As I’ve been learning more and more about Asian beauty philosophies and trends, I’ve been really intrigued by the Asian-style toners /r/AsianBeauty raves about. Toners from Korea and Japan are focused on hydration and pH correction, packing a seriously nutrient-rich, hydration heavy punch. I’ve been learning how much my skin loves hydration over the last couples months, so a hydrating toner sounded like an awesome addition to my skincare routine. Plus, I have a ton of awesome water soluble skin goodies in my DIY cupboard, so I figured I should make something in a similar vein—hence this Hydrating Rose Water Facial Toner!
Want to watch this project instead of read it?
There’s certainly no shortage of much-lauded toners on the market to check out for inspiration. I dare you to read this thread on toners various AB-lovers rave about and resist the urge to head over to Amazon and buy a couple 😂 Anyhow—western toners are typically more focused on cleansing and tightening than hydrating, and often featuring alcohol fairly high up in the ingredients list. An AB toner is more of a hydration tonic; a thin liquid packed with humectants and other skin goodies for your skin to soak up and revel in. Some AB-ers apply upwards of seven (7!) layers of toner to get positively glowing, dewy skin.
One of the ingredients that I saw in pretty much everything was hyaluronic acid, usually popping up as sodium hyaluronate, which is a more readily absorbed derivative of hyaluronic acid. You’ll also find botanical extracts, humectants like glycerin and sodium lactate, vitamins like C, E, B3, and B5, and essential oils. Basically, as long as an ingredient is good for the skin (bonus if it’s water-soluble), you can probably find a toner on the market that uses it. So… what to use in a DIY?
As I’m a massive sucker for all things including rose hydrosol, I knew I’d have to use some of that. I also included some witch hazel for a touch of astringency, and some Olivem 300 for a hint of emolliency. For humectants I selected vegetable glycerin and sodium lactate; if you really want to steer clear of tackiness I’d halve the amounts of each of these. I find this toner sort of toes the line of tacky, and while I don’t mind it as-is, I figured a warning wouldn’t be amiss.
There’s a bit of a B-vitamin party going on here, with both niacinamide (vitamin B3) and panthenol (vitamin B5). Niacinamide has become a fast favourite of mine in skin care because it is awesome. It helps reduce sebum production and acne, as well as brighten and even skin tone (source, source, source). It can break down into niacin (which can cause facial flushing) in low pH environments, but between 4.5–6, that’s not a concern (source)—and we will be in that happy range. Panthenol is also wonderful, though quite different from its B-cousin. Creams containing panthenol are “associated with sustained and deep skin moisturization” (source) as well as having positive effects on barrier repair (source). It also protects against irritation (source), and has been found to help accelerate epidermal regeneration, with stronger, more elastic skin (source). So, basically, these two B-vitamins are amazeballs for skin, and they’re really affordable! I get both from Windy Point, where 28g of panthenol is $5.50, and 28g of niacinamide is $4.25. In a hobby where many of the much-lauded ingredients can be pretty pricey, these two are super versatile and highly affordable. If you like water-soluble skin goodness, put ’em on your list!
Last but not least, a touch of hydrolyzed silk for awesome humectant properties, and some soothing aloe vera powder. We’ll also buffer the solution down to a pH ~5.5 to make it compatible with our skin’s acid mantle, so you’ll need a bit of a 50% citric acid or lactic acid solution. You don’t have to do the pH adjusting step, but I’d encourage you to read this and some of the linked sources to learn more about the importance of the pH of our skincare products—it’s fascinating!
Since this toner is really just watery things + water-soluble things, it’s very easy to make! There’s a bit of a heated phase, and then we’ll add some cool down ingredients, preserve, buffer, and voila—Hydrating Rose Water Facial Toner! Enjoy 🙂
Want to watch this project instead of read it?
Hydrating Rose Water Facial Toner
16g | 0.55oz distilled water
10g | 0.35oz witch hazel
4g | 0.14oz Olivem 300 (USA / Canada)
1g | 0.04oz sodium lactate (USA / Canada)
0.5g | 0.02oz vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)
2g | 0.07oz niacinamide (Vitamin B3)
0.5g | 0.02oz hydrolyzed silk (USA / Canada) (wondering about substitutions?)
0.25g | 0.01oz aloe vera 200x concentrate powder15g | 0.53oz rose hydrosol
0.5g | 0.02oz panthenol powder (vitamin B5) (USA / Canada) (Vitamin B5)
0.25g | 0.01oz Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada) (or other broad spectrum preservative of choice at recommended usage rate [why?])33% citric acid (USA / Canada) solution, as needed (I used 1g / 0.03oz)
Prepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer over low to medium-low heat in a small saucepan.
Weigh the water, witch hazel, Olivem 300, sodium lactate, vegetable glycerin, niacinamids, silk, and aloe vera into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Place the measuring cup in your prepared water bath to heath everything through and ensure all the powders dissolve.
2020 update: There’s no need to use heat here—feel free to just stir everything together at room temperature!
While that’s heating through, weigh 5g (0.18oz) of citric acid and 10g (0.35oz) of distilled water into a small beaker or dish, and heat through to dissolve (10 seconds in the microwave is more than enough).
When all the powders have dissolved into the water/witch hazel, remove the measuring cup from the heat and dry it off. Stir in the rose hydrosol and panthenol, and leave for about 10 minutes to cool.
Once the measuring cup is cool to the touch, stir in the liquid germall plus.
Then, using a pipette and some pH strips, check the pH of the solution, and use the citric acid solution to adjust it down to ~5.5. I used about 1g of the solution to do this.
Transfer into a 50mL bottle (New Directions has finally re-stocked my favourites!), cap, and you’re done!
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this toner contains water, you must include a broad-spectrum preservative to ward off microbial growth. This is non-optional. Even with a preservative this project is likely to eventually spoil as our kitchens are not sterile laboratories, so in the event you notice any change in colour, scent, or texture, chuck it out and make a fresh batch.
Substitutions
- If you’ve got aloe vera juice instead of the aloe vera concentrate powder, just drop the powder and use the aloe vera juice in place of the water
- If you don’t have Olivem300 you can use another water soluble ester instead, but failing both of those, I’d just drop it completely rather than trying to use something like Polysorbate 80 to solubilize in another oil—it’s just such a tiny amount! I also don’t recommend Turkey Red Oil as it is heavy, sticky, and can be irritating.
- If you really want to strip this toner down you can make it from just distilled water, witch hazel, rose water, and vegetable glycerin. If you remove any more ingredients than that you’re basically just putting water on your face 😝
Hey,
Marie!!
I have an idea to make toner, when I was staying in South India at one of the hotel they gifted me beauty essentials in a basket. they had toner in dry form like a tea sachet you need to steep in water and it can be used for a week or upto 10 days I really like that idea as there won’t be any preservatives to add and one can use it fresh. Could you please develop something this sort of?
Err. I highly, highly doubt that would be ok for more than a day or two without a preservative, given that it’s made from botanicals—it’d be hard to preserve safely, let alone not preserve at all. So… probably no.
Hi Marie! I’m new to formulating products so bare with me if I sound silly,but I remeber you mentioning in your hydrating summer mist recipe that I could replace peppermint hydrosol for a drop of peppermint essential oil so I was wondering if I could do the same with this and use a drop or two of rose essential oil as I already have some on hand that’s not getting much use! Also I know you have been playing around with hyaluronic acid would it be okay if I attempted to add it to this recipe?
You could use rose essential oil instead, just keep an eye on the solubilizing; the Olivem300 should do the trick, but watch for floaters all the same 🙂 And yes, swapping 20% of the water for a 1% HA stock would be a great idea! Happy making 🙂
Welp, my brand new pH strips (JNW Testing) are poo. They registered that my tap water is alkaline, but they read my toner as the same pH as the citric acid solution. I’m not ready to go in for a pH meter. Are there any good brands of strips out there?
This looks wonderful! Would you mind sharing what you use to film these videos? Is it your phone on a tripod? And which program are you using to speed it up at certain points? Thanks Marie! Xoxo
I’ve detailed all of that here 🙂 Definitely not my phone, haha!
Thank you sweets!!xo
I am allergic to most preservatives. Any ideas what I could use instead of water? Do the other ingredients require a Preservative?
If you remove all the ingredients that require preservation from this formulation you’ll end up with a sort of gritty paste :/ That’s anything that contains water would require preserving, so the witch hazel and rose hydrosol would also be out, leaving you with a bunch of powders with nothing to dissolve in 🙁 I suggest looking at totally anhydrous formulations, like this one. Happy making!
This sounds truly lovely Marie!
I’ve been adding a bit of water soluble shea to my toners, especially in winter, for that hydration boost. My skin loves it and it’s non-comedogenic, which is even better. Have you tried this ingredient yet? I have to compile a list…….
OOoh, so cool! I definitely haven’t tried it, it sounds very much like one of those only-in-the-USA ingredients. Le sigh 😛
I’m going to try that in my next batch. I happen to have a small bottle of it.
Hi Marie!!
I have read that, in order to be effective, the product in which the niacinamide is included needs to have a final pH of 6. Being this a toner in the range of 5.5, will this difference affect its properties? I am not a chemist, so maybe a variation of 0.5 is not that much?
On the other hand, yesterday I was looking for a nice toner in your page after I read about the wonders of Korean essences. What a coincidence that you just post this recipe!
Thank you very much for all your hard work!
The ranges I’ve seen are a bit broader than a single pH point; a well known and popular niacinamide serum I’ve tried is 5.5–6.5, and other ranges I’ve read go as low as 3 or 4! While a variation of pH0.5 can be big depending on the situation, from my reading I don’t think it is here 🙂
Thank you for answering!
Hello
I dont have aloe vera powder.Can i use aloe vera juice (INCI: aloe vera juice 99.9%, Ascorbic Acid, Potasium Sorvate) instead of the powder?
“If you’ve got aloe vera juice instead of the aloe vera concentrate powder, just drop the powder and use the aloe vera juice in place of the water” (Remember to check the list of substitutions at the bottom of the recipe 😉 )
How bizarre that today I just ordered some products that contained hyaluronic acid and niacinamide and I’d never heard of either! Very intriguing and promising, and makes me feel better about my purchase instead of DIYing since time constraints (and lack of ingredients) means I can’t really make much lately that isn’t a balm or something simple :'( I still have major DIY envy though.
Ha! Was the stuff from The Ordinary, by any chance? I hope your skin loves it!
YES! Are you a mind-reader? I bought like 6 things to try because it was all soooo cheap and looked so promising. I couldn’t choose. Came to like $45 with tax and shipping–crazy!
They’re huge right now, and knowing your DIY tendencies, I can’t imagine you’d spend big bucks if you didn’t have to!
I’m obviously a little out of the loop only just hearing about them that day! You should have just taken credit for being a mind-reader though 😉
Uh, yes… mind reader. That’s me!
Dude. Seriously. Mind reader! I was just editing a post and trying to come up with a name for it and I decided was going to name it something like “Humbled Skin” or something as it is using my rose hydrosol and just I go to to begin the process of adding pictures I check my mail. Open your post and voila. This is bonkers!
I can tell you that this spray (I left out a couple of ingredients though) is fantastic!!!! I love it in a misting bottle!
Ha! We must be renting a bit of the same brain space somewhere 😛 Glad you’re liking it!
How is it that this phenomenon keeps happening to us?!? I think there are electronic bugs and cameras involved… hahaha!!
Have either of you been able to source n-acetyl glucosamine yet? Combine it with niacinamide and swoon! My skin loves this combo! Add panthenol and allantoin to the mix and double swoon! I’ve never had zits heal quicker or start to come up then go away completely. Plus, my skin feels firmer to the touch. It’s really an amazing combination for your skin.
Aghh, no, of course I have not found this amazing miracle ingredient 🙁 But I did get iridescent glitter, so that’s something! Not skin firming healing boosting awesomeness something, but sparkly something!
Sparkly iridescent glitter is the bomb, I must admit!
I guess I need to add NAG to the list…..
I may have sourced it (NAG) but need further investigation it really sucks when suppliers post pictures of their information rather than type!
My tonic/toner/stuff, two parts on each arm get a little itchy in the summer after a shower. Lotion works well but it is WAY too much for my skin and me arms get all gross, so I began hitting my arms up with the new toners I’ve been playing with. Then I got the bright idea to try using the foot spray I made last month which worked great but the mint was intense! So then I decided that combining the recipes would be awesome! And sure enough it is!
I think it happens because we are that awesome. And because toners are just really really neat! I still am madly in love with with the vinegar toner I’ve spoken about, but after Susan’s blog I decided to give some various ingredients a whirl and I am so glad I did!
Can you imagine mica in an iridescent colour? I need to make those moon drops at some point. With Autumn coming (WOOT WOOT!!!) need some lip stuff!
What a cool concoction! And good heavens yes I can imagine that, I need to place me a TKB order sometime soon and swoon in ALL THE SHINY THINGS!
Oh my, Penny, this new concoction of yours sound intriguing!! A sort of minty-cooling, hydrating, skin-loving summer treat for the skin in a spray! Ooo la la!!
I rearranged some scheduled posting and it will be posted tomorrow! I decided to not use the mint as I have other plans for the mint and the body!
Lotioncrafters has N Acetyl Glucosamine, as well as Niacinamide–and I LOVE that combo also!
Windy Point has NAG now, too! I finally have some and it’s already been incorporated into a few experiments 😀
Hi Penny. What’s your Blog? I’d love to follow.
https://scrubmedownsoap.wordpress.com/ 🙂
Thank you Marie! I’m slowly getting back on my feet! It’s been a wild ride the past month or so!
Lucky you! Can’t wait to read about it after following along on IG 🙂
I’m going to make this tomorrow using everything except the sodium lactate. Because I don’t have it and I’m living in an atmospheric swamp here. Really Marie, you’d be jealous. Outside, my face is a water slide. Sunglasses and make up slide off my wet shiny watery face.
So it’s ok to leave that out and use the same amount of citric acid as you? I don’t have ph strips but something tells me gonna make me buy them.
And you’re RIGHT about niacinamide! My goodness my face is responding! Pores? They’re going bye bye. And did you notice I said my face was a water slide, not oil slick? Did ya? I’m stocking up on this miracle powder so I’m never without it.
So jealous! I’m layering up t. he toners and hydrating serums and mists and slathering on occlusive layers at night and still find some odd dry patches. SKIN. SIGH.
I’m afraid I haven’t tried this with and without the sodium lactate to test the pH. The pH of sodium lactate is supposedly 7.8 to 8.3, meaning the solution might be a bit more acidic without it, but at the low usage rate it’s probably not a huge difference.
Niacinamide needs a fan club! I’m not sure how I’ve managed to do this for so long and only heard about it 6 months ago, but I’m glad I finally did!
I totally believe you’d love to live in a sauna. Watery skin and fluffy uncontrollable hair and all!
So I’ll use a touch more glycerin? Or do I need to buy ph strips and learn how to use them? I know your answer.
My hair doesn’t do anything in humidity—Australia, Amsterdam, south of France, New York, Fiji, Toronto, Montreal—none of those places did a thing to my hair haha. I don’t know where I’d have to go to encounter this voluminous hair people speak of in humidity lol.
I wouldn’t recommend more glycerin because that gets sticky, so I’d just replace the sodium lactate with more distilled water. But yeah… pH strips 😉
Hi Marie! Do you have any recommendations on adding kelp powder to toners? I’m trying to find the right proportion to add it to hydrosol or distilled water base and not coming up with much information. Any help will be appreciated! Love your blog!
Kelp powder is going to be incredibly difficult to preserve—I wouldn’t recommend adding it to anything that contains this much water without some pro-grade cosmetic chemistry knowledge of preservation systems and bacterial testing. I’d recommend looking at something like sea kelp bioferment instead, which is designed to be included safely in cosmetic concoctions 🙂 You can save the kelp powder for anhydrous or single use projects like this, or soap!
Marie – What’s the best way to use a toner? Is it sprayed on or wiped on with cotton? After cleansing and before moisturizing?
I wipe this one on with a piece of soaked cotton, usually as the first step after washing, and then followed up with any actives and what not before moisturizing 🙂
hi marie!
This toner looks so nice and simple. But I can’t fine witch hazel in my country, can I use something else to replace it?
More water, but that’s not really going to do the same thing, it’s just going to keep the recipe in balance. You need something lightly astringent to replace the function of the witch hazel.
Hi Marie, what is the smallest amount (percentage wise) that you would use the witch hazel for it to still be effective as an astringent?
I typically use it around 20–30%, but I’d recommend you do your own experiments to see what you personally find to be astringent enough for your skin and your purposes 🙂
Hey Marie ~ I am a big fan of your work and have successfully made many, many skin care products. I made this recipe but substituted Polysorbate 20 for the Olivem 300. The result was not what I wanted – a liquid that left a rather sticky, tacky film on my skin. Do you think this substitution was the problem?
Yup! That is why I specifically recommend not doing that in the recipe 🙂
Hey Marie! Where do you get your silicone coasters from? Thanks!
I found this one solo in the clearance section of a local kitchen store, but it looks to be more or less the same as these ones, minus the colour.
This is exactly what I was looking for! I’ve just run out of my moisture spray and I’ve been thinking for months about recreating it. This checks all the boxes except the urea. I may look into incorporating that in future, but for now I’ll try the recipe as-is. Thank you!!!!!
Hooray! Also, I am definitely falling in love with urea all over again at this moment—that stuff is amazeballs 😀
What kind of ph strips do you use? I’m used to testing the ph of my aquarium with a little water sample, and all the ph strips on amazon are marketed for testing one’s pee, so I’m a little confused.
I got mine frome Voyageuer. The most important thing is to make sure it does a good range (1–14); some are narrower 🙂
Thank you!
When I have a moment, I’ll sit down and compare those with the pee ones on Amazon. How different can they really be?
Probably not at all, except for perhaps the range. pH is pH, pee or toner 😛
I finally had a chance to make this last night, so I’ve only used it once so far, but my skin woke up feeling smooth and and soft and pretty clear, so this is tentatively an A++ new product.
It did feel pretty tacky, which I’m not a big fan of, but I put a moisturizing face cream over it (your green tea recipe, if I recall correctly), and the tacky feeling went away.
I also went ahead and buffered it by your measurements, rather than by ph testing; I’m going to see if I can find ph strips locally. I did try using my fish tank testing kit, but its scale only went down to 6.5, so it’s not useful for this purpose.
Yay! I am finding tackiness seems to be stalking me these days, but somewhat intermittently lol. Sometimes a thing that wasn’t tacky suddenly is, or vice versa, which makes me wonder if I am losing it (or intermittently very unobservant LOL). I’m glad you like it despite that downfall, though!
Marie, with this having niacinamide in it already, would it be too much to apply a serum or moisturizer that also has niacinamide in it? Or will that just cause flushing? Thank you! I love all your posts and recipes. You ma’am, are a genius! Keep up the awesome work!
That’s really going to depend on your skin, but I have used this with a 10% niacinamide serum with no issues 🙂 I’ve never experience niacinamide flushing and I think I use quite a lot of it, but perhaps I’m just lucky? Thanks for reading and happy making!
I have a question about the citric acid solution. I have ascorbyl palmitate vitamin c ester, is this what i should use? Thanks
Nope, you need citric acid to make a citric acid solution 🙂
Hi Marie, Thank you for posting this fabulous recipe! I was wondering, if I omit the Olive Ester and the Hydrolyzed Silk, do I need to replace with something else (like more water) to make up to 100%? Sorry, I’m new to all this! I basically just want a toner for my skin to feel clean and hydrated (not necessarily moisturised). Thank you kindly,
Tracy
Yes! You’re totally right 🙂 Replacing with more water is definitely the easiest way to go 🙂
Hi Marie!
I really like to get inspiration from your recipes and discover new ingredients. For my ordinary cosmetics I usually like to keep things as simple as possible – according to the motto as few ingredients as possible, as many as necessary.
For my daily “minimalist” facial toner I reduced and combined some of your toner recipes to:
– 50 g distilled water
– 1 g apple cider vinegar (to bring the pH to ~5)
– 2 g silk peptides (for hydration)
– 1 g vitamin E oil (as an anti-aging ingredient)
– 5 drops lavender essential oil (as I intend to use the toner in the evening)
I feel like I also need to add a preservative, I guess you’d recommend 0.25 g Liquid Germall Plus. However, I live in Switzerland and find it very hard to get a broad spectrum preservative. Do you happen to know any broad spectrum preservative or store shipping to Switzerland?
Second, I was wondering if I need an emulsifier for this small amount of oil or if it is sufficient to just shake the bottle before using the toner.
Thanks for your advice on this and keep up the great work! I especially love how you manage to make your videos both entertaining and informative at the same time! And even more that your explanations are based on science and that you even mention studies/sources – there are too many bloggers out there that make unfunded claims and repeat things parrot-fashion.
Hey! I would definitely add some sort of emulsifier for that vitamin E oil; you could probably use something like olivem300 or water soluble shea butter so you can get some skin softening as well 🙂 Polysorbates can be sticky in leave-on products, so you might want to try smaller batches if you want to experiment with that.
I’m afraid my knowledge of the inventories of all the DIY suppliers on the globe is not all that comprehensive 😛 I have a big list of places to shop here, and you can learn more about preservatives here, so perhaps you can find some preservatives that you can get, and then cross reference them to see if they’re any good? Happy making and thanks for reading!
Have you ever used hyaluronic acid powder to make our own serum or as an ingredient in a recipe like this one or one of your facial mists?
The only thing I put on my face everyday is a cheapie brand HA solution, I call it my face liquid. I think it would be lovely to punch it up a bit and make my own using powdered hyaluronic acid, aloe juice, and a nice light hydrosol like cucumber or chamomile, maybe a dab of squalane…
I have been playing with it and I’ve made a few things, but I haven’t shared any recipes yet. Stay tuned!
I’ve made a Rose Hydrosol Toner similar to Marie’s and added a bit of HA (I didn’t want it to be too thick) along with Aloe Juice/ Niacinamide/NAG/Panthenol/and alcohol free rose scented Witch Hazel–and the little bit of HA brought it to a whole new level. Love it.
Swoon!
Hi Marie!
This feels amazing on my skin! The only problem is that the Olivem hasn’t really emulsified into the product. It stays melted in the waterbath, but as soon as I take the measuring cup off the stove, the Olivem solidifies. Is this normal?
Olivem300 is liquid, so it won’t solidify unless you freeze it. Are you using Olivem1000?
Marie, could I add some Honeyquat to this? Just to up the conditioning a bit?
Definitely! I’d probably keep it ~0.5% for the smell, though 😛
Hey Marie,
Firstly I want to say, I’m a huge fan of yours. I think you are incredibly talented and very kind to give away your knowledge for free.
Can you point me to a recipe that would be suitable for extremely dry AND dehydrated skin? Or maybe two recipes, one to address the dehydration, and the other for a product that can lock in hydration? After having babies, something has happened to my skin where not only does it not produce enough sebum but it also does not hold in any moisture at all. My face is parched. It’s literally wrinkly, dull, darkened, patchy, rough like sandpaper, I could moan on but the babies will be awake soon. Also, the same babies have been preventing me from making my own products for a while now. But now that winter is upon us, I find myself in an emergency situation. My skin is starving. I worry it won’t be able to be rescued if I don’t take action soon. I’ve looked for a good natural hydrating and nourishing product, they are all too small and too expensive. Even if I buy one, it won’t help much because I’ll be sure to go through it like no tomorrow and I wouldn’t be able to keep repurchasing.
SOS.
Thank you so so so much in advance. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Hey! I’d look to something like this, and then perhaps top it off with a very thin layer of something super occlusive (like vaseline—it’s incredibly occlusive and has saved my super dry skin on many occasions. Nothing “natural” comes close to that level of occlusion!) before bed. If you want to purchase something, I’d recommend The Ordinary—they’re a Canadian brand that is incredibly reasonably priced. Their Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 followed with some Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA would work wonders and would barely total $15 for what would likely be at least a 2 month supply 🙂
Marie, do you think it would work to add this ceramide PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides into this mix at 3%? Lotioncrafter says it is water soluble but being a lipid, would the Olivem 300 help with getting it to blend into the mix? I am trying to make a water consistency barrier former and moisture skin repair spray for a dog that has atopic dermatitis and recurrent pyoderma (bacterial overgrowth in part cause by not have a good skin barrier). I want something without all the chemicals that are in the veterinary products that I can buy for her…I would also sub with lavender hydrosol for the rose.
I use PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides in my micellar water as the active cleansing ingredient/surfactant—it will definitely incorporate into water on its own. I’m not sure I would include it in something designed to help with barrier repair, though. In a human I would be including ingredients like panthenol, hyaluronic acid, and hydolyzed proteins. I really can’t speak for dogs, though—they are totally different creatures with very different skin and I don’t know enough to give good advice there.
Pls let me know how to use vitamin B3, Kojic acid, arbutin, & etc in creams and lotions for skin whitening & pigmentation skin
I have an entire FAQ post on this 🙂
Hello Marie;
I made the Hydrating Rose (hydrosol) water toner last night and along with the Green Tea and Roses Facial Cleanser used it this morning and am so pleased! The fragrance of the rose hydrosol lingers after the face has been treated to this gentle toner. Thank you for creating such a soft toner that hydrates the skin:)
I am so thrilled you are enjoying this! Thanks so much for sharing 🙂
What is the expected shelf life for the rose water toner when using germall plus?
Hey! I have a whole FAQ article on exactly this 🙂
Hello Marie 🙂
Just a short question since I couldn’t find an answer here. In your Encyclopedia the INCI of your Witch Hazel just says Hamamelis Virginiana, but I only have the one with alcohol (INCI: Hamamelis Virginiana Water, Aqua, Alcohol).
Would you recommend using that one in your formulations or should I rather use dest. water/ something else instead?
Btw I loved your livestream (even if I didn’t catch it live) I hope you will do more in the future.
Greetings from Germany
Stay healthy
And THANK YOU so much for this awesome website and all the work you put in it!
Hi! I am wondering if you can explain to me why you had to heat some of these ingredients (which was require it). 🙂 Thank you so much! I am new to your site and it is really great!
Hi! I honestly don’t know—I wonder what I was thinking? Hmm. I’ve updated the instructions—thanks for bringing that to my attention!
You bet! 🙂 this is great to know. Thank you for the prompt response. Really appreciate it.
Why are all the recipes on here full of complicated ingredients. I make my own rose water toner, and can find pretty much everything to make it readily available at home. This is time consuming and expensive and I would end up with a lot of things I would never use again.
If this is a genuine question and you’re genuinely wanting an answer, please read this:
Why do you use so many new/fancy/hard-to-get ingredients?
I’d also recommend researching the ingredients I’ve used here so you can understand why I’ve used them (it’s because they are great for the skin, and really take this formulation up several notches from plain rose water). You can do that in the Humblebee & Me DIY Encyclopedia (https://www.humblebeeandme.com/diy-encyclopedia/).
Or perhaps an analogy: have you ever made Indian food at home? Compared to something like scrambled eggs, it’s a lot more complicated. There are far more ingredients and far more steps. You will almost certainly need a food processor or blender, which you wouldn’t need for scrambled eggs. If you don’t want Indian food and are perfectly happy with scrambled eggs, that’s fine. But if you want the flavour experience of Indian food, you can’t do that with just the ingredients and equipment for scrambled eggs. Some people choose to purchase all the Indian food they eat to avoid the effort and expense of acquiring garam masala and cardamom pods, while others invest and make it at home. I’m the type of person who buys the cardamom pods and the panthenol—perhaps you are the type who prefers scrambled eggs at home and take-out when they want a curry 🙂 Both are fine!
Hello,
If I am making this recipe in a 6oz container, how would you recommend changing up the calculations?
Please get back to me when you can!
I’ve covered this thoroughly here 🙂
Hi, I have almost everything to try this toner, it seem luxury feel..However, I dont have olivem 300 but I have 1000 olivem. would you recommend how much to use in this recipe?
Thank you!
Please look up both of those ingredients in the Humblebee & Me DIY Encyclopedia (https://www.humblebeeandme.com/diy-encyclopedia/) 🙂 You can never use one instead of the other + the encyclopedia will explain why. Happy making!
Hi Marie! This is may be stupid question but we are new at this…We have a 3.4oz container, if we just double the recipe would that work?
Thanks! Heather & Casey
Generally yes, but I would also recommend reading this post + watching the partner video 🙂
Thank you!!
Just wondering why you use sodium lactate? Im also interested in a pink lemonade toner its a fragrance oil would like that to add?
Hello, is the witch hazel in the recipe supposed to be witch hazel hydrosol?
That is another name for it, yes 🙂 You can learn more here. Happy making!
Hi Marie, absolutely LOVE this formulation.
Though I was wondering if the Witch hazel could possibly be substituted for more distilled water? Or would you recommend something else?
I just personally don’t care for the astringent properties that you get from the ingredient, even if I were to use one without the added alcohol. I read through all the comments and the encyclopedia, but couldn’t find anything in regards to omitting the ingredient completely when it comes to this recipe.
Thank you in advance!
Yup, feel free to use more distilled water instead. Happy making!