One thing I have't talked about in a while is skincare. But this post on acid toners has been waiting a while to pop up. When we see the word acid we perhaps get a little scared, of course why would we want to put acid on our face?! However, the % of acid in these toners is relatively low and therefore safe enough to cause some impressive results on our skin.
The whole process of acid based toners was introduced to my by the goddess of skincare Caroline Hirons. She believes that toner should be the second step in our routine; it should balance the ph levels of your skin after cleansing, exfoliate, hydrate and, most important, help for the next steps of your routine (serum and moisturise) to penetrate more thoroughly.
Now before I learnt this information my every other day routine would be a gritty exfoliator. What I then learnt from Hirons is that this can help to spread infection if we have a spot and does not restore the ph level on our skin. Acid toners are applied on a cotton wool pad and then just smooth them over my face and neck.
Since introducing this step I can honestly say that I've seen improvements in my skin like no other. My skin now doesn't experience crazy blemishes, it feels smoother and almost more radiant. The two toners I switch between are the Clarins Gentle Exfoliater Brightening toner and the Pixi Glow Tonic. Now I feel almost embarrassed to admit that I can't really detect anything different between these two products apart from the smell. If I was 'suffering' a period of bad skin however, I would perhaps be more inclined to use the Clarins one as, from experience, this has always helped to clear my skin. I tend to put these toners in my nightie routine, as suggested by Hirons, and I only use them about 3 times a week.
