I love toners because they’re such an easy and refreshing way to show your skin some love. The ingredients you put in your toner will stay on your skin longer than the ones you add to your face wash but you can use a toner more often than you would a moisturizer…in my mind, that makes it a pretty sweet middle ground for when you need a skin-pick-me-up.
The following recipe has quite a few ingredients because I think they’re all amazing and I had them on hand. If you don’t have most of the ingredients, you can make a pretty sweet toner with just the aloe vera juice or witch hazel, vitamin C (or lemon/lime juice), and tea tree oil…and you’ll find most of these in your local grocery store. As you find the other ingredients, throw them in your next batch and enjoy all the wonderful benefits!
Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup aloe vera juice
- 1/4 cup witch hazel
- 4 ounces warm water
- 1/2 teaspoon vitamin C powder (or 1 teaspoon lemon/lime juice)
- 1/3 teaspoon bee pollen
- 1/4 teaspoon kelp granules
- 1/3 teaspoon dried lemongrass
- 1/3 teaspoon dried calendula
- 10 drops lemongrass essential oil
- 5 drops tea tree oil
Steps:
1. Place your dried lemongrass, dried calendula, and kelp granules into a tea strainer (or cheesecloth) and submerge them into your 4 ounces of warm water like so:
2. Cover and let the mixture steep while you do the other steps. I covered my cup with a regular plate like this:
3. In a mixing bowl (I used a pyrex mixing bowl with a spout), combine your aloe vera juice, witch hazel, vitamin C, and bee pollen. It’ll look something like this:
4. Mix that solution until the bee pollen granules and vitamin c have dissolved. It took me a couple minutes of mixing to have them all dissolved (and I used a whisk). If you can’t get them all to dissolve, you can use a cheesecloth or strainer to strain the mixture later so don’t worry too much about it.
5. At this point, your calendula, lemongrass, and kelp granules are ready to strain (just lift out the strainer or cheesecloth). The liquid will be slightly yellow in color. Add this liquid to your aloe vera/vitamin C mixture and stir well. It’ll look something like this:
6. Mix in the lemongrass essential oil and tea tree oil into your toner.
7. If you have bits floating in your toner that you’d like to get rid of, now is a good time to run the mixture through a strainer or a cheesecloth to get them all out.
8. Decant your toner into a glass bottle and shake well before each use.
I recommend storing this in your fridge. Not only does it feel really nice when you use it, it’ll keep your toner safe from any unwanted inhabitants until you use it all up. If you’d like to keep it in your bathroom, I suggest making a smaller batch so that you can use it up in a week or two.
Got any other fun toner ingredients you’d recommend? Let me know in the comments below!