Like girls who love lipstick for no reason, I lately find myself is getting addicted to toners . Previously, there used to be not very much faith of mine in the alike – water – liquid – so – called toner (tonique) in Western language and skin softener (skin refiner/ lotion) in Asia one. Well, pretty tricky, isn’t it? We have two main names to depict one notion, provoking such questions like which one is better? Is there any difference between them? what should I pick? Let’s find some information in this following post.
I took some random shoots on my dressing table and accidentally found this picture ( sorry for the poor quality image, I’m a absolute novice at photographing). It shows most of my current routine toners , including Clinique, Chanel, Shu Uemura, Kanebo and a DIY respectively. With the texture gone from lightweight to a bit heavier, while Asian skin refiners like Kanebo tend to grant a better hydration, Clinique and Chanel play a perfect role in purifying your opening pores, removing the residues as well any cleanser left on the skin. To this extend, you can see each of them own a very distinctive feature; therefore, the best way to use toner is saturate a western toner on a cotton pad to have a purifying plus gentle exfoliating effect and PH balance, then apply a pre-moist serum ( if you don’t have any? Just skip ), follow by a Asian lotion to pump the hydration. Final step can be finished by adding some emulsion for day time or layering and cream for night time to have a perfect skin in 3 minutes. The miracle here is this routine really hydrates your skin, keep it glowing without being shiny and works for even very oily skin. I have reduced the times to wash my face from 7 to merely 3-4 per day, which consequently means that I no longer get too much exceeding oil during the night ( on daytime, remains some still, but not as bad as before )
Concerning the matter of DIY cotton mask, and I totally advocate the Asian toners, especially those having lotion or gel consistency. This can be explained as Japan has brought the idea of tearing a cotton pad into thin layers, dabbling them in water, squeezing slightly, adding a few drops of toner and using it as a daily facial mask to boost your skin. Literally, in videos I watched, water consistency toners are more in favor. However, I feel it’s not very economic, you know, it requires everyday masking and a good toner is never cheap. Hence, take a gel consistency in lieu and you can save quite a lot. Nonetheless, if you don’t mind the cost, feel free to take any that works best. For instance; in my own case, I chose Kanebo skin softener which is quite runny but it magnificently improves my skin condition ( Well, I’m quite confused at this point as I myself did how gradually the stubborn pimples withdraw, but my mom told me that I just had imagined it. She could not see any changes T_T )
It’s all about me – a toner addict. How about you? Is there any particular holy grail toner you love or be eager to try in the near future?
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