In this article:
What is facial toner?
What does a facial toner do?
Benefits of facial toner
Do you really need a face toner?
How to choose a toner
The best ingredients to look for in a toner
How and when to use a toner in your skin care routine?
Is it important to use toner daily?
Which Paula’s Choice toner should I use?
Adding facial toner to your skin care routine is a great way to take your routine to the next level. While in the past toners have been associated with sucking moisture out of skin with drying alcohol or witch hazel, the truth is modern, beneficial toners are loaded with antioxidants and nourishing skin-restoring and replenishing ingredients.
Ready to learn more about toners and how they can help your skin? Let’s jump into what toners are, which type of toner would best suit your skin type, how to choose a toner and how to best use one for healthy, glowing skin.
What is facial toner?
Toners are state-of-the-art liquid moisturisers that enhance skin’s surface, giving it what it needs to look fresher, smoother and hydrated. They also help just-cleansed skin regain some of the moisture lost during the face washing process.
Beyond this, they can provide skin type and skin concern benefits to skin. For combination or oily skin, the right toner can reduce enlarged pores and excess oil. For normal, dry, or sensitive skin types, the right toner can lessen redness and flaking.
There are also exfoliating toners, which are water-light formulas that contain chemical exfoliants like AHAs (alpha hydroxy acids) and BHA (beta hydroxy acid, AKA salicylic acid) to help promote healthy cell turnover. AHA exfoliating toners can help support a healthy barrier, refine texture, promote hydration, tackle signs of visible damage and reduce visible signs of ageing. BHA toners work both at skin’s surface and within the pores to remove clogs, reduce the occurrence of blackheads, refine texture, promote clear skin and support healthy skin.
Learn more about AHA and BHA exfoliating toners in our AHA and BHA exfoliant article.
What does a facial toner do?
As you can tell, facial toners can be multi-tasking skin care products. When well formulated, they primarily provide essential ingredients, hydrate, replenish and provide additional cleansing. Depending on the formula, they can also deliver ingredients that soothe, assist in oil control or help omit redness.
Effective skin-beneficial toners chiefly deliver skin the ingredients it needs for a healthy, hydrated appearance. They also remove stubborn traces of makeup and impurities left on skin after cleansing, prepping skin for following routine steps and allowing optimal absorption of products.
Benefits of facial toner
Beautifully formulated toners loaded with beneficial ingredients can transform the way your skin looks and feels after cleansing. They can:
- Replenish and nourish skin after removing makeup and cleansing, a step that can significantly, and visibly, help your skin. Even if you use the gentlest cleanser, your skin still needs to be replenished with what cleansers remove. This is where a brilliant toner can really shine!
- Remove stubborn traces of makeup and sunscreen that are left behind even after cleansing.
- Prepare skin for the rest of your routine and boost absorption of following products.
- Help add an extra boost of hydration to your skin care routine. This is particularly helpful for dry-to-very-dry skin types.
- Based on the ingredients your chosen toner contains, they can also accomplish specific tasks like oil control or soothing.
Do you really need a face toner?
In short, no, though the full answer is more nuanced than that. Toners aren’t a must-have part of a skin care routine because other products (serums, essences and moisturisers) can provide many of the same benefits.
Toners are, however, a nice-to-have because they can take your routine to the next level. These next-generation toners establish a lightweight, nourishing base layer for the rest of your products (and in some cases, replace your moisturiser if all you need is lightweight hydration). They’re an option to explore if you want to up your skin care game or if your skin’s plateaued.
How to choose a toner
So, you’ve decided you want to add a toner to your routine – but how do you choose the right one? Here are some important factors to keep in mind.
1. Determine your skin type
The toner that will work best is one that caters to your skin type. Check out our tips on how to determine your skin type if you need some help.
- If you have dry skin, choose a toner with a host of hydrating ingredients.
- If your skin tends to be oilier, it's best to seek out formulas with oil-curbing ingredients that provide benefits in a lightweight formula.
- Normal skin types can use just about any well-formulated toner.
2. Look for beneficial ingredients
Toners should contain moisturising, nourishing ingredients that replenish skin after cleansing. Although cleansing is vital, it can partially strip the skin of beneficial substances in its quest to conquer impurities and makeup.
Skip toners with ingredient lists that are just plain lackluster. Although most of these are not bad for skin, they’re not helpful, either. Unfortunately, many toners just lack a robust nourishing formula, leaving your skin hungry for so much more. As you’ll learn, the best toners are filled to the brim with beneficial ingredients.
Remember: Bad toners take away; great toners give back!
3. Avoid irritating ingredients
Some ingredients can do more harm than good for skin. SD or denatured alcohol, menthol, witch hazel, fragrance and sensitising essential oils are all examples of potentially irritating ingredients that one should steer clear of when shopping for a toner.
Although present in many skin care formulas, these ingredients deplete skin and work against the beneficial substances that keep it healthy. Best to avoid all together in any skin care product!
The best ingredients to look for in a toner
We know figuring out which ingredients to look for in a toner can be tricky. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of beneficial ingredients below!
Here’s a quick list of good toner ingredients to look for:
- Hyaluronic acid, this humectant helps keep skin rejuvenated and hydrated (1).
- Ceramides, a group of lipids that limit moisture loss (2).
- Niacinamide, AKA vitamin B3, boosts barrier strength and helps reduce the look of enlarged pores. It can also help balance oil.
- Omega fatty acids, help calm skin and work with skin to assist in water retention.
- Antioxidants, a group of diverse ingredients that work to prevent and help mitigate damage associated with environmental aggressors.
- Peptides, a large group of ingredients that can help with hydrating and calming as well as ageing.
- Soothing ingredients, like allantoin, licorice and beta-glucan that can also help boost the skin barrier.
- Skin-replenishing ingredients (such as sodium PCA), work to enrich skin’s barrier and keep it hydrated.
How and when to use a toner in your skin care routine?
Use a toner after cleansing. Apply toners with a soft disposable or reusable cotton round or your fingers. After toning with a traditional hydrating toner, you can exfoliate with a leave-on chemical exfoliant or exfoliating toner and then apply any serums, boosters and treatments in order from thinnest to thickest texture.
At nighttime, moisturiser is your final step and during the day, a broad-spectrum sunscreen or moisturiser with SPF should wrap up your routine.
Oily or combination skin types can sometimes forego use of a moisturiser in favour of a hydrating, beneficial toner if they’re having a particularly oily day or if it’s quite humid. However, we don’t recommend retiring your moisturiser completely, and it bears repeating that SPF is always needed as the final step in any daytime skin care routine!
When to use toner: day or night?
Toners can be applied during both your daytime and nighttime routine. Their benefits aren’t limited to any time of day.
They serve particularly well at prepping the skin for the day and at removing any impurities or makeup your cleanser has missed during your nighttime routine.
Is it important to use toner daily?
Using toner daily can quickly and fundamentally provide skin with generous amounts of antioxidants, soothing agents and vital hydrating ingredients. Although you don’t necessarily have to apply a toner daily, it can help get your skin on the fast-track to health.
Once you start using a well-formulated toner, that is one that doesn’t contain drying and sensitising ingredients, the results will be undeniable. As many can attest, toning no longer becomes an optional step—it becomes obligatory!
Which Paula’s Choice toner should I use?
Although every Paula’s Choice Skincare toner contains a complete range of ingredients to provide multiple benefits for skin, each has distinctions that make them preferred for certain skin types and concerns.
Our toners for normal to dry skin have milky, hydrating formulas that soothe and tackle dryness, leaving skin soft and smooth:
- RESIST Advanced Replenishing Toner is recommended for those concerned with minimising the appearance of wrinkles and advanced signs of ageing.
- SKIN RECOVERY Enriched Calming Toner is designed to address dryness and sensitivity, while leaving very dry skin soft and smooth.
The best toners for normal to oily or combination skin are lightweight and focus on tone, texture and oil control:
- RESIST Weightless Advanced Repairing Toner is ideal for addressing wrinkles and post-breakout marks while improving the appearance of skin’s tone, pore size, and texture.
- SKIN BALANCING Pore-Reducing Toner minimises the appearance of enlarged pores while recharging skin with replenishing substances for a fresh, youthful glow.
Our toners for all skin types include:
- EARTH SOURCED Purely Natural Refreshing Toner has a unique, silky, liquid-gel texture suitable for revitalising and hydrating all skin types—especially for those in search of an antioxidant-rich, natural-based formula. Excellent for dehydrated skin.
- CALM Nourishing Milky Toner helps strengthen skin’s barrier with a milky, oil-free formula that also soothers and visibly reduces redness. It helps boost the presence of natural moisturising factors (NMFs) that enable skin to hold on to vital moisture, lending a comfortable feel.
Shop all Paula’s Choice toners.
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References for this information:
- International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, December 2018, pages 1,682-1,695
- Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, December 2016, pages 549-558
