Skin Toners are the most revered and helpful skincare must-have if you have an oily or acne-prone skin. I use a toner twice daily as my skin needs extra cleansing after wearing makeup all day.
I also know that other heavy skin products such as sunscreen which are inside my skincare routine can use a toner. And, that’s where the frequency of using a toner comes into play…
How often should you use a toner on your skin?
Two times daily is how much frequent you should use a toner to cleanse off your skin from sebum oils buildup or traces of makeup and heavy skincare products like sunscreen with SPF.
Depending on your skin tolerance to frequent cleansing with a potent toner, you should use your best skin toner atleast twice daily after cleansing your face in the morining and once more in the evening before applying an evening bed time serum or cream.
Sadly, the majority of skin types are not pre-disposed to tolerate the frequent use of a toner morning and then at night. However, if your skin is dry or irritated easily, then I would certainly recommend that you try using your ideal skin toner once a day if not every other day.
What is a toner?
A toner is a water-based skin care product that is very helpful in removing traces of oil, excess dirt, balance pH of the skin, prevent ingrown hairs and acne control.
In the past, a lot of toners were alcohol based. These alcohol-based toners were bad for the skin as they caused excessive dryness, that I why most toners nowadays are water based.
Benefits of using face toners
One should make it a habit to apply face toners as the advantages of using face toner are just too good to be true.
Here are some of the reasons why the use of face toner in your daily skincare routine is essential:
- Restores the pH balance of the skin: Our skin has a pH balance of between 5 and 6, which is on a scale of 1 to 14. This means our skin is naturally acidic. On the other hand, most of the soap we use daily are alkaline in nature hence the skin can get out of balance after cleansing. When such a thing happens, the skin often struggles in restoring the pH balance and this process often leads to sebum(oil )on the face to buildup. This is also bad as in make the skin vulnerable to inflammation and bacterial infections. That’s where a face toner now comes to the rescue by restoring the pH balance of the skin.
- Adds a protection layer on facial skin. Toners help in closing the pores and tightening the cell gaps after cleansing. This is very helpful as in reduces the penetration of impurities and environmental contaminants such as dirt into the skin. This is the case because large skin pores make it easy for the impurities and contaminants to penetrate into the skin. It can further remove and protect the chlorine and minerals present in tap water as most people tend to use tap water.
- It can prevent ingrown hairs. It has oil blotting properties as it contains glycolic acid or other hydroxy acids that can help to prevents ingrown hairs hence aiding in grooming.
- Help in detoxifying the skin. Our skin complexion is constantly under so much stress from the industrial chemicals that harm the condition of the skin. Toners come in to remove the toxins such as smoke, smoke and other chemical residues on one’s skin.
- Helps in complete cleansing. There are usually some impurities left on the facial skin after a normal cleansing, which is either oil left or residual makeup.
The beauty of using facial toner is that it gets rid of the residuals and cleansing is done from within. Furthermore, environmental toxins and chemical residuals from the facial skin are removed by the toner.
Hydration and nourishment of the skin. This is the main reason why toning should be done immediately after cleansing but before moisturizing. Wondering why? Yes, this is because toner contains ingredients that prepare the skin for better moisture absorption.
We can all agree that the skin s usually tight and dry after cleansing. That’s when toning does its magic by ensuring that the moisturizer used does the intended work on the face. This is because moist skin absorbs topical products better than dry skin.
They are help in preventing facial skin breakouts. Sweat and dirt clogged in the facial skin pores result in skin breakouts. The main disadvantage of oily skin is that it results in pimples and acne.
Worry not, toner comes in to remove the residues, dead skin cells and oil build ups. Facial skin toners further help in your skin care routine by controlling acne and many other facial skin breakouts.
How to apply face toners
For maximum efficiency of the toner, one must know how to apply it on the face. Not knowing how to apply it on the face might not bring out the intended benefits of using toner. Here are the steps you have to follow when applying toner on your face.
Step 1: Wash the face thoroughly.
You need to do this using a gentle cleanser and a face towel has to be used to dry the face. Many people choose to ignore this crucial step but it is very important as most of the dirt is washed off your face.
Step 2: Choose a suitable toner for your facial skin type.
As much as facial toners do the magic, people have different skin types hence it can not work the same often every person. That is why one has to choose a toner suitable for the skin type they possess.
Step 3: Apply a suitable amount of the face toner on a cotton pad.
Add a few drops of the toner on the cotton pad. Put enough but not too much, so that it glides and remains on your face in a very good way.
Step 4: Make sure the cotton pad’s motion is in small upward circles.
Make sure the chin, hairline, nose, and cheeks are reached. Please make sure that you do not apply the toner to the sensitive parts of the face namely the eyes, mouth, and nostrils as it may have some health concerns.
Step 5: Wait for it to dry.
After all the above steps are done, make sure you give it time of about a minute for the toner to dry before proceeding to the next step of your skincare routine.
Who should use a face toner?
The question might be, am I eligible to use a face toner? Or is a face toner supposed to be used by only females? To answer all that, everyone is supposed to use a face toner.
As you have seen in the paragraphs of the benefits of using face toner, you surely have to make it a habit to use a face toner in daily skin care routine.
For example, people with oily skin are prone to acne, hence they have to be on the forefront of using toner on their faces. Talk about glowing and looking healthy, toners are essentially the first step to this.
How often should one use face toner?
This brings us to our main topic. The information above is there to keep you well informed about face toners. The question most people have is when they should use a face toner and how often.
Regardless of your skin type, Skin care specialists recommend that one must use toner on a daily basis. This makes it more efficient and reaps out many benefits.
Such skin care specialists go on to say that face toner should be applied twice a day, that is in the morning and at night before going to sleep. This can prove to be effective if followed.
There is every toner for every skin type. If it is a type of toner with exfoliating acids, its rather best to use it in a sparing way and that means only in the evening, preferably 2 to 3 times a week.
If it’s a balancing or hydrating toner, you can use it twice a day, that is in the morning and in the evening right before going to bed.
As made mention in the above paragraphs, a toner must be used regularly to get the best results.
A toner is usually a necessity and is required to be used after cleansing your face. Applying toner right after cleansing your face helps in skin smoothening.
Other tips when using face toner
Here are some other tips you can use for your face tone application to benefit you and produce the maximum results.
- Apply the facial toner right after you have washed your skin. Keep in mind to not apply a moisturizer or serum before the tone is utilised on your skin.
- Make sure that your skin is damp when you apply the moisturizer as it helps to increase the absorption rate. A moisturizer, serum or be it any skincare product must be applied only after you have applied your toner and when it is completely absorbed on your body.
- It is very important to know how your skin looks or feels before you apply a toner. Therefore, you can use hydrating toner or soothing toner depending on how your skin looks. Self-awareness is very important. A soothing toner helps to calm the skin when it turns red out irritation.
- You can also mix or pair up your toners. Skin types like the combination skin can benefit a lot from the use of a toner that contains active ingredients with another toner that does not have active ingredients in its formula.
Keep in mind that having a face toner does not absolutely mean that you should forget to apply sunscreen on your skin. During the day, make sure you apply the sunscreen as it is good for your skin protection.
The advantage of applying sunscreen is that it helps in protecting your skin from damage that might be caused by ultra-violet rays emitted by the sun that prove hazardous to the human skin. The UV rays might cause skin burns, sun spots and discoloration.
I hope this information has been very helpful to you.
