What are Toners and are they necessary?
What’s your Skin Care Routine like?
How many of you have so many steps in your skin care routine that you take more than 15mins to apply products on your face? We might think that to achieve good skin, we need to include many steps in a skin care routine. This is especially so when K-beauty advocates a 10 steps routine, and we are constantly bombarded with advertisements from beauty companies touting their newest products from toner, essence, serums, etc.
Do you know that the bare basics of a skin care routine is just 3 steps? The picture below shows the basic skin care routine that anyone who takes care of their skin would observe.
Get the right type of cleanser for your skin type. Wash twice a day and not more, even if you have oily skin.
If a cleanser makes your skin feels tight, change it as it’s too harsh for your skin.
Supplement water or oil or both to your skin depending on your skin type.
Acne, Oily, Combination and Normal Skin would be best suited for hydrators.
Dry and mature skin would be best suited for both hydrators and moisturisers.
Read more about hydrators vs moisturisers at skinlycious.wordpress.com
UV rays cause photoaging. Prevent wrinkles and pigmentation by protecting your skin.
hoose a broad spectrum sunscreen to protect your skin from both UVA and UVB rays.
Where’s the toner? Toners are NOT necessary if you are using a good cleanser. After cleansing, you can use a cotton pad and wipe down your face when it’s wet to check if your face is really clean.
I am not a believer of Toner, thus I do not sell it in Skinlycious brand. To me, toners are just water with some possible useful actives / active ingredients at very low concentrations. Active ingredients are the ingredients that are responsible for the efficacy of the products and address the skin concern it’s meant to target. However, at low concentrations of active ingredients, it doesn’t do much for your skin as much compared to serums. Good serums usually contain higher concentrations of active ingredients, hence they are more expensive.
I quote Rona Berg from the author of Beauty, the New Basics : “For many women, toners are the logical next step in a skincare regimen, but I don’t buy it. Literally. Whether they are called balancers, clarifying lotions, skin purifiers, or astringents (the strongest ones), toners are a pricey broth of water, color, preservatives, witch hazel, alcohol — and not much else. In fact, for most women, toners are a redundant product: toners are supposed to remove every last trace of oil, sweat, and makeup from your face — but so will a good cleanser. A toner will make your pores look smaller by swelling the tissue around the pore, but a moisturizer will do the same thing — and more.”
Having said that, if you still love your toner and believe that there’s some benefit to your skin, go ahead and continue to use it.
For me, I just believe in saving the time and money on toners. Cleanse, Hydrate/Moisturise and Protect with Sunscreen is the basic. It’s also good to start anti-aging young as prevention is always better than cure. Chemical exfoliation with AHA and BHA at least once a week is good to slough off dead skin cells and unclog clogged pores.
Double Cleansing might be more beneficial than toners
For those of us who have acne and acne-prone skin, double cleanse would probably yield better results than using a toner. Switch the toner to another cleanser. I recommend our Skinlycious Soothing Cleansing Gel for double cleansing. You can read more on why double cleansing actually helped to reduce my clogs / headless bumps / white comedones, which I’m very prone to get.
About the Author
Jasmine Kang
Founder of Skinlycious – a one stop skin care solution for acne and acne-prone skin. A science geek, who has struggled with acne for 14 long years. Armed with decades of acne-fighting experience and bioscience / pharmaceutical knowledge, she seeks to find solution for her own acne-prone skin. She also takes immense joy in helping people regain confidence by solving their acne woes. Her secret ambition is to rid the world of irritating acne.
