re.commend: Toners

What do toners do?

I've noticed a bit of confusion recently on beauty forums such as Beautylish around what toners are for and whether they are a bit outdated with the range of today's skincare available.

For me, there are a couple of different toners that I still find useful for two different purposes:


1) The first is for refreshing my makeup like you might use MAC Fix+. Although I still spritz a toner on after I cleanse, this is more because it feels nice rather than for its traditional function of restoring the skin's pH to acidic after the alkali cleanser. (I tend to use a micellar water to take of the bulk of my makeup followed by an oil-based cleanser such as this one from Asda (I haven't tried the famed Emma Hardie balm yet!) or straight-up coconut oil melted between my palms and rubbed carefully-firmly all over my face then removed with a flannel/wash-cloth soaked in very warm water.) I find that if I'm a bit liberal with the powder cosmetics in the morning a sprtiz of a nice fragranced toner takes down the powdery finish to looking more similar to my natural skin and also wakes me up a bit for the day ahead!

2) To exfoliate. I use Alpha H Liquid Gold as a chemical exfoliant every two or three days (depending on how smooth my skin is feeling/when I remember!). It contains glycolic acid that helps to breakdown and slough away dead skin cells that can make your face look dull or uneven. I have a full review of it here.

So I do like to keep these toners around, though their usage and place in the skincare routine is rather far removed from what we would usually think of as 'toner'. I have a sneaking suspicion that there are more things that toner could be used for (not to mention that this is an easy candidate for a future re.create!). I'd love to hear your views on toners, do you use them in your routine? what do you use them for?