Go to any Korean beauty shop, and you’re bound to spot a shelf loaded with minimally designed bottles of toners. From green and black tea to niacinamide and hyaluronic acid, the options (and concoctions) are never-ending, leaving you spoilt for choice. Closer home, the panorama is pretty much the same. Toners have been an easy find in every beauty shop and pharmacy for over a decade now. But there’s a stark difference in the formulation, which plays a pivotal role in the relationship that your skin and a toner share. While the true-to-Korean-beauty-standards toners are packed with skin-enriching ingredients, the ones that we were exposed to typically contain high amounts of alcohol, diminishing the difference between an astringent and a toner, ultimately defeating the product’s purpose.
Many skin experts and dermatologists have declared that toners are really not that necessary in your skincare routine. The reasons are fairly simple—from non-skin-friendly formulations to impotent efficacy. But then, we’ve also come across stellar products like Pixi’s Glow Tonic, Thayers’ Rose Petal Facial Toner, Fenty Skin’s Fat Water Pore-Refining Toner and the likes that make us reconsider the product. You see, this confusion and mixed opinions can easily confound us. But we’re here to help you make an informed decision.