The 11 Best Toners of All Damn Time, According to Our Beauty Editor (2024)

Ranked by you (!!) as the best toner of all damn time in our 2024 Readers' Choice Awards, this pick is truly like the golden ticket to glowing skin. It's filled with willow bark extract—a BHA that helps get into your pores and break down oil that causes clogged pores and zits—as well as PHA to gently slough away dead skin. But I love it because it's still totally suitable for sensitive and dry skin, since it combines hella hydrators like hyaluronic acid and cactus water. I just dab it on with a cotton round, but you could also drip a few drops in your hand and pat in.

• Key ingredients: PHA, willow bark extract, cactus water, watermelon extract
• Size: 1.35 oz

Glowing customer review: "I've tried several toners over the years, and none had ever left me feeling like I wanted more. The watermelon scent smells amazing. I've been using this for over four years and absolutely love it."

Not only is this the coolest, most innovative toner on this list, but it's extremely effective at calming down redness, inflammation, and irritation. Lemme explain. Pop these toner pods—which are filled with a fab liquid containing green tea extract, niacinamide, ashwagandha, and glycerin to help soothe and hydrate—in the freezer for five hours (I just keep mine in there all the time, tbh), then take them out of their package and massage the juicy lil ice cube over your face.

It's fantastic to help calm down an angry zit, IMO, but I also use it when my skin feels extra tight and dry in the winter. Plus, the ice really helps bring down some puffiness in my face. Tip: Hold the ice with a cotton round to make it easier to glide it over your face, as well as absorb the liquid as it inevitably melts. You don't wanna waste any of it, K?

• Key ingredients: Ashwagandha, green tea extract, niacinamide, glycerin
• Size: 12 pods

Glowing customer review: "These Toner Pods are soothing and feel great as the liquid melts on my face. Since I’ve been using the toner pods as a part of my skin care ritual my face is becoming clearer and I no longer have inflammation. I so happy I found something that calms down the redness and inflammation from breakouts."

Ima let you in on a lil secret: Tranexamic acid, one of the MVPs of this exfoliating toner, is one of the best over-the-counter ingredients to help fade hyperpigmentation. It decreases melanin production, which is what leads to dark spots, so it's great to both brighten your skin and prevent more hyperpigmentation from forming. But this formula also incorporates lactic acid to gently exfoliate and azelaic acid to soothe, making it a powerhouse for anyone looking for clearer, brighter, smoother skin.

• Key ingredients: Lactic acid, tranexamic acid, azelaic acid, sweet almond oil
• Size: 5.07 oz

Glowing customer review: "The formula is very light weight and gentle on my skin while leaving it smooth. As someone with hyperpigmentation, this product has been a staple in my routine and I look forward to the continued results to glowy skin."

As a beauty editor, I can guarantee I'll have a bottle of this toner on hand at all times. TBH, I've been using this for years to help reduce the blackheads on my nose and chin, because the salicylic acid really gets into my pores and helps draw out the oil that clogs them—all without majorly irritating my face. Unlike other formulas I've tried for my acne, this one doesn't leave my feeling stripped or red. Instead, my face feels so clean. I soak a cotton pad and swipe it over my entire face every morning, followed by hydrating serum and sunscreen (a necessity, since the BHA can make your skin a bit sensitive to the sun).

• Key ingredients: Salicylic acid
• Size: 4 fl oz

Glowing customer review: "Within just days the poor started to shrink and now they look wonderful. I highly recommend this and I just bought a second bottle for the downstairs bathroom."

I just got back from South Korea, and I can confirm that everyone has glass skin. It's unfair. But with this in my arsenal, I can get pretty damn close, since it's loaded with rice extract, which seriously moisturizes and seals your skin to give you a glowy, hydrated look. But this formula also has niacinamide to help soothe and balance my skin (which was fantastic after that brutal flight from NYC).

• Key ingredients: Rice extract, niacinamide, purslane extract
• Size: 5.07 fl oz

Glowing customer review: "This toner has made a world of difference for my skin! I've been using it pretty much nightly and I notice a difference in less than two weeks. I noticed the biggest difference wile on video calls; I didn't even have to have my ring light on and I had a natural highlight!"

I always go back to this drugstore toner, which was actually the first exfoliant I ever used in high school. It's got glycolic acid to chemically buff away dead skin and dirt on my face to reveal smoother, brighter skin. I douse a cotton pad in the liquid, then swipe it all over my face. It can be a teensy bit strong if you have very sensitive skin, so only try it once or twice a week at first to start.

• Key ingredients: Glycolic acid, aloe vera, ginseng
• Size: 3.4 fl oz

Glowing customer review: "This stuff really works. I use it daily. Cleans my skin and gives me a glow. No smell at all. A little goes a long way. And it’s helping with my blackheads. They just come out on their own now. I get compliments on my skin all the time. I definitely recommend."

If your skin is dry or sensitive, feel free to take the gentle approach when it comes to getting glowy-as-hell skin from your toner. My bestie swore by this when she was going through Accutane because it was so calming and hydrating without clogging her pores. Colloidal oatmeal, oat milk, and honey are like a hug for your face, basically, helping to calm things down and moisturize.

• Key ingredients: Colloidal oatmeal, oat milk, honey, hyaluronic acid
• Size: 6 fl oz

Glowing customer review: "I’ve been using this toner for a few weeks now and it’s amazing. It makes my skin feel clean and fresh and ready for moisturizing."

I keep a permanent stock of these in my travel bag to tone and hydrate my skin in one quick step. Just grab a pad, swipe it all over, and go. It's not exfoliating, which I actually love for travel since my skin can be quite irritated and sensitive when I'm not home. Instead, these really help protect my skin barrier (ty, ceramides and allantoin) and moisturize with hyaluronic acid. After one use, my skin looks so much more hydrated.

• Key ingredients: Hyaluronic acid, ceramides, allantoin, prickly pear extract, carrot root oil
• Size: 6o pads

Glowing customer review: "I bought this for travel because I get lazy when I am not home. My husband refuses to use skin care stuff but I talked him into trying this and now this is his one stop shop. His skin was looking dull and now is starting to look vibrant! Keep in mind he used NOTHING before. but he legit has gotten compliments from people who know him asking, 'what are you doing different to your skin.'"

Shocker, IK, but I am supremely lazy. So sometimes, I just wanna skip the cotton pad and spritz this on instead. And because it's filled with sodium PCA to hydrate, willow bark extract to gently exfoliate, and niacinamide to soothe, it's super effective at boosting my skincare routine with very little effort. Win.

• Key ingredients: Willow bark extract, sodium PCA, rose water, niacinamide
• Size: 1.8 fl oz

Glowing customer review: "This product is very lightweight and hydrating. It's a gentle mist and overall I just really love it and I love tons of other bubble products. It's not too expensive."

Cosmo assistant shopping editor Jasmine Hyman turned me onto Face Reality (she's another acne-prone girlie). While she's a fan of the Moisture Balance Toner for her dry skin, I've become obsessed with this salicylic acid version. It's a godsend for my oily skin, since it uses salicylic acid and willow bark extract to help break down oil, as well as niacinamide to help balance oil production. It really helps mattify my T-zone and keep my skin clear.

• Key ingredients: Salicylic acid, willow bark extract, niacinamide
• Size: 6 fl oz

Glowing customer review: "This toner has been a game changer to my skin. It’s clarifying but hydrating, resurfacing, and boost that natural glow. I’m absolutely in love!!"

This toner has an all-star ingredient lineup of simply the best exfoliants to help smooth, brighten, and tighten your skin. We're talkin' lactic acid, salicylic acid, and gluconolactone—three of the best, most gentle chemical exfoliators that reach both the surface of your skin and get into your pores. But this is also packed with anti-inflammatory zinc PCA, green tea extract, and allantoin to offset any potential irritation or dryness from the actives. TBH, it's one of the best products I've tried this year to help smooth out my uneven skin texture.

• Key ingredients: Salicylic acid, zinc PCA, green tea extract, lactic acid, gluconolactone, allantoin
• Size: 4 fl oz

Glowing customer review: "This exfoliant was really good. It got to all the dark pores I have and took out all of the gunk inside it. My skin looks way better without it being sensitive after using it. I really loved this product!"

Consider your skin type.

What your skin needs should always guide how you choose skincare products, but this is particularly essential for toner, since these can often contain active ingredients that could be irritating to certain skin types, but also heavy moisturizers that can be too rich for oily or acne-prone skin. "For more sensitive skin, go with a fragrance-free hydrating toner with hyaluronic acid and ceramides and other ingredients that calm inflammation like aloe, allantoin or centella asiatica," says Dr. Jeffy. Meanwhile, "for oily/acne-prone skin, look for more of an exfoliant toner with AHAs, BHAs, or PHAs," she says.

Assess your goals.

Are you looking to smooth, moisturize, calm, mattify, or a combo of all of the above? Make sure your toner aligns with what you're looking to add to your skincare routine. Dw, we outlined which toners above are the best for each skin type and need.

• Brooke Jeffy, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist with her own . She is also the founder of youth skincare brand, BTWN.