Face mist vs toner: what’s the difference?

What is a toner?

A toner is typically a water-based liquid used after cleansing and before moisturizing, as a Cleveland Clinic dermatologist describes it. Old-style toners had a high alcohol content, meant to strip oil, and were often drying and irritating; modern toners tend to be more moisturizing. Some come as sprays, which is where the line with face mists blurs.

What is a face mist?

A face mist is a water-based formula in a fine spray, usually with humectants and often with a hydrosol. You use it to refresh skin through the day, to add a light layer of hydration in your routine, or to set makeup. Like “toner”, the name isn’t regulated, so what’s inside varies widely.

A hydrosol is the fragrant water collected when a plant is steam-distilled for its essential oil. A 2022 review in Phytochemistry Reviews describes hydrolates, another name for hydrosols, as distilled water carrying water-soluble plant compounds and tiny droplets of essential oil. On an ingredient list a hydrosol is named for the part of the plant it comes from, such as a “flower water” or a “fruit water”: Vanilla Planifolia Fruit Water is one.

How are toner and face mist different?

Is Remember When a toner or a mist?

A mist. Remember When is a lavender-vanilla face mist with no ethyl alcohol and no acids. Its base is water and vanilla fruit water, the vanilla hydrosol its description names. Glycerin, third on the list, and sugar-based humectants, xylitylglucoside, anhydroxylitol and xylitol, help skin hold on to water. Lavender oil, fourth, gives the floral half of its scent.

A note on “alcohol-free”. On cosmetic labels, “alcohol” on its own means ethyl alcohol, FDA says, the drying kind in old-style toners. Remember When contains none. Glycerin and xylitol are alcohols in the chemical sense, but they are humectants that help skin hold water.

How does a face mist seal in moisture?

At Mystic Hollow, our face mist is the seal. Remember When goes on last, over your serum, and over your moisturizer if you use one, to set those layers and lock in moisture. Its description puts it the same way: a veil that “seals, sets, and softens”, made to hold hydration in after serum.

Here is how it helps. Glycerin and the sugar-based humectants are water-loving ingredients: they draw water into the skin’s outer layer and help hold it there. Misted over serum and cream, they add one last, light layer of hydration on top of everything else.

When should you use a face mist?

• Last, as the seal. Mist over your serum, and over your moisturizer if you use one, to lock in moisture. In our morning and night routines it is the last step, after Solar Plexus and Avalon.
• Over makeup. A light mist sets and softens the finish.
• Through the day. Whenever your skin feels dry or tight.

Hold the bottle 6 to 8 inches from your face, close your eyes, and mist until your face is lightly damp. How much you use is up to you: whatever feels comfortable on your skin.

Lavender oil is rich in linalool, a fragrance allergen that EU rules require to be named on labels above set levels. If fragrance has bothered your skin before, patch test first.

Do you need both?

Not necessarily. If you want to clear residue after cleansing, a toner on a pad does that, and a mist doesn’t. If you want hydration you can add at any time, a soft finish over makeup, or a last step that seals in your routine, a mist does that. If your cleanser leaves nothing behind, you may not need a toner at all.