Neutrogena alcohol-free toner review

(late i know but i was distracted by inception fanfiction so please forgive me)

This is a well known and well loved product so this review is almost pointless but hey, I bought it, I’ll review it.

    I’ll be honest I don’t really know what toners are for, some say it’s moisturising, some say it’s for cleansing after your face wash, which is honestly one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard, I mean if you need cleaning after your cleanser, get a better cleanser!

    Supposedly toners were originally used in England (and other European places?) because their tap water tended to be ‘hard water’ (i.e. water that contained dissolved calcium and magnesium carbonates), which can make your skin feel a bit weird, so after washing their faces they’d use the toner to take the ions off. This is not a problem in Australia unless you live in the middle of nowhere and your only source of water is bore water. As the Wikipedia page attests however, toners are marketed for a variety of things so if it claims to do something unique, go ahead and try it. It’s just that toners are a rather pointless step in skincare unless they claim to do something unique. 

(Also it’s kind of a waste of cotton pads.)

    There are also these toning lotion things, which are just as watery looking, but supposedly the Japanese skincare brands use this to refer to a product that is supposed to be patted in for moisturisation, kinda like a serum, and not at all like an actual lotion (which to me are just watered down creams). So in that case if you need moisturisation this toner lotion would theoretically be a good addition to your skincare routine.

    ~Baack to this product, I bought it because my mum used to use it, and she was told that toner was the most important part of skincare, although neither of us really knew why. I use toner by dampening a cotton pad and wiping my face with it, instead of a cotton ball like it says on the bottle, as the cotton ball will soak up more product than the cotton pad. When I wipe my face with it, it feels cool and refreshing, but essentially feels like nice smelling water. The smell isn’t very strong and I can’t quite pinpoint what it is, it’s kinda like the smell of watery fresh fruit (just the fruit not the juice), that kind of slightly sweet, refreshing smell. 

ingredients list (edited because bottle was dirty)

    I can’t really say it does anything, or at least I don’t feel like it does anything that plain water wouldn’t do i.e. hydrate slightly. Obviously tap water contains fluoride and chloride and other things to keep it from coming out the tap green with moss, so it feels somehow more hydrating than tap water, but if you put distilled water on your face, it’d probably have the same effect. However if your face was wasn't clean beforehand, then this toner does dissolve dirt and can pick up stuff your cleanser might have missed, so that's a plus. Mostly what this toner does for me is make my moisturiser last for longer, as there’s still moisture on my face so whatever moisturiser I’m using spreads easier. This is good for thicker creamy moisturisers e.g. if you have dry skin, but if you prefer light lotions this might not be a good thing, and of course facial oils and oil-based serums will not take to a water – based toner straightaway, you're going to have to let it dry.

    It comes in a sturdy plastic bottle which I have dropped a couple of times and the lid’s never broken so yay for that. However I’m almost at the end of my bottle and a crack has appeared at the base of the lid, which is possibly due to the constant strain on that bit whenever I push the lid open. If you open things gently, this probably won’t be a problem for you, heh.

    Basically if you like using toners this is a good solid toner and if you don’t see the point, this product isn’t really going to enlighten you. 

and if you use it and it gets a lot of dirt off your face, dump whatever cleanser you're using and go buy a better one.

Effectiveness: 7/10

Feel: 7/10

Packaging: 7/10