Toner gets a promotion

Wed, 21 October 2009 1:02PM

I have tips and tricks aplenty when it comes to beauty and I find myself dolling them out whenever someone will listen. Just the other night I was telling my mates over all-you-can-eat mussels that they should live by the Three-Minute Rule. “What’s that?” they asked. My fiancé, who has clearly become a beauty encyclopaedia himself, replied, “After your shower you shouldn’t wait more than three minutes to put on moisturiser. Within that time your pores will still be open and the moisturiser will sink in better.” Gosh, haven’t I taught him well…

Yes there is lots of very useful stuff (and yep, very possibly some fairly superfluous titbits too) swimming around in my head from all the people I’ve had the pleasure of gleaning information from over the years. (Like the skin therapist who told me to think of my face ending at my décolletage – according to her, all face potions and creams need to go all the way to there. Always…)

When I first started in beauty, all of the sage beauty wisdom came as thick and fast as a new bottle of shampoo, but as I’ve built up my beauty tip repertoire, getting that beauty gem thrill has, well, slowed down a bit. Which is why I was chuffed silly when I went to Dermalogica’s HQ in South Melbourne and learnt something new – as in, I’d never known it before and knowing it has totally changed my world.

I was there to learn (or ok, relearn) the proper way to look after our skin. For the lesson in cleansing I gave myself a tick because I’ve been double cleansing for years and try my very best to put in at least a minute of facial massage at the basin. But then we got to toning and WHAM; I was hit with a skincare revelation.

“Toner was once needed to wipe off the oily residue left from the cold cream women used to get rid of their makeup,” said skin educator, Julie Thomas. “These days cleansers won’t leave any residue so we no longer need the cut-through of alcohol-based toners. Toners are now used to condition the skin, add nutrients and help the moisturiser penetrate better.”

All good so far but it was this next bit that threw me.

“Don’t wipe off your toner,” said Julie.

Huh? What did you say?

“It will only waste your toner – and waste a cotton pad. The trick is to spray on the toner, and while your skin is still wet, add the moisturiser,” said Julie.

“So you just rub in your moisturiser over the top of the toner?” I asked.

“Yes, that’s right.”

Well, I’ll be…

That night, as any respecting beauty devotee would, I went home and did just that. On went my toner, then, while my face was still wet, on went my favourite facial oil. And what do you know…? It worked a charm. The oil soaked in easily and there was barely any residue left on my skin at all. Very impressive bathroom stuff.

Here’s one of Dermalogica’s popular toners for your spraying pleasure…

Over the days since then, I’ve tried this technique with other moisturisers and it makes me feel kinda guilty that I’ve been wiping my toner away all these years when my skin really was hoping to use every last drop of it. But don’t worry; I’m making up for lost time. From now on, I’ll think of toner as a skin “prep” for my moisturiser rather than the poor cousin that cleans up after my (apparently very effective) cleanser. Middle child syndrome eradicated.

Now all I have to do is remember to spray all the way down to my décolletage…

As I said: World. Changed.

Til next time,
Sal x

Posted by: Melbourne Girl

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Tags: beauty tip, dermalogica, toner