Skin Toner Vs Face Serum: What’s the difference?
Whether you like to follow easy, three-step skin care routine or the highly evolved, ten-step, glass skin regime, it is good to know the difference between products that you use during your daily skin care routine. For most of us, steps include cleanser, serum and moisturizer – some tend to add a toner to this or take away the serum and just use a toner after cleansing and before moisturizing. Let’s find out by comparing toner vs serum, the correct order to apply them, and how to best use them in your skincare routine.
Here Are Few Differences Between Skin Toner & Face Serum:
- Toner regulates skin pH, while serums address specific skin issues like dry patches or fine lines.
- Serums are highly concentrated active ingredients, toners are exfoliants with skin-balancing properties.
- Toners are sold in larger bottles, while serums are available in small bottles.
So, are you asking yourself if you should use a serum vs toner or both? How would these effect your skin? Or whether your skin needs these products even? Take a step back. Your skin care routine need not be very complicated, all you need to do is to understand what a serum or a toner does and how they help maintain your skin health. This will help you decide if you should add a serum, or a toner or both to your skincare routine.
What are skin toners?
Skin toners or facial toners are liquid products that are used after cleansing your face and before applying any kind of moisturizer. Facial toners have astringent properties that help to balance skin pH and excess sebum production. Traditionally, toners were used to restore skin’s pH. Earlier, toners were used mostly by people with oily or greasy skin to wipe away excess sebum. Toners, those days, were alcohol based, and was used to absorb excess oil on skin, which could dry out your skin.
Over the years, this has changed and now skin toners come in different variants for different skin types and skin issues. The modern version of toners purify skin by wiping away makeup residue and other impurities. It also tones the pores and removes excess sebum from the skin without drying it out. In fact, many variants of toners are available in the market – these are often infused with active ingredients like vitamins, AHA or BHA and essential oils that help manage different skin issues. The current clutch of skin toners have ingredients like coconut water, cucumber water, rose water, green tea, witch hazel, tea tree, vitamin C etc.
Benefits of Using Toners
Many might dismiss the idea of toning skin before moisturizing, but there are quite a few benefits of using skin toners. Add toning to your skin care routine if you are looking for the following benefits:
- Clear skin: Regular use of skin toner helps to improve skin texture and appearance.
- Balance oily skin: A toner helps to control excess sebum production and clarify pores which in turn controls acne breakout.
- Hydrate skin: Non-astringent toners add hydration to the skin giving it a soft moisturized feel.
- Fight signs of skin damage: It also restores UV-damaged skin and reduces dark spots and blemishes.
- Soothe irritated skin: A gentle toner can be used to calm redness and inflamed skin. It helps to give skin a soft and supple feel.
Why You Should Add Toners To Your Skin Care
Skin toners are one of the easiest products to add to your skin care routine. You can add the toning step or avoid this depending on your skin’s specific requirement of the moment. However, if you are prone to greasy skin or use a lot of makeup products then using a skin toner is beneficial for your skin.
Clean skin starts with a thorough cleanse and a quality toner. Choose an oil-fighting and pore cleansing toner with oil-fighting and pore cleansing ingredients, as not all toners are equal.
It helps to clear out residual impurities form your skin and get it ready for better moisturization. Also, you can use a toner in the skin care routine that you do before applying makeup, since toning your skin gives it a more firm, smooth look.
All About Face Serum
Face serum is a skin care product to boost your skin’s hydration levels and delivers benefits of natural actives. Serum is a lightweight moisturiser that is loaded with higher concentration of skin-replenishing active ingredients. A serum is effective in taking care of major skin issues because it has smaller molecules that can penetrate the epidermis or the upper layer of the skin very easily. It delivers the goodness of the key ingredients to the skin more effectively. Serum works better in dealing with skin problems because the actives in the face serum get absorbed easily into the deeper layers of the skin. It is perfect for delivering treatment products to your skin.
The texture of the face serum is lighter and thinner than a moisturizer. It gives your skin a soft, supple, velvety texture. Since it is lightweight, the product can be layered upon without making the skin feel weighed down. Serums can come is different formulas and consistency depending on the actives in the product – so it can be a gel, water-based or lightly creamy.
Benefits Of Using A Face Serum
When you want to deliver potent actives directly in your skin, face serum should be your choice of skin care. Since they are highly potent, serums are more effective in improving skin condition. Use a face serum before you moisturize your skin if you want the following benefits:
- Manage more than one skin issue: It is ideal for use when you have more than one skin goal to achieve – say skin brightening along with reducing excess sebum.
- Want faster visible result: When you want to manage specific skin issue and see faster visible results, using a serum before applying a moisturiser works best. It helps to deliver the actives deeper into the skin supporting in repair and rejuvenation of the skin.
- Treat specific skin condition: A serum can help to target specific skin concerns like uneven complexion, fine lines, dryness, acne and skin aging.
- Deliver potent active ingredients: If you want your skin to get the benefits of skin-healing actives like vitamins C and E, retinol, hyaluronic acid, lactic acid etc more effectively, then using a serum twice a day will do the job better than a regular moisturizer.
Why Should You Add Face Serum To Your Skin Care
Ideally you should include a serum in your skin care routine as you cross your 25th year. It helps fight signs of skin aging and helps keep the skin supple and youthful.
Serums are available to treat various skin concerns, including firming and hydrating ones, with ingredients like hyaluronic acid, and are formulated with various ingredients.
Use it once a day to begin with before applying your moisturiser. In fact, applying a face serum helps you in dealing with the most pressing skin issue. It could be fine lines, pigmentation, or dullness.
Skin Toner Or Serum?
The decision to use toner vs serum or both depends on what you are looking for in terms of skin care. If you have time to spare in your skin care routine, especially at nighttime, then it is a good idea to use a toner after cleansing your face and then apply the serum to deal with any skin issue that you may have. Always finish of the skincare steps with a moisturiser on top to hydrate, nourish and protect your skin.