Mega Skincare Tip
Using a customized toner or peel is one of
the easiest ways to keep your skin looking
great. Consider your toner a daily damage
eraser. By using this powerful beauty tool
everyday, you’ll keep your skin positively
gorgeous.What are the key difference between
toners and peels?It depends on whom you ask, but since
you asked me:Toners are liquid skin correctives
designed for daily use to maintain the
skin’s beauty.Peels, are serious, liquid skin correctives
designed to remove damaged skin.In a nutshell, peels can hurt a little, toners
should not hurt.
How to Custom Design Peels or Toners to Control Acne
Prone Skin
To save myself time, I combine the effectiveness of toners and chemical peels into
one convenient product. Toners tone and tighten the skin while peels typically
remove damaged skin while imparting therapeutic effects like skin brightening.
Key Ingredients in Toner/Peels
1. Liquid base- aloe vera juice, witch hazel and/or alcohol
2. Skin exfoliating acids
3. Therapeutic essential oils
4. Therapeutic extracts
5. Carrier oils to help acids better penetrate the skin
6. Plant distillates and hydrosols to sooth the skin and offer sensual
experience
7. Blending agent, such as polysorbate 20 that allows the water based agents
to mix with oils. (Polysorbates come in different binding levels, the higher
the polysorbate number such as polysorbate 40 or polysorbate 80, the
stronger the bonds in the formula. When using natural products and
especially essential oils, it is preferable to use polysorbate 20 to keep the
therapeutic properties of your oils intact.)
Note: The sample toner/peels will not have preservatives because you can just
store them in your fridge and the essential oils may offer some antimicrobial
protection.
How to Select a Toner/Peel Liquid Base
The primary ingredient in most toners and peels is either witch hazel or denatured
alcohol (ethanol). Denatured alcohol is similar to isopropyl or methyl alcohol that
most drugs stores sell, the only difference is that denatured alcohol has been
chemically altered to make it “undrinkable”.
If you don’t want to use alcohol in your products, just use naturally processed
ingredients that can dissolve in water, rather than products that need mixing with
alcohol to dissolve.
I prefer to use witch hazel as my base for peels simply because it not as drying as
alcohol. But when I want a deep cleansing, I will use a large concentration of
alcohol in my peels.
For sensitive skin types, aloe vera juice, which you can now find in health stores,
serves as an ideal toner base.
How to Properly Blend Toners/Peels
To successfully blend your toner, follow these steps:
1. In one glass bowl, slowly mix the exfoliating acid in with the alcohol then
stir it to help the acids dissolve into the alcohol.
2. Next add the alcohol and acid mixture to the liquid base.
3. Once the liquid base and exfoliating acids are well mixed, slowly add the
plant distillates while still stirring the liquid base.
4. Next, blend the plant extracts in with the liquid base mixture.
5. In another glass bowl, blend the essential oils, carrier oils and polysorbate
together.
6. Now mix both the liquid base solution and oils and polysorbate mixture
together to create you toner.
Key Ingredient Ratios & Percentages for Toners & Peels
1. Ethanol to acidic agent ratio 2:1
When creating your toners and peels, you typically want to keep the ratio of the
ethanol you use to the total acid agent content 2:1. This is because this ratio will
allow you to dissolve the acids with the alcohol.
Water-soluble acids
This ethanol to acid ratio can change however when you are using water-soluble
versions of acids such as ascorbic, malic and tartaric acid. Make sure to view the
product specifications to determine if you acid was processed as “water-soluble”.
2. Polysorbate 20 to essential oils ration 2:1
Likewise, you want to keep the ratio of polysorbate 20 to the total essential oil
content around 2:1 because this permits easy blending of these precious oils into
the overall product.
3. The acid percentage in the complete product
One product is too strong for you; the other product barely shows any changes in
your skin. How is this possible? The acid ratio in your product could have a lot to
do with this. Acid concentrations for products could range from 5-60% of the
products total body weight.
It is typically safe to administer product containing up to 30% acidic ingredients
on yourself. But above this percentage, the product could prove too strong for you
to consistently and calmly apply it to your skin because of all the accompanying
pain and/or burning.
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Daily maintenance acid percentage 5-10%
Daily corrective acid percentages 15-20%
Once weekly corrective acid percentages 20-30%