A new order of goodies recently arrived on my doorstep from New Directions Aromatics, so I’ve been spending the last few days playing with my new toys. One of the things I’ve been just itching to make ever since I placed the order was a vitamin C toner. I’d included witch hazel and some pure vitamin C in my order after reading about how good vitamin C is for your skin. It’s supposed to help with collagen production, reduce age spots (not that I have any yet, but hey, that’s not permanent), and firm things up. Groovy. It’s a key ingredient in a lot of expensive anti-aging serums, so I’ll probably experiment with one of those in the near future, enlisting my mother as my guinea pig.
I’d also ordered some solubilizer, something I’d been holding off ordering figuring I could survive without it, but now that I have it, I can’t stop thinking of uses for it. It’s a viscous liquid that allows you to easily create emulsions that are mostly water, so it’s great for things like room spray, where you want a teaspoon or so of essential oil to disperse evenly throughout half a liter of water. Is it natural, strictly speaking? Err… not really. But Skin Deep says it’s fairly safe, and I really don’t use much of it.
For this toner, I used it to disperse a bit of vitamin E and essential oils of tea tree and lavender throughout. It’s definitely optional, but you should probably leave the vitamin E out if you don’t have the solubilizer since vitamin E is quite a thick, viscous oil and it will probably just float around as a clump. The essential oils can be somewhat effectively dispersed by shaking before use.
I love how clean and fresh my skin feels after using this toner. I like to use it after washing my face, just before I go to bed. I’ll report back on the vitamin C and see if it’s all it’s cracked up to be. But for now, this toner is lovely to use, and is a great little pre-bedtime luxury. And, if you don’t have pure vitamin C, you can use some citrus juice in its place—preferably orange (it’s the highest in vitamin C out of the citruses), but lemon or lime will probably work as well. Or, better yet, crush up a vitamin C tablet and use that. Just try to choose one without too many fillers.
Vitamin C Toner
80g witch hazel
40g aloe vera juice (or just more witch hazel)20 drops bee propolis (optional)
¼ tsp vitamin C or 1 tbsp orange juice or 1 crushed vitamin C tablet5g solubilizer (optional)
2g vitamin E (optional)
10 drops tea tree essential oil
20 drops lavender essential oilCombine the witch hazel, aloe vera juice, bee propolis, and vitamin C in a lidded 120mL bottle. Shake to combine.
In a small cup, stir the solubilizer, vitamin E, and essential oils together. Add to the bottle, cap, and shake to combine.
To use, wet a cotton pad with the toner and wipe across the face.
Tags: aloe vera, face, homemade, instructions, make-up, natural, skin, tea
-
I would like to try this toner, however, I am allergic to tea tree oil. Can I leave it out, or replace it with something else? Thanks!
-
Esther—You can easily leave the tea tree oil out without effecting the toner. You could replace it with another antibacterial essential oil, like oregano or geranium, or just leave it at that!
-
-
What is the shelf life of this once you have made it??
-
I’d say about 2 months, but it will really depend on where you store it. I store it on my vanity in my bedroom, but my room tends to be quite cool, especially in the winter. I keep about 100mL out at a time, storing the rest in the fridge, and pulling out more as I need it. Because both vitamin C and E are antioxidants, they help prevent spoilage.
-
-
How much is a g (gram?)
-
One gram is equal to the weight of one cubic milliliter of water at 4° Celsius, or about 1/28th of an ounce. I’m up in Canada, so I’m used to the metric system, and I find the easy gram/milliliter conversion to be very useful when working with liquids (100g of most liquids will generally be about 100mL, so less guesswork as to how big of a container you’ll need). The fact that a gram is so much smaller than an ounce also allows me to make smaller batches of things with precision. Most electric scales will allow you to toggle between grams/kg and oz/lb—look for the “unit” button.
-
-
Here’s a link to a Gram To Ounc Calculator
http://www.metric-conversions.org/weight/grams-to-ounces.htm -
Hi,
I’d love to try make it but Where can I buy these stuff?
-
Hi there, just a quick question…
I have Bee Propolis, but its a capsule and I think it has powder in it, can I use that or does it have to be liquid?
-
Go for it! You may want to pass the toner through a coffee filter to remain the particles if they don’t dissolve/are clumpy, but it should be great
-
-
This sounds wonderful I am going to have to try this. I used to spend a lot of money on a line of skin care that had Vitamin C. Finances have forced me to stop buying it so this is definitely on my list of things to do!
-
Do it! Buying the vitamin C can be a bit pricey to start with, but it’s nothing compared to paying for products that contain it, and it’s so acidic you really can’t use much at any one time (but you still get awesome benefits, of course!).
-
-
You mentioned that you would report back on the Vitamin C and let us know how it worked for your skin. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts!
-
I made the toner today and it’s great. The bee propolis settles in the bottom of the jar though and is sort of grainy in the bottle.. I used the solubolizer. Any suggestions?
-
I used polysorbate 60 if that helps. Thx!
-
16 comments
Comments feed for this article
Trackback link: http://www.humblebeeandme.com/vitamin-c-toner/trackback/