I’ve tried dozens upon dozens of clean beauty toners and am sharing the ones I use nonstop and how to layer them properly. The best face toner is full of plant botanicals and targeted actives without any harmful or questionable ingredients.

Why I love using Face Toner

Skin needs hydration to be healthy, full stop and toners are pure hydration. No matter what your skin type is, hydrators in anyone skincare routine is absolutely crucial, but often overlooked. Not only do toners 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.

• 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

How to Properly Layer Toner

After cleansing: Toner should be applied after skin is cleansed thoroughly and before applying face 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

• 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

I tried Cocokind Rosewater Toner (Under $15)

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. I love using this for both my skin and my scalp since it’s so affordable and versatile!

Price: $14.97 for 4 fl oz

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I tried EADEM Cashmere Peel Exfoliating AHA Toner

This exfoliating toner has the milkiest consistency ever. It helps fade dark spots with a powerful blend of Azelaic, Lactic, and Tranexamic Acids and Gluconolactone. I love that it also has rice water and colloidal oatmeal, which gives it that essence-like texture and creamy consistency. This is amazing for dry skin that wants to use exfoliating acids but needs some serious moisturization too.

Price: $42 for 5.07 oz

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I tried MARA Pearl Peptide Glaze

This is my newest obsession from Mara Beauty and it’s a 3-in-1 toner, essence and serum in one. This is intensely hydrating and has a milky yet light and silky consistency. I love their marine ingredients and unique actives like pearl powder, beta-glucan and marine collagen peptides. I love the scent but can’t quite put my finger on how to describe it – herbal yet sweet and not overpowering.

Price: $54 for 3.4 fl oz

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I tried Beekman 1802 Hyaluronic Acid & Squalane Facial Toner Mist

I find Beekman 1802’s toner mist to be one of the most innovative toners in clean beauty! It’s a bi-phase formula so it needs a good shake to mix up all the ingredients. The formula is sooo varied and versatile. It’s got an array of hard-working ingredients, including adaptogens, probiotics, botanical oils and herbal extracts that hydrate, tone, reduce irritation, balances the microbiome, and minimize pores. Yes, it’s safe for sensitive skin too! This has goat milk, colostrum, mugwort, Squalane, Hyaluronic Acid, Bifida Ferment Lysate, Honey, Comfrey, Blue Thistle, Whey Protein, Sea Buckthorn Oil, Glycerin and more. The bottle is HUGE and double the size of other natural face toners. Another thing I love about it is the super fine gentle mist that sprays out widely so it gets a lot of my face at once.

Price: $36 for 8.1 fl oz

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I tried Tower 28 SOS Daily Rescue Facial Spray (Best for Acne!)

Tower 28’s hypochlorous spray is better than any other brand’s I’ve tried because its concentration and pH have actually been tested to be at the optimal level. It’s also the only one to be recognized by all three U.S. skin health organizations, the National Eczema Society, National Rosacea Society, and National Psoriasis Foundation.

Hypochlorous acid is super effective on calming active breakouts, reducing redness and soothing extremely irritated skin. It’s anti-inflammatory + antibacterial, so really great to take when traveling, going on flights or after workouts. I like to keep my travel sized version with me when I travel so I can spray myself while on the plane where I’m exposed to all sorts of gross bacteria in the air. The ingredients are super simple – there’s just water, sodium chloride and hypochlorous acid with no pointless ingredients or toxins.

Price: $28 for 4 oz

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I tried Blissoma Sacred Waters Tonique

I highly recommend Blissoma’s organic toners if the potency and vibrancy of living plants in your skincare matters to you. This is an artisanal organic skincare line rooted in holistic practices and their face toner uses organic herbs freshly extracted at potent, healing concentrations. Imagine taking Evanhealy’s organic holy basil hydrosol I talked about above and then loading it with a dozen more organic botanical herbs and extracts. You get Blissoma’s Sacred Waters Tonique. I looove how special this artisanal formula is, how healing it can be for the skin and the attention to quality and detail put into this product.

Price: $56 for 4 fl oz

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Whamisa Organic Flowers Deep Rich Essence Toner (K-beauty)

I’ve been repurchasing this toner for nearly ten years now from the only organic Korean skincare brand I trust. I highly recommend using Whamisa’s organic 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. If literally nothing works to fix your dry skin, this is going to save it.

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!

Price: $41 for 5.2 fl oz

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I tried Mad Hippie Hydrating Nutrient Mist

This is a great budget friendly all natural face toner that’s under $20 and PACKED with antioxidants and botanical extracts. I’m so glad Mad Hippie changed the packaging because the pump simply sucked before. This has got an impressive number of actives that would rival clean beauty toners twice the price. It contains Ginkgo Biloba, White Pine Bark, Reservatrol, Hesperedin, Pomegranate Seed Extract, Milk Thistle, Vitamin C, Resveratrol, Ferulic Acid and so much more! It’s a super lightweight mist.

Price: $15.99 for 4 fl oz

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I tried Evanhealy Facial Tonic Hydrosoul

Evanhealy makes these gorgeous single-ingredient USDA Organic hydrosol toners that aren’t crazy overpriced. While most other clean beauty brands will only offer a rose hydrosol toner, Evanhealy has sooo many different kinds from lavender to immortelle and holy basil to yarrow. They are careful about their sourcing and the ingredients are high quality. My skin feels hydrated and my mind feels soothed from the incredible natural scent.

Price: $31.99 for 4 fl oz / $52.50 for 8 oz refill

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I tried Mixsoon Bifida Ferment Essence (Best for Skin Barrier Repair!)

This clean K-beauty brand is available in the US and they make a single-ingredient toner containing just one pure, undiluted ingredient: a highly effective natural probiotic ingredient called Bifida Ferment Lysate. Bifida Ferment a probiotic rich in proteins, minerals, lactose, lactic acid, vitamins and more. This is amaaazing for repairing the skin barrier and making it stronger and overall skin rejuvenation. If your skin barrier is damaged, I highly recommend adding this super clean and simple probiotic toner to your skincare routine. I use this with a cotton round, but because it’s made up of one core ingredient you can also add it to existing toners and skincare products.

Price: $32 for 3.38 fl oz

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