If you think toners are a waste of money think again: not only they complete our cleansing routine by removing any residues that might left after removing your makeup but help to restore the PH levels that’ve been altered during the process.
Ideally we’ll use a pH balanced cleanser, it’ll do the whole job without messing up with the skin pH levels and we’ll jump right into the moisturizing part with no extra step required, but most cleansers and make-up removers out there aren’t pH balanced and I don’t know about you but micellar waters aren’t enough to remove all of my make-up. I like them but they don’t work as a multitasking product for me.
Astringents vs. toners
I used to be oily/combination type skin but lately I’ve been more on the dry, super tight, flaky, really awful side… on top of that I have acne and almost everything makes me breakout.
During the past months I’ve used pretty much every astringent from Clean&Clear that exists and they all left my skin feeling dehydrated (even the one for sensitive skin), causing me redness and making my blemishes more prominent. This is because those products are alcohol based which as can be very irritating for the skin and destroys its protective barrier accelarating the aging process.
Since most astringents are formulated to suit oily skins I thought that switching up to a toner will solve the problem… only to find out that’s pretty hard to find one with no astringents propperties on it and that I still need a product with some amount of alcohol to kill the bacteria that causes acne. If you have dry or normal skin definetely go with alcohol-free products!
Avène’s Cleanance toner is actually a non agressive astringent
It contains Alcohol 39 which is no other than Ethanol, a form of alcohol that in theory can be as agressive as regular alcohol but it’s only a 10%, the best tolerability/efficacy ratio according to the brand. It also contains salicylic acid and glyceryn which retains the moisture and contrarrests any possible damage.
As all of the Avène’s products its main ingrediente is thermal spring water, this works as an anti-inflammatory and prevents irritations so it’s gentle enough for allergic prone skins and it doesn’t burn or sting at all, exactly as it promises. Because It’s a bifasic formula you have to shake it off first to activate all the ingredientes.
I’ve been using it for weeks now and the appereance and texture of my skin have improved: both redness and inflamation stopped and my blemishes were reduced.
Now, about the price
Although it’s not high-end this is not your average cheap drugsture toner but for a gentle product that won’t hurt your skin in the long run I think it’s actually very affordable. I want to try new options to see what suits best for my skin as it still feels a little dry but If you have oily skin definitely give it a chance.
