It’s silly to pay $30+ for a small bottle of organic face toner. You can make a nice batch of homemade organic face toner right at home.
First you’ll need your toner base – witch hazel:
Alcohol free witch hazel. It’s important to note that many commercial witch hazel products contain more alcohol than witch hazel so you need to be careful when choosing a witch hazel product. Good options include…
- Witch Hazel Extract from Mountain Rose Herbs. This line of witch hazel has been double distilled in only a 14% alcohol base.
- Thayers Original Witch Hazel w/Aloe Vera Astringent Pads – Thayers witch hazel products are all made with non-distilled witch hazel extract.
- 100% Certified Organic Witch Hazel Hydrosol – hand harvested and steam distilled from USDA Certified Wild Crops Forest. Made with simply fresh leaves, twigs and bark
- Starwest Botanicals Witch Hazel Extract is a clear, colorless distillate prepared from recently cut and partially dried dormant witch hazel twigs – containing natural oils and 14% alcohol.
Then you need some herbs and spice:
You need a mix of organic herbs and spices (in equal parts). You can use just about anything, but of course you want to choose organic herbs and spices that will be beneficial to your skin type.
If you don’t know anything about herbs, I suggest checking out The Complete Book of Herbs: A Practical Guide to Growing and Using Herbs
The herbs I normally use are listed below. I have normal skin, rarely break out and am used to using things like herbs and essential oils on my skin. If your skin is not like mine, you need to find a mix of herbs that will work better for you. Note – do not use dry herbs. They’ll kind of work, but not very well. Fresh is 99% better.
Grab some essential oil:
Read the organic essential oil safety and buying guide first then choose some oil.
The herbs, spices and essential oils I use in my organic face toner:
- Equal parts: fresh organic rosemary and organic lavender.
- A tiny bit of fresh organic basil.
- A few cinnamon sticks and a tablespoon of dried whole cloves.
- A tablespoon of grated organic orange peel along with the peels of half an organic lemon.
- 2-3 drops of organic tea tree essential oil.
How to make your homemade toner:
Place all your herbs, oils, and essential oils in a jar. No need to break up your herbs or chop them, you also don’t need to grate your spices. Cover your herb and spice mixture completely with witch hazel. Let the mixture sit for a while in your fridge – I usually allow mine to sit for a week. Strain your mixture and it’s ready to use.
To use your toner:
You can apply toner to your face lightly with your fingers or an organic cotton pad or washcloth. You can use this to freshen your skin or to remove make-up. You can also use this as a quick face cleaning solution or as a refreshing mist is you have a tiny mist bottle. Just close your eyes and spray your face. This feels great in the hot summer.
Storage:
The upside of this toner is that it’s chemical and preservative free. The downside of that is it’s perishable. Unless you use this super fast, you should keep it in the fridge. I don’t like to have to walk to my fridge for toner, so I make tiny batches frequently instead of a lot all at once.
Have you ever made homemade toner? Which herbs do you like?
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