I strongly believe face toners made with natural and organic ingredients is essential for healthy skin! No matter what your skin type is, hydration is absolutely crucial, but often overlooked.

While many might think toners are unnecessary, dermatologists and skin experts know that they play an important role in skin health. Not only do they balance your skin’s pH after you use tap water and cleanser, toners also properly prep the skin to receive the products you apply next. If you’re wondering if you need toner, when to use it and how plus my favorite natural toners, keep reading!

Benefits of using Toner

• Hydrates skin and infuses it with nutrients
• Balances skin’s pH
• Removes impurities and traces of dirt, bacteria, and makeup
• Minimizes the appearance of enlarged pores
• Allows for maximum product absorption and efficacy

When and How to Use Toner

After cleansing: Toner should be applied after skin is cleansed thoroughly and before applying serums and other skincare products.

How to apply toner: Most toners come in a spray bottle, so it only needs to be spritzed onto skin! Others come without a spray nozzle and need to be transferred onto a cotton round first. I like to use a reusable cotton round to minimize waste and apply enough to soak about half the round (not all the way to the edges!). Then I rub it all around my face gently without using too much pressure.

Ingredients to Avoid in Toner

• Alcohol: Avoid toners with alcohol because they can be overly drying and strip skin of its natural oils
• Fragrance: Hormone disrupting
• Artificial colors: Have no purpose and can lead to skin reactions
• Sulfates (SLS and SLES): Can be irritating and disrupt skin’s protective barrier

Youth to the People Mandelic Acid Superfood Unity Exfoliant

I love YTTP’s toner because it doubles as both an exfoliant and hydrator in one! It’s perfect for oily and acne prone skin, but it works for my dry skin as well. If you’re looking for a versatile product that also decongests pores, smooths texture and supports the barrier look no further. Plus, I looove the refreshing eucalyptus scent.

Active ingredients:

• 3% mandelic acid to gently shift dull surface skin cells
• 2% salicylic acid to unclog pores
• 1% gluconolactone (a poly hydroxy acid) boosts cell turnover and hydration

For all skin types: Cocokind Rosewater Toner

This is a super simple toner, but in a really good way! It’s made with USDA certified organic rose hydrosol (not to be confused with rosewater which is just rose essential oil mixed with water). Rosewater is excellent for all skin types and is soothing, hydrating, and balancing and pH balancing. I appreciate how budget friendly it is is for a 100% organic product.

SAVE: OBL saves 15%

For Very Dry Skin: Whamisa Organic Flowers Deep Rich Essence Toner

I highly recommend using an essence toner if you have very dry or dehydrated skin! An essence toner is a thick toner with a more unctuous consistency that’s almost serum-like while remaining a liquid – and it’s perfect for extremely dry skin.

Whamisa’s Organic Flowers Toner has such a bouncy texture and it’s almost entirely organic. It’s enhanced with certified organically grown aloe Vera extract, oat kernel, artemisia extract along with flowers, fruits, and seeds using the traditional fermentation method. By fermenting their ingredients they’re able to make the nutrients more concentrated and easily absorbed by our bodies.

The floral scent is sooo heavenly. It’s delicately fragrant and soothing yet uplifting – a guaranteed mood booster!

• SAVE: organicbeautylover saves 10%

Ursa Major 4-in-1 Essential Face Tonic

• Perfect for all skin types
• Multi-functional: removes oil and grime, exfoliates gently, hydrates and clarifies with a AHA/BHA complex
• Contains green tea, aloe, birch sap, willow bark, sodium Hyaluronate and more
• Great value for money (8 fl oz bottle)
• Fresh earthy scent
• SAVE: OBL15 saves 15%

Mad Hippie Hydrating Nutrient Mist

• Perfect for all skin types
• Budget option
• Wide variety of interesting ingredients like Ginkgo Biloba, White Pine Bark, Reservatrol, Hesperedin, Pomegranate Seed Extract, Milk Thistle and Vitamin C
• Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Vitamin C (Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate), Glycerin, Sodium PCA, White Tea (Camellia Sinensis Extract), Hyaluronic Acid (Sodium Hyaluronate), Ferulic Acid, Green Tea (Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract), Hesperidin, Grape Seed Extract (Vitis Vinifera), Ginkgo Biloba Extract, Pomegranate Seed (Punica Granatum Seed Extract), Resveratrol, Phenethyl Alcohol, Steam Distilled Lime (Citrus Aurantifolia Extract), Sorbitan Oleate Decylglucoside Crosspolymer, Caprylyl Glycol, Beta-Glucan, N-Acetyl D Glucosamine, Ethylhexyl Glycerin, White Pine (Pinus Stobus Bark Extract), Glycine Soja (Soybean) Sterols, Japanese Pagoda Tree (Sophora Japonica Fruit Extract), Milk Thistle (Silybum Marianum Fruit Extract), Alpha Lipoic Acid

Blissoma Sacred Waters Tonique

• Perfect for all skin types, especially dry and mature
• Base of artisan grown and distilled Organic Holy Basil Hydrosol
• Organic herbs freshly extracted at potent, healing concentrations
• Organic Gentian Root, Organic Gotu Kola,  Organic Hops, Organic Rice extract, sulfur-based nutrient MSM and more

Max & Me The Intuitive

• 2023 Beauty Shortlist Awards Winner: Best Face Mist
• Luxury facial treatment mist and high vibrational healing mist in one
• Base of Yarrow Flower, Palo Santo, Neroli and Myrtle Waters
• Also contains wild agonis, Green Mandarin Flower Extract, Siam Benzoin, blue tansy, calendula, rose and more
• Ingredients sourced from the highly vibrant and pristine pockets of the world directly from local suppliers

Amala Beauty Rehydrating Toning Essence

• Perfect for mature and dry skin
• Thicker essence toner
• Contains Antioxidant-rich Mulberry Bark extract, Super Beet Amino Acids to brighten and even out tone, Tonka Bean pre+probiotic infusion and Vitamin C
• Also contains Amala’s signature Living Beauty BioActive Complex, an ultra-concentrated blend of bio-active nutrients: Peony, skin-renewing 23K Rose Gold, Vitamin C-rich Amla, and antioxidant Spirulina
• SAVE: OBL saves 15%

Andrea

Andrea is a clean beauty expert from Los Angeles, California with 10 years of experience in natural skincare and organic living. She writes for Organic Beauty Lover using her expertise to guide readers in choosing the best clean products. Andrea graduated from the University of Southern California in 2012 and has worked at multiple skincare companies, big and small. Connect with her @organicbeautylover.