Facial toners are an often overlooked part of a good skincare regime.  This all natural homemade toner with witch hazel, aloe, vegetable glycerin and soothing herbs is moisturizing and can be adjusted to suit any skin type!  This DIY toner contains all kinds of wonderful, natural ingredients from Mountain Rose Herbs!

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Toner.

It is kinda the thing you think you can do without in a skincare regime.  A good facial wash, a moisturizer, maybe a targeted “treatment” product or two — and you will be all “peaches & cream” radiant, right?  It might be true for a lucky few — but more times than not, most of used feel like our skin is somehow lacking something but we can’t quite put our fingers on it.  Our skin isn’t quite as supple, maybe it still has some patchy dryness.  It doesn’t feel especially firm and it isn’t very luminous.

In all likelihood, you’re skin is dehydrated. There is fundamental difference between dehydrated skin and dry skin.  Dry skin lacks sufficient oil content.  Dehydrated skin lacks sufficient water content.  Thereby, even oily skin can be dehydrated.

So how does one increase the water moisture content of their skin?  It is certainly not as simple as splashing water on one’s face, and may take more than drinking more water.  We need a way to both attract and retain the moisture to our skin!

Natural Homemade Toner Ingredients

This my friends is where the a natural toner comes in!  The key to an excellent homemade toner is choosing just a few simple, preferably organic ingredients and learning how to make them work for you.  Let’s take a closer look at my favorite additions that will make your DIY toner totally perfect!

Witch Hazel Extract
A high quality, low alcohol witch hazel extract is the most important part of a homemade toner.  Witch hazel extract’s naturally low pH help to balance the acid mantle of the skin after washing (soap tends to be high in pH), creating a “neutral” skin surface.  Additionally witch hazel tones down redness, heat and irritation on the skin surface, while also acting as an astringent which effectively minimizes the appearance of large pores and mitigates moisture loss.  While many witch hazel extracts have an alcohol content of 15% or greater, this WHE from Mountain Rose Herbs has a much more skin friendly alcohol content of 8%

Aloe Vera Gel
Can anybody possibly think of a more cooling and soothing substance? Aloe vera adds a water based moisture that is more resistant to evaporation losses that water.  Aloe mixes easily with water and adds a bit of viscosity to this natural toner.

Vegetable Glycerin 
This super important ingredient will make your DIY toner indispensable.  Vegetable glycerin is both moisturizing and humectant — meaning that it attract moisture from the environment to your skin surface, thus taking advantage of humidity in the best way possible.  The addition of vegetable glycerin in this homemade toner contributes further viscosity to the blend and promotes a dewy, glowing complexion.

Herbs
With so many herbs to chose from, you can customize your DIY toner to your skin type!  By infusing the witch hazel extract with your favorite herbs, you can create a fragrant, soothing all-natural toner with many skin benefits!   I particularly love calendula for sensitive skin, lavender for redness, rose hips for radiance, chamomile for irritation, rose for firmness, and lemon balm for oiliness!  These herbs can be blended to customize your natural toner to perfection!

Essential Oils
I am going to make mention of essential oils here because I do NOT recommend using them in a water based solution like this homemade toner.  Essential oils do not disperse well in water and their use may lead to overly concentrated amounts of essential oils delivered to the skin surface.  Read more about essential oil safety here.  I f you desire more botanical benefits and fragrance, consider swapping out 1/4 cups of the witch hazel extract with a hydrosol like calendula or chamomile!

Your homemade toner is a great addition to your skincare regime and makeup routine (if you wear any).  I like to store in a pretty glass bottle like this (these plastic flip top bottles are perfect for travel).  This natural toner can soaked onto a cotton disk and applied to freshly washed face and followed by treatment products and/or moisturizer.  Also, for those of you that wear makeup — this DIY toner is excellent for setting makeup (especially powdery kids) and promotes a natural, fresh complexion.  Simply fill the mixture into a spritz bottle like this and mist onto your face after makeup application.  It is also a super way to refresh your skin after a long afternoon of weeding the garden or foraging in the woods.

Looking for more back to basics skin care recipes?  Check out this homemade face cream!

All-Natural Homemade Toner Recipe with Herbs

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All-Natural Homemade Toner with Herbs

Facial toners are an often overlooked part of a good skincare regime.  This all natural homemade toner with witch hazel, aloe, vegetable glycerin and soothing herbs is moisturizing and can be adjusted to suit any skin type!  

Author: Devon

Ingredients

• 2 cups organic witch hazel extract
• 3/4 cup mixed herbs to your preference
• 1/4 cup organic vegetable glycerin
• 1/4 cup organic aloe vera gel

Instructions

• In a jar with a tight fitting lid, combine herbs and witch hazel extract.  Infuse for four to six weeks shaking the jar daily.
• After infusion is complete, strain the liquid through two layers of flour sack cloth or muslin.  Pour liquid into bottles for use.
• To use toner, pour a small amount onto a cotton pad or disk and swipe over a clean face,  Alternatively, this natural toner can be poured into a mister bottle and spritzed onto the face.