Archived Post
Hit List: Worst Toner
What’s the Worst Toner…?
What brand/products win this category? What makes it so awful?
Thanks to Cynthia for today’s topic!
Explore Temptalia
We're here to help you make better beauty purchases that you'll enjoy and love! We recommend signing up to take advantage of personalized features like tracking products you own, viewing dupes that you already have, and more!
Here are some useful resources for you:
Compare Any Two
Curious how two shades compare to each other? Type in the shades below to get instant side-by-side swatches!
33 Comments
Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!
Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).
We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!
Comments on this post are closed.
We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!
Clinique Clarifying Lotion 2 –> pure alcohol! Ouch, ouch, ouch.
Those clean & clear astringent ones omg soooo bad for your skin I don’t know how that’s allowed
Clinique Lotion3. We can only use it to mop the table…..no one in my family can stand it on the skin
Clinique Mild Clarifying Lotion. Even though it’s targeted for dry skin, it actually didn’t hydrate my skin at all.
Totally agree with everyone saying Clinique clarifying lotion #3. It was horrendous on my skin. I’ve switched to Paula’s Choice Normalising Toner and it’s just so much better for not much more money.
Don’t believe the clever marketing and hype around 3-step like I did if you’ve got oily skin and are prone to acne and breakouts.
Hm, I really love the Clinique one, it done wonders for me 🙂
However, there’s this Clean & Clear one I tried for oily skin which was the most horrible thing ever!
Definitely the Clinique Clarifying Lotion 3/4/Acne ones. They were so completely drying and inflamming for when I had super bad acne. Just awful stuff. Clinique has some great skin care products, but that definitely is not one of them. 🙁
@John 3D I don’t like Clinique at all, I bought a trial kit they sell sometimes and when I checked the ingredients I got pretty angry… the toner contains a lot of alcohol which is drying, the cleanser contained a lot of sodium lauryl sulfate which is crazy harsh on the face and the face lotion contained mineral oil…. threw it all away
@John 3D
Clinique is another brand I can’t use at all.
my skin is generally not bad but not perfect and have small occasional breakouts.
I tried clinique acne products years ago and had the worst breakout in my life and stopped using anything from clinique ever since.
I am even scared to use their makeup because of this reason.
Like I was saying to bella, Clinique is really digging its own grave by constantly promoting its “central” 3-step system. I mean Clinique has some great skin care products, such as the Super Antioxidant Serums, as well as the great mineral sunscreen City Block SPF 25. Just get rid of the 3-step… or at least re-invent it.
As for their makeup, I can’t really speak for their color products. But I can say that I tend to stay away from their foundations because they’re always too pink or peach. There aren’t many neutral or yellow-toned ones.
@John 3D I agree about their foundation and its limited colour range. It also seems to just lay on the skin or accentuate pores, if I remember correctly. (It’s been ages.) Also agree on their toner. WORST product ever & it’s ironic how it actually *increases* acne and cystic breakouts. That said, I like 2 things from Clinique: their Take Off The Day eyemakeup remover and their mascara. I think both are rather under-rated, but particularly the Take Off The Day.
@Kafka
Yep I agree! Way too many pinks and peaches. But thanks for giving a examples of some good Clinique products that are apparently favorites of yours!
Yeah, it’s funny because Clinique’s worst products are the ones they feature and advertise the most, which is their 3-step system. It’s so bland and 2 decades ago… Lol! I hope you’ve found better products!
@John 3D The acne one is actually my favorite, but I don’t have acne, just the occasional breakout. I can see how it would be irritating to acne and it’s probably too bad it’s marketed for that. I know that all three of those you mentioned can irritate my skin when I’ve got a sensitive flare up from other things. I sometimes have to take prednisone for my asthma and that makes my skin dry, flakey and sensitive and I use a moisturizing toner during those times.
Yeah if it works for you, that’s fine. Keep in mind that I was also using benzoyl peroxide, so my skin really got irritated from that combination. This was way back when I didn’t know anything about skin care lol! But honest to truth, I really think you can find better toners! But hey, it’s completely your choice! 🙂
I’m not a big fan of toners in general…I prefer a spritz of some thermal water like Avène or La Roche Posay
Perricone MD Intensive Pore Minimizer. So drying. It worked to minimize oil at first, but then my skin started overproducing it.
Clean and Clear ones definitely, they are so drying and harsh.
anything with alcohol is not good for your skin. I like using natural toners.
SKII facial treatment essence: I got lots of white spots on and under my chin. after trying twice I decided to give up and used it for my hand (because it is kind of expensive) and started to have serious split nail right after that. my nails are known long, strong and beautiful so I totally freak out and went for an intanse nail treatment for few weeks.. (btw. from this experience I found a very nice product for nails called Nailtiques – I used formula 3) .. at the end I just had to give it to a friend. .. and It seems working very well for her.
I don’t think it is the worst product and I believe it definately works for someone otherwise the company won’t be able to survive for that long..
but I definately have allergy toward it !
Does anyone else remember Sea Breeze? I can’t be the only one who used it in those tween years…
@LAO I remember that! It was *awful*, stung like crazy.
@blueraccoon
Yes, horrible stuff!!! Also, let us not neglect Bonnie Bell 10-0-6.
Probably Clinque Clarifying Lotion #2. It’s the one I started with in my teens but it was always quite harsh and drying, even when I was younger and my skin was oilier. I thought all that roughness was “good” for my skin – I didn’t know any better.
Like so many other people have been saying, Clinique Clarifying #3. My skin was HORRIFIC after I used this – definitely the worst skin of my life.
Anything with alcohol or witch hazel in it. Both cause massive irritation and collagen breakdown. Ditto for most essential plant oils, especially grapefruit or lavender. Many so-called “natural” ingredients are very irritating to the skin, even if you can’t immediately see or feel the damage. I’ve learned to ALWAYS read labels. If there’s no ingredients list available that I can understand, I don’t buy.
For me the Proactive toner! Massive breakouts
I love Clarins as a brand, but their Daily Energizer toner is nasty. It’s got the consistency of spit and leaves skin really sticky.
I’ve never tried a Clinique toner, but never heard a single good word about it either….
The Clinique toner… I think it’s the Clarifying Lotion. I got it as part of the 3-step system (which did more bad than good by the way).
The toner in particular completely dried out my skin. It felt like NOTHING could make my skin feel comfortable or … not dry, not even a huge slop of moisturiser.
And I had gone back to the store I got it from, to a different salesperson, because I wanted to buy a different brand, and this new woman told me that the Clarifying Lotion is full of alcohol, which is obviously drying, and she said that particular toner is strong enough to remove nail polish.
And I shall end it here.
A lot of people are saying Clinique #2, I actually find this to work really well with my skin as long as I only dab it on the areas that get really oily. It has helped clear my face up and for me works really well. However I do agree with Clinique #3, I actually switched this for the #2
For me the worst are the really inexpensive drugstore brands like Clean & Clear, this caused my face to go soooo red and flaky almost like I had a sunburn
clinique…really havent change with the times….back then, way back then, the alcohol was used to remove the oil from the face….but instead it strips away the oil and the skin produces more oil to compensate…I use alcohol free toners and it does the job
Neutrogena’s Clear Pore toner. I bought it last week, used it for three days, and now my entire face is broken out… 45% alcohol, made even the fingers that touched the cotton pad dry!!! Ugh I hate it so much!
clean & clear and l’oréal pure zone