Facial toners are always actual. They moisturize the skin and keep the skin’s pH in order. If you have dry skin on the surface, a sufficiently hydrating facial toner is a very important part of your skincare. Facial oils, balms and other water-free products cannot moisturize the skin. They just lock in the moisture which is already in the skin and prevent the skin from evaporating moisture. Many commercial toners are mainly water mixed with synthetic fragrances and dyes. You can choose the best raw materials in the facial toner you make yourself. Make your own effective facial toner from high-quality ingredients.
Making facial toner is quite an easy task
If you are afraid of unsuccessful cosmetic experiments, you should start with facial toners. At their simplest, facial toners are hydrolats. You can choose your favourite hydrolat as a facial toner or prepare your own mixture of two or three different hydrolats. Pack the hydrolate mixture in a pump bottle and use to moisturize your face
You can make a slightly more sophisticated facial toner using the same ingredients as a base. In addition to the hydrolate, you can mix hydrating ingredients such as glycerol and allantoin into your toner. I have written a post about glycerol on my blog. You should read them in order to get more knowledge about the benefits of hydrating the skin.
In the instructions below are the ingredients of the facial toner I prepared. If you want to add or change some ingredients, you are absolutely free to do so. However, check that the ingredients you use are water soluble. Fat-soluble and water-soluble ingredients cannot be combined in the same product without an emulsifier.
What are hydrolats?
Hydrolats are water-soluble substances obtained from plants by distillation. Hydrolats can also be called hydrosols or floral waters. There are also hydrosols that are made by adding essential oils and solvents to distilled water. These are not made by distillation. However, they can be perfectly usable products, but they are not genuine hydrolats.
If you want to make sure that the hydrosol, floral water or hydrolate you buy is made by distillation, check the INCI name of the product. For example, the ICI of rose hydrolate is Rosa Damascena Floral Water. A genuine hydrolate never contains water, but the product consists only of a water-soluble substance obtained by distilling plants and a preservative. Most hydrolats contain a preservative. That’s a good thing. Aqueous products get spoiled easily if they are not stored properly.
If the product is made of water and essential oils, the INCI of the product starts with the name Aqua, water, followed by the other ingredients used, such as essential oil; Rosa Damascena Floral Oil, as well as the used solvent and preservatives.
The hydrating floral facial toner contains a lot of hydrating ingredients
I made a facial lotion that contains a lot of skin hydrating factors. One purpose of facial toner is to moisturize the skin. That’s why it’s best to use ingredients that take care of the skin’s moisture only.
This facial toner contains glycerol. I don’t want to use very large amounts of glycerol in products left on the skin because glycerol makes the product easily sticky. Glycerol strengthens the skin’s protective layer. Without moisture, the skin’s protective layer dries up and the skin can no longer perform all its tasks. Glycerol helps the natural lipids in the skin to maintain their structure, which in turn helps the skin to stay healthy.
In addition to glycerol, I used allantoin in this product. Allantoin is a particularly hydrating ingredient that also takes care of the skin’s protective layer. It soothes the skin. The cosmetics industry uses allantoin in products for sensitive skin and to reduce skin redness. The problem with allantoin is its solubility. You cannot use more than 0.2% allantoin in the product. A larger amount of allantoin crystallizes in the product and forms sharp particles. The product becomes unusable.
I recommend you to get a precision scale. It is impossible to weigh small amounts without a good scale. A scale is also needed to weigh the preservative.
The acidity of facial water, the pH value
I know many of you are afraid of the letter combination pH. However, the correct pH value of the product is a must when making facial toner for many reasons.
One of the most important tasks of facial water is to restore the right acidity to the skin after cleansing. Acidity is measured by the pH value so that the value 7 is neutral, 6-0 is acidic and 8-14 is alkaline. The pH of products used on the skin should be between 4.5 and 5.5. Most preservatives also work at this pH level.
Hydrolats are naturally slightly acidic. However, the acidity of hydrolats varies greatly depending on the hydrolate and the preservatives used in the product. In my experience, chamomile hydrolats are more acidic than most other hydrolats. If you want to use just the hydrolat as a facial toner, it’s still worth checking a product acidity with pH strips.
Natural gums
The third very useful ingredient in this facial toner is xanthan gum. I have tried many other gums in the manufacture of cosmetics, such as konjac gum and Logust bean gum. However, xanthan gum is a very good, natural gum that is easy to obtain. Of course, you can also use a mixture of xanthan gum and Logust bean gum for this product. The mixture of these two gums is more stable than xanthan gum alone.
The purpose of gums is to increase the viscosity of the product. What is different about this facial toner is the viscosity. A higher viscosity makes the facial toner richer. It stays longer on the skin so that the hydrating ingredients can have longer time to affect. Of course, you must be careful that the toner does not become too thick (this happens easy). The purpose is not to make the product gel-like. Remember that the gums slowly thicken during next 24 hours. You will only know the final viscosity of the product after a day.
Preservatives
This product definitely requires a preservative, even if the hydrolats already contain a preservative. If you want a completely preservative-free facial toner, use only hydrosols without adding anything to them. Always store hydrosols in the refrigerator, despite the fact that they contain a preservative.
There are many different types of preservatives. A completely water-soluble preservative is suitable for this product. Geogard 221 is a completely water-soluble preservative. Its INCI name is Dehydroacetic Acid (and) Benzyl Alcohol. Other products with similar ingredients are available.
The ingredients you need for a hydrating floral toner
This portion makes 100 grams of facial toner
- Rose hydrosol 56,77gr
- Lavender hydrosol 20gr
- Neroli hydrosol 20gr
- Glycerol 2gr
- Xanthan gum 0.08gr
- Allantoin 0.15 gr
- Preservative 1gr
Manufacturing method
- Measure the hydrosols into the container.
- Add allantoin to the hydrosol and mix until the allantoin is completely dissolved. It may take some time as allantoin is not very soluble.
- Measure glycerol and xanthan gum into another container. Mix the ingredients evenly so that no lumps remain in the product.
- Add the glycerol-xanthan gum mixture to the hydrosol mixture and mix until the liquid is smooth. Now the liquid thickens a little due to the xanthan gum. The thickening of the product continues for the next day.
- Now is the time to measure the pH of the product. If you use a preservative that works over a wide pH range, you don’t need to adjust the pH so precisely. The best pH value for the skin is between 4.5 and 5.5. If the pH is too high, say 6.5, you can lower it slightly by using citric acid or lactic acid. The pH drops quite quickly, so just use one drop of lactic acid solution or citric acid dissolved in water (10%) and measure the pH again.
- Once you have adjusted the pH of the product, you can add a preservative. Remember that the preservative also lowers the pH. If acids have been used in the preservative, it is probably enough to lower the pH enough that you no longer need to lower it with citric acid or lactic acid.
- Pack the product in a pump bottle and label it.
- This facial toner can be stored at room temperature, protected from light, for 2-3 months. If you store the facial toner in the fridge, it will last maybe a month or two longer. Home cosmetics never last the same way as commercial cosmetics due to many things.
How to use the hydrating floral facial toner?
Floral facial toner is an ideal product when you want to refresh your skin after washing. Facial toner is always added to cleansed skin before serum and face creams. You can take a small amount of facial toner either on a cotton pad or in the palm of your hand. Use facial toner all over the face and neck area and let it dry without interruption.
If you want, you can add another layer of facial toner. After this, you can apply the serum and cream. if you want, you can leave only facial toner on the skin. It creates a velvety-like surface on the skin while hydrating, soothing and smoothing the skin colour.
Since no essential oils have been used in this facial toner, you can also use it around the eyes without any worries.
The hydrating floral facial toner smells wonderful. The combination of rose, lavender and neroli is a warm yet floral scent.
What did you think about this recipe? Have you added natural gums to your products before?