Nivea Visage pure effect stay clear purifying toner review

Whew that name is long! (actually it’s just all the friking ranges and subdivisions that skincare companies have, the name of the toner itself is just purifying toner)

    A couple of months ago, I was browsing Priceline when I found this, and was intrigued by the idea of a toner with a specific objective, beyond some vague variation of ‘moisturise’. I was more than halfway through my Neutrogena alcohol-free toner and I figured I could sort of compare them. Plus I like the idea of using toner to refresh my face during the summer, and might as well use an oil-controlling toner while I’m at it right?

    This toner is clear and smells like aquatic mixed with some kind of synthetic floral; although the scent isn’t too strong it is noticeable. ‘Parfum’ is the last ingredients so unless you’re very sensitive to fragrances, this toner shouldn’t irritate your skin, though if you just don’t like skincare that smells then this toner isn’t for you.

    Compared to the Neutrogena alcohol-free toner, this toner feels more refreshing and less moisturising, not that it’s drying. The Neutrogena toner feels more like water compared to this one, which feels a little more like the formula 10.0.6 in the sense that it feels like it’s cleaning/leaving skin ‘refreshed’. I feel like my T-zone takes longer to get oily when I use this toner in the morning, than when I don’t use it, but by the end of the day, my forehead is still a bit shiny so it’s not like this is a treatment that keeps your skin oil free all day.

    On to ingredients~ although not advertised as such, this toner is alcohol free (really all toners should be alcohol free considering how much water they contain). The advertised magnolia bark extract is 5^th on the list, so if it has an effect it’s probably at a high enough concentration to work (considering toners are mainly water, the proportion of other ingredients is likely to be small). This toner also contains limonene as the 13^th ingredient, which is low enough for me because I don’t feel any irritation. Limonene can irritate skin, although rarely, and is usually near the bottom of the ingredients list, but at a high enough concentration (+ alcohol) it irritated my skin and caused my mums skin to flake. 

I quite like this product during summer, and would recommend people with oily combination skin to give it a shot, but it’s just a toner; it’s not strong enough for people with properly oily skin.

Effectiveness: 7/10

Feel: 7/10

Formulation: 6/10

Packaging: 6/10