DIY Facial Toner

Last month I had the very awesome and wonderful opportunity of being a Guest Blogger @ Southern Glamourista where I shared this same post...but I wanted to share it on my blog as well because I put a lot of effort into my experiments and I wanted my own readers to have the chance to read what I had found out during the month long process of using apple cider vinegar on my face each day without stopping. So...without any more delaying, here we go!

 

 

Introduction

Because this was an experiment that lasted a month long I wanted to share with you all the little details which were involved and may convince you that this is something you really want to give a try.

 

This experiment was inspired via a post on Laurel of Leaves. When I first saw it I was like, "yeah right...that won't work" ...but, as you will see, it DOES work!

 

Because of The Car Wreck I am constantly having to change medication which means my body does not always have time to adjust to the new medication OR it doesn't like the new medication and reacts badly in different ways. The most recent medicine has caused ridiculous breakouts all over my face (mostly my forehead, but some on my chin and by my nose too) and it drives me crazy because I was one of those lucky girls who never had a problem with pimples or zits or breakouts, ever! I'm not used to this! Which leads me to a second problem: I started a terrible habit of messing with the little bumps so that makes them look even worse!!! (I am doing a lot better about not touching my face though...so with the recipe below and not touching my face my breakouts are not near as awful as they were in the beginning!)

 

Here are a few photos from during the process of the experiment. I will admit this is terribly embarrassing and gross...but I didn't edit a single thing on my face in any of the following photos so this is how everything looked in real life. These photos are from November 2012.

 

This is probably one of the worst breakouts I experienced since starting the new medicine. There is a bunch right in the middle of my eyebrows, and a ton on the right side of my face (when you're looking at the photo).

 

Here you can see that the breakout in the picture just before is getting better.

 

New breakout...and I forgot to mention that breakouts are painful...I'm sure you all already knew that...I didn't before now. Those little suckers hurt!

 

A fairly normal day when I keep up with washing my face with the toner (recipe just below!).



 

An awesome day! I think I had a few little bumps, but they were so small! I almost felt like I was back to my normal face!!!
Why yes that is a piece of cookies and cream chocolate I am holding! :)

 

I started using this water and vinegar mix on my face at the beginning of November. All the photos above were taken during the experimental period of this recipe (because I didn't think it would help so I had to test it before I shared it on my blog). Now that I have had the chance to experiment with apple cider vinegar I have moved on to experimenting with white vinegar. So far I'm not too impressed with the results. I much prefer this method...but I'm only a week into the experiment so maybe my thoughts on this will change.

 

Things I figured out:  

1. My breakouts are not as bad as they were when I didn't use the water/vinegar on my face! A huge deal for me!!

2. If you pick at a sore on your face the vinegar will sting...but applying the vinegar/water mix actually seemed to help mine heal up faster so any time a pimple/sore popped I would put some of the mix on it to help it along.

3. Seriously apply this stuff carefully around your eyes if you apply it at all. I just stuck with under my eyes at first and then after I had got to everything else and the rag was not as wet I would gently dab my eyelid area. If you get the mix in your eyes it will burn!

4. I kept my mix stored in a regular food container under the bathroom sink and it seemed to do fine. I only made up this recipe once for the whole month and that was using it multiple times a day most days!

 

THE RECIPE

 

Ingredients

1 cup of water (I used regular tap water)

1 cup of apple cider vinegar (I used Great Value brand from WalMart)

 

You can make more or less of this mix as you need just keep equal portions of water to apple cider vinegar so if you want half the mix I have above just do 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar.

 

Directions

1. Get a plastic container (I used one that we keep leftover food in and it worked great!) to store the mix in.

2. Pour both the water and apple cider vinegar into the container. Put the lid on and make sure it is sealed and then give it a good few second shake.

3. Keep it stored in your bathroom cabinet (that's just where I kept mine!).

 

How To Use

1. Make sure your face is clean and make-up free.

2. Rinse your face with cool water.

3. Take a wash cloth and wrap part of it around your first three fingers on one of your hands. Dip it into the mix and hold it there for a few seconds. The wash cloth will soak up the mix and you will feel it on your fingers. You don't want to soak your wash cloth, a little goes a long way and you can always get more with a different section of your wash cloth if you need to!

4. Start at the worst areas that need the most attention. For me this was usually my forehead and then I would start at the areas that were really red. Gently dab (and you can even do a light scrubbing too...I did this sometimes because on sores that were open it just hurt too much not to do something!). If an area is stinging just pause a second and let the stinging go away. Reapply to areas that sting. Continue to the rest of your face by gently apply the water/vinegar mix until you have it all over.

5. Let your face air dry for the best results. (Another reason you don't want a sopping wet wash cloth!)

 

How Often?

Well this depends on how bad your breakouts are. Mine were awful (keep in mind this is awful in my world...your terms of awful may be completely different!) and I wanted this stuff to work its magic so I applied it when I woke up in the morning (rinsed my face with cold water and then applied) and then at night before I went to bed. Any time during the day that I felt/saw a new breakout coming on I would apply again. After about four days I started to notice that the sores would scab over and fall off. Yuck, but truth you should know ahead of time! Also, I didn't use any other soaps, moisturizers or facial products while I was experimenting with this (I rarely use them anyway). I did notice that some areas of my forehead became a little dry, but that didn't bother me. If you have a dry forehead you can always apply a light moisturizer once your face has air dried. Of course if you have any questions you can always leave a comment below.