Facial toners redundant?

Recently I've read an article in which facial toners were called a redundant step in the cleansing routine. They would not serve any purpose anymore and would be “old-fashioned". I disagree, and will explain why.

Particularly when you prefer wet facial cleansing (water has a pH of 7-8), your skin’s pH goes up and you may consider using a toner to bring it back to normal (~5) before using a moisturizer or serum. This also applies if you use an alkaline cleanser or micellar water. It is common that products which are suitable to be used around the eyes, like micellar water, are adapted to a more “eye-friendly” and less “skin friendly” pH of ~7. Skin prefers a pH of ~5.

A review on pH and cleansing summarizes that skin surface pH increases after a single washing procedure, even when the skin is only rinsed with water, and that recovery back to baseline can take several hours. (1) Contact with European tap water (typical pH around 8) increases skin pH for up to about 6 hours before it returns to its natural value around 4.7–5. (2)  However, with water alone this pH shift is usually modest (on the order of a few tenths of a pH unit, e.g., roughly 0.2–1.0), but still statistically significant in controlled measurements. (2)
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In my humble opinion, toners are a value adding step in every a.m. and p.m. skin care regimen for both healthy and particularly problematic skin  types, where microbiome (microflora or "ecosystem") and skin barrier impairment play a role. They refresh, remove left-over debris and make-up and instantly rebalance skin’s pH value. A balanced pH value is the cornerstone for healthy skin. Toners support skin microbiome and barrier function. Furthermore, the use of a toner usually helps the penetration and thus efficacy of the care product applied directly afterwards and as toner is a "leave-on" product, skin can benefit from all the other actives in a toner formula.  


Hope you enjoy healthy skin & take care.

1. Blaak J, Staib P. The Relation of pH and Skin Cleansing. Curr Probl Dermatol. 2018;54:132-142. doi: 10.1159/000489527. Epub 2018 Aug 21. PMID: 30130782.
2. Lambers H, Piessens S, Bloem A, Pronk H, Finkel P. Natural skin surface pH is on average below 5, which is beneficial for its resident flora. Int J Cosmet Sci. 2006 Oct;28(5):359-70. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-2494.2006.00344.x. PMID: 18489300.

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