Apple Cider Vinegar Toner | Natural Skincare

Hi everyone. Today I want to share with you a recipe that you can make at home for facial toner with apple cider vinegar. Now apple cider vinegar is really the key ingredient here. It's a perfect alpha hydroxy acid and it's really been a game changer for my natural skincare routine. Apple cider vinegar is something you can make at home by fermenting apples, but it's also pretty easy to find at the stores. If you are going to buy some in the store, make sure that it comes in dark glass like this, that it is organic and raw or unpasteurized, unfiltered and with the mother. One of the cool things about apple cider vinegar is it's kind of exfoliating because it has a way of dissolving the dead skin cells on your face. Now I've been using this for a while, but when I first came to Japan I wasn't able to find any here. So for about six months I had to stop using it and I started to notice some blackheads, clogged pores in these areas on my face and when I finally found some again within a week of using this toner that totally went away and my skin is very clear. The easiest way to make this recipe and the way that I used for the first year and a half of trying this product is to simply dilute apple cider vinegar and filtered water. Now if you're just starting out with apple cider vinegar or you have sensitive skin, I would do a one to four ratio. That's one part apple cider vinegar and four parts water. You can do a one to three ratio for normal skin and even try one to two or one one for really oily skin, but I would definitely build myself up to that level to see how your skin reacts to the vinegar. This shouldn't really be stinging or irritating your face when you use it, so if it is you probably use too much vinegar too fast and I would dilute your toner a little bit more before I continued using it. So apple cider vinegar and water is really all you need to start seeing some great results with this toner. I am going to talk about some other things you can add in, but I just want to stress that it's not necessary and like I said I've used this recipe for years without these things, so you might just want to try it that way first and then experiment with a little bit more later. So it was actually my sister that recommended to me at some point to include vegetable glycerin. Glycerin is a humectant which means that it attracts water, so in that sense it can be very moisturizing. A little bit goes a long way, so in a container of this size I would only add about a teaspoon and no more. Another thing I wanted to mention if you really want to get fancy and kind of upgrade this toner is swap out the water for either rose water, witch hazel, aloe vera juice, or tea. Two types of tea that are considered great for the face are green tea and chamomile tea. Just remember, especially with brewed tea or really anything that is water-based, you need to be careful that the solution doesn't go bad. If you are going to use tea or water, consider making small batches that you can use up very quickly. Some people like to store in the fridge or add certain natural preservatives. A couple natural preservatives you could consider adding to this would be vitamin e oil, rosemary, or grapefruit seed extract. I'll let you do your own research on that and again I don't really bother with any of those things. I did want to mention that if you're going to be using glass bottles for this toner, to make sure that you sterilize these each time you make the recipe, you can do that by making sure that you take off all the plastic parts and putting the glass in the boiling water for five to ten minutes. All right, the last thing you can add which is completely optional is essential oils. If you have acne, I'd recommend about four drops of tea tree oil and four drops of lavender. If you're interested in scar healing, I would recommend five drops of frankincense. That's what I use. Or if you're looking for something just very calming and soothing, then you can use chamomile essential oils. There's many other essential oils out there, so whatever you use, just be careful with the dosing. Make sure this is a one percent dilution which is roughly about six drops per ounce of toner that you're making. And of course looking up the exact profile of the type of essential oil that you want to use in your toner is very important when you're considering dosing as well. All right, so first you're going to pour in the chamomile flowers. Now this is the first time I tried making it with tea and I probably won't bother in the future because it's just a little bit of extra effort, but I did want to show you how it would be done. So you just add some hot water to that and let it sit for five to ten minutes. When you're done, be sure to strain all the flowers out of the mixture. Then you can grab some apple cider vinegar and add the right amount based on the ratio that you're looking for. I'm adding a teaspoon of vegetable glycerin, giving it a little mix, and now I'm going to add some frankincense. As I mentioned before, this one's really good for scar healing. Now depending how you like to apply your toner, there's different types of bottles you can use. I show a few of them here. I like to just spray it on, so I'm just going to pour that into the spray bottle and give it a nice shake. And make sure you do shake it before each use as well. So this toner does smell like apple cider vinegar. If you hate the smell of vinegar, I wouldn't recommend this recipe for you. You can mask it a little bit with the essential oils, but I just wanted to throw that out there. All right, so that's how I make my natural toner. I'd love to hear which ingredients you use in yours, so please leave a comment, and I'll see you in the next video.