To Tone or Not to Tone. The Most Controversial Skincare Step

Frances swears by it. Derms say skip it. Who's right.

My mother Frances is 67 and looks 40, which I have written about and will continue to write about until someone explains it to me scientifically. She has a skincare routine she has not meaningfully deviated from in approximately three decades, and at the center of that routine, amongst her cleanser, moisturizer and serums is a toner. She used to apply them with Clé de Peau cotton pads, but now she only uses toner pads, the K-Beauty variety. Regardless, she believes in them deeply, while most dermatologists say they're useless. The short answer: toner is optional — modern gentle cleansers don't disrupt your skin's pH the way the harsh formulas of Frances's era did — but hydrating, exfoliating and essence-style toners each do real, distinct work.

My dear mother believes toner brings her pH back down after cleansing, refreshes her face and prepares her skin to receive whatever comes next. She is not wrong, exactly. She is also not entirely right, which is a dynamic that has defined our relationship since approximately ‘92.

Doctors say toner is, by and large, unnecessary. The modern gentle cleanser does not significantly disrupt your skin’s pH the way the harsh cleansers of Frances’s OG era did. If you’re cleansing correctly, you do not need a toner to correct anything. Most toners, in the words of more than one board-certified dermatologist I have read, are expensive water with marketing. (But we like expensive things, so…) Some aestheticians love them — which may be partly true and may be partly because aestheticians are also trying to sell you products.

And yet, I own four toners — well, four that are in constant rotation, I probably own close to 50 in all of my beauty storage and I too use them religiously.

The truth is somewhere complicated: some toners do genuinely useful things. Hydrating toners add a layer of moisture before your serum and moisturizer. Exfoliating toners with AHAs and BHAs do real chemical work on the surface of the skin. Essence-style toners — particularly the Korean ones — are a different category entirely and deserve to be taken seriously. Toner pads are convenient and often genuinely effective.

None of them are essential. Some of them are excellent. Frances will use hers regardless of what any of us say, and her skin will continue to look remarkable, which is probably the best argument for the category. Again, this woman does not look like she’s nearing 70 in the slightest.

So, if you too want to use these gems that Frances and I subscribe to and say “to hell with the real experts,” here are my top picks.

HYDRATING TONERS

For when your skin is thirsty and you want to do something about it before your serum.

The hydrating toner’s actual job is to add a layer of humectants — ingredients that attract and bind water to the skin — after cleansing and before everything else. The best ones use multiple molecular weights of hyaluronic acid so the hydration reaches different depths of the skin rather than just sitting on the surface. If your skin is dry, tight or dull after cleansing, this is the category you want.

Dive-In Toner, Torriden · Vita Peptide Toner, Environ · Hydrating Toner, CeraVe

EXFOLIATING TONERS

For when you want your toner to actually do something. Naturally, these are my personal favorite.

This is the category Frances’s generation didn’t have, and it is the one that actually earns its keep. An exfoliating toner uses chemical exfoliants — AHAs such as lactic and glycolic acid for surface smoothing and brightness, BHAs like salicylic acid for pore clearing — to accelerate cell turnover after cleansing. The results are visible: smoother texture, clearer skin, better product absorption. The caveat: don’t use on the same night as your retinoid until your skin is well-acclimated, and always, always wear sunscreen the next morning.

The P50 family from Biologique Recherche is the category godmother — the one that started the conversation and still wins it most of the time. P50 PIGM 400 is the brightening version, specifically formulated for hyperpigmentation since the OG one is now banned in every country, including the U.S.

Vita Bubble First Essence, ClearDea ·Purity Exfoliating Toner, COSMEDIX · Resurfacing Tonic, Eighth Day Skin

ESSENCES & SNAIL MUCIN

The category that changed how the rest of the world thinks about skincare. Frances loves these, I do not, but only because I have acne-prone skin.

The essence is a Korean skincare invention and it remains, two decades into its mainstream adoption, genuinely misunderstood in the West. It is not a serum. It is not a toner. It is a lightweight, often fermented, deeply hydrating step that sits between the two and does something neither quite does alone: it boosts cellular renewal, improves absorption of everything that follows and adds a layer of hydration that reads differently on the skin than standard humectants. You apply it by pressing it into the skin with your palms, not wiping with a cotton pad. Pour some in your hands, and pat, lightly and then firmly, into your skin.

Snail mucin is the most famous ingredient in this category and also the one that sounds most alarming and delivers most reliably. It contains glycoproteins, hyaluronic acid and glycolic acid, which together repair, hydrate and smooth the skin in a way that nothing else quite replicates. COSRX’s 96 Mucin Power Essence is the entry point and also, for many people, the destination. (Except for me, this magical thing that everyone loves works for everyone except for me.)

Moisture Source Brightening Essence, Sarah Creal · Hyalogy P-Effect Refining Lotion, Forlle'd· · Mugwort Essence, I’m From · Rebirth Amniotic Toner, Mutha

TONER PADS

For when you want the benefits without the bottle.

Toner pads are the most convenient format in the category, which is either their greatest virtue or a sign you’re paying for packaging. A good toner pad is pre-soaked in a useful formula — exfoliating, hydrating or both — so you swipe once and move on. They’re excellent for travel, for mornings when the routine needs to be fast and for anyone who finds the toner-on-cotton-pad ritual more appealing than pouring liquid into their hands.

The range here goes from drugstore to genuinely luxurious. Retrouvé Skin Brilliance Priming Pads are in the latter category and they justify the price. The Medicube PDRN Pink Collagen ones are in the former and they’re worth knowing about.

Dark Spots & Wrinkles Toner Pads, Jiyu · Collagen Gel Toner Pads, Biodance · No.5 Glutathione Vitamin Concentrated Toner Pads, Numbuzin · Daily Repair Pads, Vivant

Frances uses her toner every morning and every evening without fail, and she looks 40 at 67. I use mine most mornings and some evenings and I look my age. Again, make of that what you will.

The honest conclusion: if you enjoy toner and it makes your skin feel better, use it. If you’re looking for permission to skip it, you have it. If you want to actually do something useful with a toner rather than just adding a step, buy an exfoliating one and use it three nights a week until you can stand it every morning and night WITH your Tretinoin (aka retinoid, retinol, et. al.) and Vitamin C. That’s the system.

— Sade 🖤