Algenist hydrating essence

May 5, 2016

Melanie T.

I've been really wanting to incorporate a toner into my skincare regime but I'm really scared bc my skin is acne prone (mainly hormonal so there's not much I can do :( ) but I definitely don't want to make things worse. I've read reviews saying that this toner is pretty gentle and non irritating. My skin is combo, slightly oily in t zone and normal everywhere else. Have any of you tried it? Are there any ingredients that may turn out to be irritating?

May 5, 2016

Diana T.

I haven't used that one specifically but in terms of good toners for acne prone skin - I've used a lot - the main things I look for are if I want it to treat my acne it should have salicylic acid as the active ingredient but no more than 2% - but sometimes that is too harsh for my sensitive skin so usually I need an alcohol free toner - so as long as the toner you use has those characteristics to treat the skin issues you are most concerned about then it should work fine - a toner's real job is just to restore the pH balance of your skin since most cleansers kick it to a more basic pH which your skin doesn't want - aside from that it can treat acne to an extent but the real thing that will treat acne is a good spot treatment.

May 5, 2016

Melanie T.

Thank you Diana! I'm not really trying to use this toner as acne treatment since I have a nice cream from my derm (that doesn't dry me out amazingly!).

May 6, 2016

Diana T.

Gotcha then yeah as long as the toner is alcohol free then it should be fine :) any ingredients that end in -ol are alcohols and some are harsher than others another good website you can use to identify skin irritants is cosdna.com you can search for specific products or list ingredients and it rates them and explains if they were found to be irritants in studies.

May 6, 2016

Melanie T.

Thank you! I'll definitely keep my eyes peeled for those ingredients.