To Tone or not To Tone?

I have talked about how much I love Liz Earle’s Cleanse and Polish it is my one constant. Whilst I’m forever altering, tweaking or completely overhauling my other products and regimes I always use Cleanse and Polish even when I’m really ill it is one thing I insist on being able to do. But one thing I almost never do is tone. A toner is not part of my regime – is this a terrible a thing to admit?

When I first started reading beauty magazines in my teens the skincare mantra was cleanse, tone and moisturise, but that instruction is surely out of date now. Serums would have to be added, so would masks, eye creams/gels, lip balms, topical treatments etc. Skincare has advanced, yet when it comes to toners I feel that have stalled what is the point of them now, was there ever a point? Toners were supposed to remove the last bits of cleanser, close the pores, prep it for the moisturiser but any good cleanser wouldn’t need a toner to clean up after it and serums have far more functions and benefits than toners – don’t they?

The main reason that I don’t use toners is that they were generally awful when I was starting out in skincare and I came to see them as an uncomfortable and unnecessary expense. Most toners need to be applied with cotton wool and I hate cotton wool. Even cotton wool is scratchy and irritating to my sensitive skin. And the toners were mostly contained alcohol and left my skin tight, tingly and damn right sore that I came to hate them and whilst toners have improved I still can’t bring myself to like them. The Liz Earle toner has a gorgeous fragrance and is calming on the skin when used as a spritz in the summer but I don’t even like using that as its primary role as I don’t see a difference. The Elemis Apricot toner is quite pleasant to smell and non-offensive on the skin but again I feel no benefit, no motivation to use it in my skincare routine. I would rather use the money I save on a toner to pay more for an excellent serum or moisturiser. So am I missing out? Do you tone?

It’s all about the base

I’m a firm believer that the best base for make-up is good skin but good skin is so hard to achieve when you’re sick, tired and being pumped with various medications, which for a quite a few of us is a daily occurrence. I had no real interest in skin care, no routine other than soap and water (soap? – I know!) but that changed when my symptoms started when I was 20 years old. My skin came out in rashes and became super-sensitive to even the lightest of touch. My skin was extremely dry and very flaky especially on my face. Make-up only accentuated the dryness and my confidence was punctured by it all. Suddenly I cared about skincare because I had to.

Being a practitioner in the belief that knowledge is power I set about to find help. I tried different things, from premium beauty to high-street chemists but nothing worked they either stung the skin, dried it out or made it too greasy. I researched what I could online but only became more confused. I could never work out what type of skin I had as my skin had multiple personalities so finding the right products was nigh impossible. Then I came across QVC and Liz Earle’s Cleanse and Polish, a product that literally saved my skin. I was ambivalent about trying it at first as being a newbie to the beauty world I hadn’t heard of Liz Earle but feeling secure in QVC’s incredible 30 day money back guarantee (even if you’ve used it!) I took a chance.

Cleanse and Polish suits all skin types so whatever mood my skin happened to be in it adapted to it. It was gorgeous and so gentle to use and because you use a damp cloth it was something I could even use myself if I was stuck in bed provided my Mum had wet it for me in the first place. When I went into hospital it was the first thing I asked Mum to bring in from home when I was taken in as an emergency admission (at 11 pm) and it was comforting to know that I had it with me to soothe my skin (a bit of calm amidst the turmoil of hospital).

Cleanse and polish made and continues to make my skin clear and stable which makes the use of serums and moisturisers more effective, it also made it possible for me to wear makeup again. So whilst I still get some Lupus rash it doesn’t show or feel anything like it was. Good skin like many things starts with a clean slate.