, and blue light rays. Its key ingredients, including vitamin C and vitamin E, work together to reduce the appearance of discoloration, dark spots, and fine lines while promoting even-looking skin.
With these products, you can bid goodbye to the confusion of an elaborate skincare routine and embrace a simplified, effective regimen.
Get the Most Out of Your Skincare Routine
While toners offer several benefits, like pH balancing and the removal of impurities, whether or not you should use one depends on your skin's needs and the products you're already using. Remember, the ultimate goal is glowing, radiant skin.
With the right, multi-functional products, you can achieve the same benefits as a toner without adding an extra step. At U Beauty, we specialize in products that help you simplify your skincare routine. To learn more, visit our blog.
Sources:
Know Your Skin Type Before Choosing Skin Care Products | Cleveland Clinic
Cosmeceuticals and Active Ingredients | National Library of Medicine
