Now that the majority of us should be staying home as much as possible, you may be finding it harder to get your favourite beauty products as quickly or easily as normal, or you’re watching the pennies while things are so unpredictable.
To help you manage your beauty regime at home, we’ve already detailed:
And over the coming weeks, we’re going to be highlighting even more ways to make homemade beauty products and look after yourself when in isolation. The next in our series is how to make homemade toner.
Toner is an unsung hero. It’s the product we all should be using before any moisturisers or night creams, especially for those of us with acne-prone skin, but it’s often the skincare step that gets skipped, either due to time or money constraints. Or you just don’t know which toner best suits your skin.
READ NEXT: What does toner do?
Historically, toners were invented to even out the pH levels of our skin after using a traditionally alkaline soap. Nowadays, however, soaps and cleansers are much more gentle and so the need for a toner has moved on. They’re now more important for prepping your skin before using moisturiser, to ensure any and all dirt, makeup and oils are washed away, and don’t simply end up being moved around your face.
READ NEXT: Best toner for all skin types
Toners are also now targeted at all different skin types so it becomes a slightly more fiddly process in finding the right one. This is why creating your own toner can be a blessing.
Beyond saving money (you know what huge fans we are of cheap makeup over here!), making homemade toner means you have full control over what you’re putting on your skin, allowing you to easily and cheaply avoid any contentious chemicals. You can read more about that in our truth about acids in your skincare article, or in our guide to clean beauty.
READ NEXT: What is clean beauty?
There are thousands of homemade toner recipes so we’ve selected the best for beginners, and those which include ingredients that should (hopefully) be easy to get hold of.
What’s more, many homemade beauty products use similar ingredients and these ingredients have many other uses beyond beauty. Although it may seem like an initial outlay, if you were going to spend cash on toner anyway, you’ll get more for your money doing it this way.
There are so many options when it comes to making your own toner but the easiest and cheapest combine ingredients such as lemon, water and witch hazel for a simple, natural, brightening toner; much like the recipe demonstrated above by iamvanessae.
Lemon is a natural exfoliant so leaves your skin feeling so fresh and soft, and it features in many online tutorials when it comes to homemade toner.
The iamvanesssae channel on YouTube also offers another couple of options for making your own toner. If you’re able to get hold of some apple cider vinegar, you can combine it with green tea and this works as an excellent product if you have any scarring on your skin.
READ NEXT: What is acne?
There are also featured recipes including lavender, tea tree oil and witch hazel, which helps remove excess oil on the skin and is very nourishing. Of course, these might not be the most basic of household items but are all easy to find online or in health shops if you’re inspired by these ideas.
According to the NHS, 95% of us will have suffered from acne at some point in our early lives, and so often this continues into adulthood. We detail more about the causes, and which ingredients work well at clearing your face in our What is acne? explainer.
If you’ve read our Homemade Cleanser piece, you’ll know all about Homeveda and their tutorials based on the ancient Indian science of healing, otherwise known as Ayurveda.
In their recipes for homemade toners, they use a number of ingredients we’re sure you’ll already have in your kitchen. Things such as honey, mint, cucumber, lemon and vegetable oil.
These videos are excellent because of the detail put into their description boxes, ensuring viewers know everything they possibly can about what they’re making.
There are a number of skincare benefits to rosewater, which are explained in this video from LynSire, which features three different recipes. One based on rosewater, one on lemon and one on vinegar. Rosewater helps balance your skin’s pH levels while freshening and softening your face.
If you don’t want to buy rosewater, make your own by putting rose petals in a pan of boiling water, simmer for a few minutes and then allow to cool. That does, of course, require you to have roses so this is more an FYI should you have some old Mother’s Day flowers etc lying around.
Cucumber is another key ingredient for natural face toners.
It is very well known for treating puffy or dark circles under eyes because of how packed with antioxidants it is. Cucumber can additionally help to tighten pores and hydrate the skin, all things we absolutely love. NaturalBeautyBasics talks through the uses and process of combining the fruit with rose water in this video.
READ NEXT: The truth about the acids in your skincare
One of the very best things about toner is that you can apply it pretty much however you choose to. If you’re inundated with cotton pads, use up those with your toner by simply pouring on the smallest bit and rubbing the pad in circular motions all over your face and neck. Or if you aren’t about buying single-use products, your fingers can do the exact same job just as well.
If you’re interested in beauty brands that offer natural, ingredient-led products we can highly recommend The Ordinary, Carbon Theory and Boots’ Ingredients range.
Libby graduated from Bournemouth University with a degree in Multimedia Journalism. She’s worked as a researcher and writer for Heart Radio as well as a features writer for a Somerset newspaper. She’s since taken time out to travel, manage a hotel restaurant, do a lot of dog walking, and now works in London’s West End
