Many of you keen Valley Misters might already know that our micellar water is both a micellar water and a toner, but do you know exactly what this means? You might be wondering if you can use micellar water as toner? What the difference is between micellar water and toner? Do you need to use both products in your skincare routine? Hopefully this blog post will help to shine a light onto some of these mysteries.
Micellar Water
What is Micellar Water?
Micellar water is used to very gently remove makeup, grease and pollution from the face and neck. However, it does not do anything beyond this, so it will not tighten pores or clear breakouts, unless it has something added to it for these purposes. Nonetheless, micellar water can help to prevent breakouts simply because it helps to clear away many of the substances that sit on your skin and can cause spots. Some more detailed information on common causes of acne and the best ways to help clear it, can be found here. But, does micellar water work as a toner? The short answer, is no.
How often should you use Micellar Water?
This is entirely up to you and will depend a lot on your skin type and skincare preferences. There are no harsh chemicals in micellar water, so there is no harm in using it in the morning as a cleanser and in the evening to remove your makeup if you wish to!
Toner
What is toner?
Toner is used both to remove any leftover grease and pollution from the face, and to tighten the pores. So, in part it shares some of the same functions as micellar water, but micellar water does not provide the same tightening effect and is a much gentler cleanser, so the two are not interchangeable.
Over the years, toner has built up a bad reputation for being harsh on the skin, but this is not always the case. This reputation has predominantly come from the use of alcohol in toning products in order to create that astringent and tightening feel which can, of course, be harsh on the skin. Some companies still use alcohol in their toners, but many are beginning to move away from alcohol as an ingredient, including us at Valley Mist. However, in our micellar water and toner ingredients you will find ‘benzyl alcohol’ listed. This is a preservative that naturally occurs in essential oils. There is a very low level of it in our products and it has been safety tested as a leave-on product for the face, it is not the same type of alcohol that which is used to create the tightening feel on the skin.
How often should you use toner?
Again, this will largely depend on your skin type, but toner is generally best used once or twice a day, in the morning and/or evening. However, unlike micellar water which you can leave on or rinse off the skin, toner should be left on the skin and allowed to sit beneath your moisturiser and other products for it to be the most effective.
Valley Mist Micellar Water & Toner
Here at Valley Mist we’re all about simplifying and not overcomplicating; why use two separate products on your face when you can use one? Although micellar water cannot be used as toner, it is possible to combine the two products so that you only need one bottle on your shelf: micellar water to cleanse, toner to tighten and tone. Only needing one product also has the added bonus of being kinder to your wallet too!
As I mentioned before, none of our micellar waters and toners contain alcohol for the purpose of toning. Our witch hazel and floral waters have all been steam-distilled here in the UK, cutting down on carbon footprint and meaning that all of them contain 0% alcohol.
We have a large variety of options when it comes to micellar water and toner in order to enable you to choose the best option for your skin type and all of our micellar water & toner products are vegan and registered with The Vegan Society, if this is something that you are looking for. Find out more about the different options below:
The first and most popular option is our Combination Skin Micellar Water & Toner which contains witch hazel, lemon and geranium, making it both gentle and astringent, and gives it a wonderful refreshing feel to wake you up in the morning.
Our Men’s Witch Hazel Kick Micellar & Toner is also designed with combination skin in mind, with witch hazel and black pepper. Of course, all of our products are gender neutral, but our men’s range tends to have a more masculine range of scents.
However, if your skin is a little on the drier side then you might prefer the Normal-Dry Skin Micellar & Toner which is made using luxurious neroli, steam-distilled English lavender oil and floral water, to give you a relaxing spa-like experience.
On the other hand, if you find that your skin tends towards the oilier side then you may prefer our Oily Prone Skin Micellar & Toner. This variation is still nice and gentle on the skin, but is also antibacterial and slightly more astringent as it contains cleansing tea tree floral waters, alongside lemongrass and juniper.
