Friday, February 12, 2010

A Healthy Balance

The third step in a skin care regiment is usually to tone the skin.

Toner and astringent are two very different things. While toner is used to remove excess residue from exfolients and cleansers, and to rebalance the pH of your skin, an astringent is used to clear away oil and cause a "flash" constriction of the pores. Astringent does not assist in rebalancing the pH levels of your skin.

A healthy pH balance must be maintained in order for skin to function properly. Water by itself is alkaline and can strip the skin of it's oil and moisture balance. Some cleansers can be too alkaline, while others are too acidic. That is why is so important to use cleansers that are pH balanced and developed specifically for skin care.

Toners can contain any number of ingredients, but most contain a humectant, which locks moisture into the skin without being occlusive. Some contain witch hazel or horse chestnut to act as anti-inflammatories and antiseptics. In nany case, they all serve the same purposes:

1. To maintain the pH balance of the skin;
2. To help with the absorption of treatment products.

Even if you don't use a treatment product, just a moisturizer, it is important to remember that moist skin absorbs. Applying moisture or treatment ingredients to skin that is already absorbing moisture ensures a deeper penetration of those ingredients.

Following toner, is the application of treatment products!

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