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Are facial toners necessary?
An interesting piece in Dermatology Times.
Toners were originally developed to remove soap scum from the face when lye-based soaps combined with hard water left a sticky residue post cleansing. The alcohol-based toner removed the soap scum eliminating irritation and contributing to cleanser mildness.
Today, few people use lye-based soaps and hard well water, so the original use for toners is gone, but the product persists.
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11 Replies
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I’d straight up say the alcohol based ones are harmful to skin, forget “necessary”. My skin is more sensitive than most peoples’ and I’m speaking to my experiences, but I’m sure applying essentially straight alcohol to your skin is going to dry it right out, yeah?
Toners were always something that puzzled me to be honest, that little bit of backstory makes their existence make a lot more sense to me.
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I have made high alcohol toners that were NOT drying. It has to do with including a well thought out spread of glycols.
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This has been an interesting topic to me for awhile now. So “good” cleansers are formulated around 5.5 but then most of us rinse said cleanser off with water at a pH of 7+. As water can disrupt the acid mantle all on its own, does a pH balancing toner assist in the skin’s rebalance of pH post cleanse. . . . Some people say no, but there is no research to disprove it so I stick to my toners.
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@Mamo808 - It is impossible to disprove anything. What you should be looking for is evidence that a claim is true. You should also be open to having your mind changed by evidence. What evidence would change your mind about toners?
On toners, they’re probably an extra step that has little benefit but if people enjoy the experience of using them, they should.
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Funny… As an Esthetician, I don’t use them in my services. I’m occasionally asked if they’re necessary and I’ll usually reply that they aren’t, but as @Perry pointed out, people do enjoy using them.
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As an esthetician, I do use them. I do use lines that have ingredients in them that I like and that benefit my clients. Most skin care lines that estheticians use do have nice toners. Toners from department stores and drug stores, in my opinion, are unnecessary. And as @Perry said, clients enjoy them..
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I think toners are a marketing product mostly.
The whole ‘preparing your skin for the moisturizer’-blabla is just marketing technique and customers will believe this nonsense. Same with ‘facial mists’.Most skin care lines that estheticians use do have nice toners. Toners from department stores and drug stores, in my opinion, are unnecessary.And what exactly is so special about the first ones that makes the difference between these?
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@Doreen Alas, marketing is a strong driver in this market sector. Much like some other areas such as “gluten-free” where the Science is debatable, marketing will likely win out.
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@Microformulation
Indeed it is. Sad but true… -
@perry I would love to see a study that measured the skin pH post toner use. There would be a control group that used no toner and a group that used a well-formulated toner (pH 4.5-5.5) product with measurements at maybe 30 minutes and see if their pH rebalancing was the same.
I mean water, cleanser and sweat studies have been done. . .does that sound crazy? Or does my logic only make sense to me lol!
I think toners suffer from being a broad category. I mean hydrosols with essential oils are marketed as toners… Most water serums are just thickened toners..
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I passed by a formula ending with pH 5.0 - 5.5 (still in the Rec.Range). I like the ingredients but it, still, has 10% alcohol. I don’t think it hurts if it comes with more than 75% water or it could be decreased to 5% may be.
https://www.ulprospector.com/documents/1189638.pdf?bs=473&b=318090&st=1&r=na&ind=personalcare
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