How to Make Homemade Face Toner for Oily Skin

Toner is an important step in every skincare routine for all skin types, including oily skin. When looking through the skincare aisle, you may glance at the ingredients label and wonder if you could make a toner at home. I formulated an easy homemade face toner for oily skin recipe with all-natural ingredients that you can make.

Each ingredient is specifically selected to help tone and hydrate oily skin types. When creating a toner for oily skin, you want to focus on ingredients that will not irritate the skin or strip it of its natural oils. 

Frequently Asked Questions on Toner for Oily Skin

Before we dive into the recipe for homemade face toner for oily skin, we need to answer a few frequently asked questions. These questions will help you understand how toner helps oily skin and how to use it in your skincare routine.

Are Toners Good for Oily Skin?

Yes, toners are good for oily skin. When making or purchasing face toner for oily skin, you should focus on the ingredients. The ingredients in a toner for oily skin should not strip and irritate the skin but should soothe and hydrate the skin. 

Some toners designed for oily skin will strip the skin of all its natural oils. If the skin is stripped of all its natural oils, it will start to be irritated and produce more sebum, which will make the skin more oily.

Can I Use Toner Every Day for Oily Skin?

Yes, you can use a toner every day twice a day on oily skin. It is best to use a toner after a cleanser in your AM and PM skincare routine.

The toner is designed to assist the cleanser by removing dirt and grime the cleanser missed and rebalancing the skin’s pH level. 

Can I Use Skin Moisturizer After Toner?

Using a moisturizer after a toner will help hydrate the skin. You can use a moisturizer on all skin types, including oily skin. Some people with oily skin will want to stay away from moisturizers that use comedogenic oils and butter.

Should I Wash My Face After Toner

In a skincare routine, a toner should come after a cleanser. Using a face cleanser after a toner will offset your skin’s pH and reduce the effect the toner has on the skin. 

A face toner is designed to assist as a cleanser and remove the dirt and grim it missed while rebalancing the skin’s pH level.

What Step is Toner in Skincare?

A toner is typically used right after using a cleanser in a skincare routine. In a daily skincare routine, it would be the third step after your use of a makeup remover and a face cleanser.

 If you are applying a face mask in your skincare routine, then the toner will sometimes come after a cleanser or face mask, depending on what kind of face makes it is

Can We Make Toner at Home?

Yes, you can make a toner at home. The process of making a homemade toner is not as complicated process like you may think. It only requires a few ingredients and some equipment that you may be able to find.

Ingredients in Toner for Oily Skin

The ingredients in this homemade toner are used because they help oily skin and the different conditions that oily skin may have. Some ingredients in this recipe help alleviate oil from the face, while others help with shrinking pores.

Phase A

There are two ingredients in phase A. These ingredients are glycerin and xanthan gum soft. When you mix glycerin and xanthan gum soft, the xanthan gum will completely dissolve in the glycerin, leaving no chunks behind.

This phase is to help your toner not be so watery. If you do not add the xanthan gum soft to your toner, it will be very watery and hard to apply to the face. When the homemade toner for oily skin contains xanthan gum, it will be more gelled and easier to apply to the skin.

Phase B

In phase B of the recipe for oily skin, we have the rest of the ingredients. Each ingredient in this phase contains specific benefits for oily skin. These benefits are focused on making the skin feel less oily or reducing the size of pores.

Witch Hazel

When purchasing your witch hazel, you will want to find one that is alcohol-free. If your witch hazel contains alcohol, it will irritate the skin more, making it red and producing more sebum. 

You are also able to use a witch hazel hydrosol.

Witch hazel reduces excess oil and decreases redness and inflammation. It also assists in reducing acne, eczema, psoriasis, and rosacea.

Distilled Water

An ingredient we add to our toner for oily skin to reduce cost is distilled water. Distilled water has no added benefits for the skin, but it makes skincare products less costly.

When using water in a skincare product, you want to use distilled water because it does not contain bacteria like tap water.

Aloe Vera Liquid

A hydrating ingredient in our toner for oily skin recipe is aloe vera liquid. Aloe vera helps balance natural oils while hydrating the dry areas of the skin.

Another benefit of aloe vera is it is full of polyphenols. These polyphenols act as antioxidants by guarding the skin against environmental stressors.

Chamomile Extract

Chamomile is an ingredient that will soothe the skin. Adding an ingredient that helps soothe the skin is perfect for oily skin types because of the different skin conditions it can develop. 

Chamomile also has anti-aging benefits.

Strawberry Extract

An extract that helps reduce the appearance of pores is a strawberry extract. This extract is also rich in vitamin C, and polyphenols. It also has a very high antioxidant activity.

Tea Tree Essential Oil

One of the last ingredients that help with oily skin in our toner is tea tree essential oil. This essential oil eases redness and restores smoothness to irritated skin.

Some people do not like to use essential oils in their skincare products because it could potentially irritate the skin more than help the skin. A recommendation is to do a spot test, and if your skin does not like tea tree essential oil in this toner for oily skin, you can not add it to the recipe.

Leucidal SF Max

Finally, we have the preservative for our toner for oily skin. You need a preservative in this toner for oily skin. Without a preservative, it could grow mold and bacteria. 

Leucidal AF Max is a broad-spectrum preservative that will protect your skincare products from yeast, mold, and bacteria.

Substitutions for Ingredients in Toner for Oily Skin

If you would like to make this recipe your own, you may try some substitutions in the recipe. Any substitutions done to the recipe will make the serum contain different benefits, and it may possess a different feel to it as well.

Xanthan Gum Soft Substitution

When substituting an ingredient for xanthan gum soft in a toner, you want this substitution to be a gelling ingredient. One substitution that you can use is hyaluronic acid. 

Hyaluronic acid will make your toner a thicker consistency and add some wonderful hydrating benefits.

Distilled Water and Witch Hazel Substitution

Hydrosols are the best substitutions you can do for distilled water and witch hazel in your toner for oily skin recipes. When adding a hydrosol, make sure that it has benefits for oily skin and that the scent pairs well with witch hazel.

One way to see if the smell of a different hydrosol goes well with witch hazel is to mix a small amount. 

If you choose to substitute witch hazel for a different hydrosol, you can. Some hydrosols that work well with oily skin are:

• Cypress Hydrosol
• Clary Sage Hydrosol
• Chamomile Hydrosol

Chamomile and Strawberry Extract Substitution

You can use most extracts as substitutes for chamomile and strawberry extract. Look for extracts that benefit oily skin. Some of these extracts that you can use are:

• Witch Hazel Extract
• Thanakha Extract

Leucidal SF Max Substitution

Finally, we can look at the different substitutes for the preservative in the recipe for toner for oily skin. 

One preservative that you can use as a substitute is leucidal complete. This preservative works in pH levels between 5.0-9.0. The pH of our face mask falls in between these pH levels, with a preferred pH of 6.0. 

The pH of Homemade Toner for Oily Skin

Understanding the pH of your aloe vera face mask for glowing skin is very important because the pH determines if our preservative and other ingredients will work. There are a few pH picky ingredients in the recipe. 

These ingredients are:

• Chamomile Extract: 3.0-6.0
• Laucidal SF Max: 4.0-11.0
• Aloe Vera Liquid:3.5-6.0

The ideal pH level for our toner for oily skin is around 5.0. When I took the pH of my final product, it was right around the pH range of 5.0, so I did not adjust it. If I did need to adjust it, I would have used citric acid to lower the pH and baking soda to increase it.

There are three different pH meters that you can use to measure the pH of your face toner for oily skin. The most accurate pH meter is the Extech PH110. This will give you an accurate pH level of your skincare products.

Tools You Will Need to Make Toner for Oily Skin

There are a few basic tools you need to make this homemade toner for oily skin recipe. You can find some of these tools around your home.