Best Natural Toner for Acne & Acne-Prone Skin: Two Beautiful Products
I’ve been checking out ingredients to formulate the perfect skincare for acne and acne-prone skin. My idea is to be able to formulate the 3 products to get a basic routine going: acne-prone skin face wash, acne-prone skin toner and acne-prone skin moisturiser.
There are many variations that can be created in terms of efficient formulas. Just look here at my essential oils for acne-prone skin and you’ll get an idea how vast the options are. Believe me, it’s not all about tea tree when it comes to acne. There’s an array of essential oils that can help as well as hydrosols (floral waters).
In terms of having to find appealing natural toners for acne / acne-prone skin HAS NOT been an easy task. I’m fussy. I look for brands that only add natural ingredients to their products (organic even better) and also products that don’t have any fragrance/perfume (what’s in them?).
I avoided products that use phenoxyethanol as a preservative (even though sometimes use it in some of my formulations, see here, especially when I work with carbomer). I also avoided products with too many ingredients (I prefer less ingredients and a more potent product rather than a product filled with ingredients where we might get poor percentage of each one of them. I heard a chemist say once that she didn’t like final products to have more than 12 ingredients in total).
Finally, I left out products that made it difficult for me to find the ingredients list (are they trying to hide something?).
The above left me with what I believe are GLORIOUS options.
When Looking for the Best Toner for Acne You Should Go Natural
While doing my Formula Botanica course I learn more and more about how important it is to only use natural products, organic when possible. I’m starting to scoff at ingredients that although are not necessarily harmful, they don’t add benefits to the skin.
Recently I visited a stall selling natural soap and, to my surprise, their hand cream was pink in colour. When I say pink I mean bright pink. Not just shade of pink. I don’t think adding the colour is necessary although I understand it might be appealing to some, I can assure you that when you start falling in love with natural ingredients, formulas and products using ingredients that don’t add to the benefits of your skin will not make a cream more attractive. What else are they adding to the cream that’s not necessary for the skin? How safe are these ingredients?
This is the way forward in cosmetics (and wellbeing in general) I believe. You can’t expect a company to ‘behave’ if you don’t put your foot down as a consumer. If I see one thing I don’t like, I know I’m going to find out more things about the company’s products (or the company itself) that I’m not going to like.
So I only go for brands that are 100% transparent and an ingredient list I fall in love with.
A Toner for Acne Must Incorporate Ingredients Aimed at Acne. Simple.
All the products I chose have ingredients that in my opinion are very good for acne and acne-prone skin. Some brands promote their products as ‘also good for acne’ (or even aimed at acne) but I didn’t find their ingredients particularly focused on targeting acne/acne-prone skin. It might be the case that they are trying to grab as many visitors to their page as possible, but I dismissed them altogether (even though I did REALLY like some of the products I found). I might feature them in another post, let’s see.
Each and every product I chose is great for acne in my opinion.
Best Toner for Acne-Prone Skin
The toners for acne-prone skin featured below have been carefully selected. Sometimes a product is perfect for one person but not for someone else. Our skin is different in each person and so we all have different skin-needs. You’ll need to find out what your skin loves.
Let’s get started with my chosen products.
PRODUCT 1
TreeActive Balancing Herbal Toner: Witch Hazel, Rose Water, Clary Sage, Tea Tree
[amazon box=”B01BPBXJIM”]
TreeActive balancing herbal toner contains the following ingredients:distilled water, rose water, clary sage water, tea tree hydrosol, witch hazel and liquid germall plus (the preservative).
This is a spray-on product. I personally like spray-on toners (I package my toners s in spray bottles) because I have the choice of spraying over a cotton wool or my face. The brand has created a lovely kit for acne-prone skin: face cleanser, herbal toner (featured on this post), face cream, charcoal mask.
- Acne Eliminating Face Cleanser
- Balancing Herbal Toner
- Acne Eliminating Face Cream
- Acne Eliminating Charcoal Mask
What a nice little set!
In terms of the herbal toner, I think all the ingredients they’ve incorporated within the product are fabulous, they could have replaced the distilled water with a hydrosol instead (lavender hydrosol comes to mind) but that’s ok. I’d like to know the amount of water vs the rest of the ingredients though.
Witch hazel is a must when it comes to acne/acne-prone skin. It is an astringent, clears away excess sebum (so also good for oily skin) and it’s anti-inflammatory as well. Well known for being a great ingredient for acne.
Rose water is a favourite of mine in general. I use it in my toners whenever possible . It smells really lovely and has a lot of properties: anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, a good moisturiser and also regenerative. (*I’ve just found out from someone saw blemishes appear on the sides of her neck after applying pure rose water [not from this product, just rose water from the chemist], I need to investigate how hydrosols can bring on allergic reactions on some people, this was an interesting finding!)
Back to this product, the brand has added tea tree hydrosol to the formulation which is a lovely ingredient – I also add tea tree hydrosol to an acne-prone toner I make. The hydrosol is gentler than the essential oil and has the following properties: astringent, antifungal, antibacterial, clears pores, tightens skin. A great alternative to those who use tea tree essential oil on a regular basis (or of quite a few of your products have tea tree oil).
The formula also uses clary sage hydrosol. I’ve never used it in a formulation myself but it looks promising here: antimicrobial, antispasmodic (a relaxant). I do use clary sage essential oil on my moisturiser for dry skin.
I Chose this Product Because…
It’s natural, it’s spot on with each and every ingredient, it has few ingredients, no strange preservative, it’s simple and just uses the power of nature to fight acne/acne-prone skin. I intuitively also ‘felt’ something strong when I saw this product. I think this is a fabulous toner, full stop.
[amazon box=”B01BPBXJIM”]
PRODUCT 2
S.W. Basics Toner, Witch Hazel Face Toner for Sensitive Skin and Acne-Prone Skin
[amazon box=”B01DQ8GZCO”]
Ohhh, the lovely bottle! Is that a good thing? In this case, yes. Trendy design on skincare is something I watch for, I need to dig in a bit more to make sure the design is not just a marketing device working as ‘another filler’ if that makes sense. In this case, I loved the product.
And, indeed, I like the fact that it says:5 Ingredients straight away (together with the word ‘Toner’ this makes good marketing). S.W. Basics says ‘5 Ingredients or Less’ believing that fewer ingredients and no fillers is best. I agree.
Created by holistic nutritionist Adina Grigore, (I love when someone comes up with a solution for their own skin problem and ends up creating a whole brand), this product looks very promising indeed.
Let’s see what’s in this toner:Water (again, it could have been hydrosol), raw apple cider vinegar, witch hazel, clary sage essential oil, organic sandalwood essential oil. Lovely. Few ingredients, and ‘targeted’. The way I like it.
The difference between this toner and the toner above would be the fact that this product uses clary sage essential oil as opposed to the hydrosol, no tea tree (good for those who use tea tree based products, so you don’t use so much on your skin on a daily basis), apple cider vinegar acting as a preservative I assume (instead of a preservative like liquid germall plus, which TreeActive uses, and sandalwood essential oil (TreeActive also has rose water).
Apple cider vinegar is great for treating acne, as it kills bacteria amongst other great benefits.
Regarding witch hazel, and as mentioned above, this ingredient is a must when it comes to acne/acne-prone skin. It is an astringent, clears away excess sebum (so also good for oily skin) and it’s anti-inflammatory at the same time.
Clary sage has been mentioned above also (antimicrobial, antispasmodic and a relaxant).
Sandalwood essential oil is great at controlling breakouts and acne as it is astringent and antiseptic. Check here.
A great product in general. I’d love to use both products side by side and choose a winner, but I can see from the ingredients these are fantastic, simple toners that should do the job really well!
[amazon box=”B01DQ8GZCO”]
About Your Beliefs & Acne
Your skin is a ‘revelation’ (the soul ‘reveals itself’ into the world via the vehicle that forms your body, in order for You as essence to have experiences). Your skin is the outer layer of the manifested vehicle-form (everything else in the world also being a ‘form’ which extends from You as Consciousness).
My point here is that your beliefs will ‘form’ you within the manifested world. Certain ‘laws’ will take place within this relative world, for example the appearance of acne while your hormones are doing their job, i.e. while your in your adolescent years.
But you need to be aware of other ‘Causes’ which can lie dormant to you in terms of behaviours related to certain beliefs you may have. Are you keeping things inside (bottling up emotions) that are not finding an ‘outlet’? You could be manifesting this with ‘angry acne’ (the anger is being manifested in different ways). Are you feeling envious about someone having something you want but think you’ll never have or jealous about something you’d like to have you think you deserve better than someone else? If you don’t work with this belief, your skin can manifest acne as a ‘disturbance’ within your mind. Etc, etc.
It is important to have a balanced inner life. Meditation, organised meals, healthy lifestyle, positive thinking, not doing unto others what you wouldn’t want done unto yourself, being helpful, etc etc all contribute to a healthy, glowing, fabulous skin.
Til next post : )
Patri xx
Other Acne-Prone Skin Related Articles
I keep adding acne-prone related articles to my arsenal of informative articles. Check them below (I update as I write more entries):
Essential Oils for Acne-Prone Skin
