It’s silly to pay $30 upwards for a small bottle of facial toner when you can make your very own organic toner at home.

Gather up the following:

Alcohol free witch hazel. THAYERS makes alcohol free witch hazel, some with organic ingredients, plus you get a lot for about $10 a pop. You can get witch hazel with aloe in it if you like, you don’t have to stick to plain.

A mix of herbs and spices (in equal parts). You can use just about anything, but of course you want to choose herbs and spices that will be beneficial to your skin type. If you don’t know anything about herbs, I suggest checking out The Complete Book of Herbs: A Practical Guide to Growing and Using Herbs, which is my favorite herbal book. This book is sometimes hard to find though. If you can’t find it, another good book is Herbs for Natural Beauty (Rosemary Gladstar’s Herbal Remedies).

The herbs I use are listed below, but I have normal skin, rarely break out, and am used to using things like herbs and essential oils on my skin. If your skin is not like mine, you need to find a mix of herbs that will work better for you.

The herbs, spices, and oils I use in my toner:

• Equal parts: fresh organic rosemary and organic lavender.
• A tiny bit of fresh organic basil.
• A few cinnamon sticks and a tablespoon of dried whole cloves.
• A tablespoon of grated orange peel and the peels of half a lemon.
• 2-3 drops of tea tree essential oil.

How to make your homemade toner:

Place all your herbs, oils, and essential oils in a jar. No need to break up your herbs or chop them, you also don’t need to grate your spices. Cover your mixture over completely with witch hazel. Let the mixture sit for a while in your fridge – I usually allow mine to sit for a week. Strain your mixture and it’s ready to use.

To use your toner:

You can apply toner to your face lightly with your fingers or an organic cotton pad or washcloth.  You can also use this as a refreshing mist is you have a tiny mist bottle. Just close your eyes and spray your face. This feels great in the hot summer.

Storage:

The upside of this toner is that it’s chemical and preservative free. The downside of that is it’s perishable. Unless you use this super speed fast, you should keep it in the fridge. I don’t like to have to walk to my fridge for toner, so I make tiny batches frequently instead of a lot all at once.

Have you ever made homemade toner? Which herbs do you like?