My Easy 2 Step DIY Hydrosol Toner

So I talked a lot about toners in my recent post how to make a homemade toner. So I thought I’d put some of the information I wrote in that post into practice and whip up a super easy, 2 step diy hydrosol toner for you to try your hand at.

This recipe is the super easy, hydrosol only toner that I discussed in Toners 101. While you could just make use of a single hydrosol right out of the bottle, by combining two complementary hydrosols you can get a double action toner without much effort at all. But I’ve also included some blends for you to try or use as inspiration.

What About Essential Oils?

But what about taking it to the next level? Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. While hydrosols are great on their own, adding essential oils can really make a toner that much more useful and beneficial for your skin. But there are some considerations we’ll need to take, as oil and water do not ordinarily mix.

A Stepping Stone To New Heights

If you haven’t made a toner before, this is absolutely a great place to start. Starting simply allows you to build your knowledge so that when you attempt more difficult tutorials, you’re only learning 1 or 2 new things, rather than being overwhelmed with lots of different techniques or ingredients you’ve never tried before.

But If you’ve made hydrosol toners before, maybe take a look at my Clear Skin Toner, which incorporates many of the different techniques we’ll be looking at in today’s DIY.

Ingredients For My DIY Hydrosol Toner

•  
• 40g Grapefruit Hydrosol
• 40g Lemon Hydrosol
• 20g Bergamot Hydrosol

This toner should produce about 100g, which is a good amount of a toner you plan to use twice daily, morning and night.

How To Make DIY Hydrosol Toner

This method is super, super easy and doesn’t require much effort at all. In fact, it literally has 2 steps!

Step 1: Simply weigh out your hydrosols into a single beaker. You can do this accurately by using a jewelry scale and resetting it after you add each hydrosol by pressing the T button.

Step 2: Pour your blended hydrosols into your chosen bottle. I like to use a glass bottle with a spray top, that way you can use it as a mister during the day as a little pick me up.

And… That’s it! In two steps you have a great toner that’ll clear the grime, dirt and makeup that gets left behind in your pores by your daily cleanser. I told you it was easy!

Great Hydrosols Blends To Try

Hydrosols are the active ingredient we’re using here, and if you’ve ever typed ‘hydrosol’ into google you know there are many, many to choose from.

As they all have their own, unique fragrances and active benefits for our skin, it can be a little daunting when it comes to making a good blend. But I’ve collected some of my favorites for you to try or get inspiration for your own blends.

Lavender & Chamomile – Great to use after a day in the sun or on skin that feels a little irritated.

Witch Hazel & Rose – Exceptionally healing, great for problem skin.

Geranium, Rose & Lavender – Perhaps the best hydrosol blend for mature skin.

Lemon balm & Perppermint – Wonderful for tightening up sagging skin.

Peppermint & Lavender – Cools and soothes the skin.

Neroli & Rose – Another great blend for mature skin types.

While these are tried and tested blends that I enjoy, you might want to come up with your own as well. But before you do, here’s a little advice that I always recommend when choosing hydrosols to blend together.

It’s important to keep in mind that hydrosols can have quite a strong fragrance. Although they aren’t as potent as essential oils, they have a smell nonetheless and we still want our toner to smell great. So, be mindful of how different aromas smell together.

Try mixing small quantities of hydrosol together before committing to a blend. This way, you can get a better understanding of how your finished product will smell.

Essential Oils: To Solubilize Or Not To Solubilize

So, you wanna take it to the next level? That’s great! I did too. The best way to do this is to incorporate an essential oil or absolute. These oils have amazing properties and the power to sink deep into the skin.

Ordinary oils and hydrosols will only go as far as the first few layers, and so essential oils are helpful for imparting antioxidants, anti-free radicals, hydration and many other benefits to areas of the skin that other ingredients just cannot reach.

However, there is one big problem we have to overcome when adding essential oils to our hydrosol toners, and that’s their inability to mix.

If you paid attention in science class while at school, you’ll know that oil and water will never mix on their own. This a problem here is that our essential oils are oil and our hydrosols are basically water, meaning they can’t mix on their own.

While you don’t have to do anything fancy to make this work for you, as you can just shake (or advise your customers/giftees to shake) the product thoroughly before use. However, its definitely important to do this, as If you don’t you risk getting undiluted essential oil on your skin which can lead to a whole host of different problems.

While I have made toners that require shaking in the past, nowadays I much prefer to make an essential oil and hydrosol toner is homogenous, meaning that oil is fully suspended within the water and there is no need to shake the product before use.

But how do we do this? By using a solubilizer, of course! Solubolizers, without getting into too much unnecessary chemistry, is an ingredient we can use to make our toners homogenous. But how do we use them? Let me take you through the process.

Take a look at the picture above. The toner on the right has no solubilizer, and you would need to shake it before you use it. The toner on the left, however, has been solubilized and doesn’t require shaking.

How To Use a Solubilizer

First off, follow the first step in the recipe above. This would be combining the hydrosols in a single beaker. But before we can add it to our chosen bottle, we need to prepare and add the solubilizer and essential oils. Let’s do that now.

For this recipe, you will need:

• At least 1 Essential Oil
• A solubilizer, such as Symbiosolv or Polysorbate 80

How much essential oil and how much solubilizer you’ll need will depend on the total weight of your toner. You want your essential oils to be no more than 2% in your toner formula. For the solubilizer, follow manufacturer guidelines, however, many will quote a ratio to use with your essential oils. I have usually found solubilizers require a ratio of 1 part essential oil to 4 parts solubilizer, although I have seen some as high as 1:8.

Step 1: In order to add the essential oils, we first need to weigh them into a beaker in the same manner as we did with the hydrosols in the previous recipe.

Step 2: Now, add the solubilizer to the essential oils. Be sure to be careful, as solubilizers tend to be quite thick and sticky. Once added, give it a good mix.

Step 3: Using a spoon, add as much of the essential oil/solubilizer mixture into your hydrosols. Because this mixture tends to be a little sticky, if you have a lot left in your beaker you can add some of the hydrosol, mix thoroughly and then pour this back into the main beaker.

This should get any last drops of essential oil. I do this because I hate wasting ingredients. This is especially necessary for essential oils and absolutes, which can be quite expensive! Be sure to give the mixture a good whisk, as well.

Now, continue as normal. You should have a great, powerful, high-performance toner that doesn’t require shaking before every use!