Types of Toner Based on the Usage

Toner : Cleansing Toner and Preparing Toner

“Do U Know The Difference Between Toner from Local (Indonesian) Brand and Korean Toner ?”

This time I want to write some basic knowledge about one of skin care routine that is TONER. Like we already know there are several ways of using toner like :

- After milk cleanser : to remove traces of milk cleanser and dirt residue away from our skin

- After using mask : to tighten pores

- After facial wash :     
* to moisturize the skin after been cleansed
* to wipe away the remain dirt that can’t be cleaned just by using facial foam/soap

- Before day or night regimen : to prepare the skin before applying moisturizer/ make up

As far as I know there are 2 types of toner based on their usage :

1. Cleansing Toner

2. Preparing Toner

Now I’ll write the explanation one by one.

1. Cleansing Toner

This is the type of toner that identic with local brand here in my country. Say like Viva, Sari Ayu (Martina Berto), Mustika Ratu (Martha Tilaar), etc. This is the kind of toner that paired with the milk cleanser, in the other words this is the type of toner that supposed to use after the milk cleanser. U can see almost all of local cosmetic brand here sell cleanser series that contain pair of milk cleanser and toner/astringent.

We use milk cleanser by massaging it to dissolve the make up also to clean the dirt on our face and then wipe it with cotton, after that we put toner/astringent on cotton then use it on our face. The usage of this ‘local’ toner is to remove the traces of milk cleanser on our skin along with the remaining dirt on our face, as for tighten/refresh our pores after cleansing. This is what cleansing toner is for.

The order should be :

Milk Cleanser -- > Toner

Here are some of local brand milk cleanser that paired with the astringent / toner. I took the pics from their official website.

2. Preparing Toner

                This is the type of toner that identic with Korean brand (for example : Sin Food, Etude). Most of Toner of Korean brands are this kind of toner, I haven’t found Korean toner that bundled with milk cleanser. Some of Korean toner is in the gel form, say like Skin Food Lettuce and Cucumber Toner. This is the type of toner that is usually used after facial wash, before applying moisturizer, night cream, sun block  or make up. This is not cleansing toner, the point of usage is not to clean our face. This is a preparing toner.

This kind of toner is used to prepare our skin before make up. After washed by facial wash, our skin become clean and maybe bit dry, so we need this toner to moisturizes / hydrates our skin, preparing it so make up can  settle well on our skin. Make up will not easily blend on the dry skin.

The order sould be :

Facial wash -- > Toner -- > Moisturizer/Primer/Foundie

 This is Skinfood Lettuce cucumber toner, took the pic from the website, it's a gel type toner

This is Skinfood Peach sake toner

We can use cleansing/local toner for preparing our skin before make up but we can’t use preparing toner to wipe away milk cleanser residue on our skin. In other word, we only can use Korean toner on the perfectly cleansed skin.

Well, hope this article can help. I welcome any suggestion, input, info, or question. I write this based on my limited knowledge so do correct me if I’m wrong. Thank u for reading this article.