A week and a half ago, I wrote about using sea salt as a toner (original post here), and have changed a few things since then so figured I should share. For one thing, I decided I needed to get some more sea salt, preferably something that's not years old and of questionable origin.
I went to the local gourmet/health foods store, Capella, and took a gander at their sea salt options. Many of them had something else mixed in with the sea salt to help prevent caking, but I didn't want to put anything on my face except pure sea salt, and I really don't care if it sticks together (this may be more of a concern if you're wanting to cook with it), so I took the cheapest one without additives ($5.50 for 14 oz, or: enough to last me the rest of my life). It's by Eden and called French Celtic sea salt, which apparently means it has more minerals or something? Whatever. Anyways. I'll return to it in a moment.
I wanted to try adding green tea to my sea salt, since I'd read that it helps refine pores and purifies skin or some such, but the only green tea we had was a mint blend, so I decided that would probably be fine. Now, I don't know if it was the minty blend that was a bad idea, or if it was my decision to not refrigerate the toner, but a couple of days after using the green tea sea salt toner twice daily, my skin was a MESS--some cystic acne, blackheads, whiteheads, you name it. This was when I decided I needed to get the aforementioned French sea salt (I feel so pretentious calling it that, but that's actually its name! I'm sorry!) and some pure green tea to try and clear that shit up. I kept a jar of sea salt-only toner in my bathroom and used it in the morning, and a jar of green tea sea salt in the fridge downstairs to use at night. Within a day and a half, the worst of the breakout had disappeared. It was really quite unbelievable. I don't know if it was the mint-free green tea or the refrigeration that did the trick, but I'm not really willing to experiment and find out. What I do know: for me, it's working. I definitely recommend you give it a try if you're in the market for an anti-acne, anti-oily skin toner! And if you're not a lazy slob like me and are willing to go downstairs in the morning pre-getting ready routine, or have a fridge on the same level as your making up station (or, even, don't wear makeup!), you could use the GTSS toner morning and night just fine. I'm going to try adding uncoated Aspirin next, which supposedly helps with inflammation and redness, and I'll keep you posted!
What about you? Have you used green tea as a toner? Sea salt?
I went to the local gourmet/health foods store, Capella, and took a gander at their sea salt options. Many of them had something else mixed in with the sea salt to help prevent caking, but I didn't want to put anything on my face except pure sea salt, and I really don't care if it sticks together (this may be more of a concern if you're wanting to cook with it), so I took the cheapest one without additives ($5.50 for 14 oz, or: enough to last me the rest of my life). It's by Eden and called French Celtic sea salt, which apparently means it has more minerals or something? Whatever. Anyways. I'll return to it in a moment.
I wanted to try adding green tea to my sea salt, since I'd read that it helps refine pores and purifies skin or some such, but the only green tea we had was a mint blend, so I decided that would probably be fine. Now, I don't know if it was the minty blend that was a bad idea, or if it was my decision to not refrigerate the toner, but a couple of days after using the green tea sea salt toner twice daily, my skin was a MESS--some cystic acne, blackheads, whiteheads, you name it. This was when I decided I needed to get the aforementioned French sea salt (I feel so pretentious calling it that, but that's actually its name! I'm sorry!) and some pure green tea to try and clear that shit up. I kept a jar of sea salt-only toner in my bathroom and used it in the morning, and a jar of green tea sea salt in the fridge downstairs to use at night. Within a day and a half, the worst of the breakout had disappeared. It was really quite unbelievable. I don't know if it was the mint-free green tea or the refrigeration that did the trick, but I'm not really willing to experiment and find out. What I do know: for me, it's working. I definitely recommend you give it a try if you're in the market for an anti-acne, anti-oily skin toner! And if you're not a lazy slob like me and are willing to go downstairs in the morning pre-getting ready routine, or have a fridge on the same level as your making up station (or, even, don't wear makeup!), you could use the GTSS toner morning and night just fine. I'm going to try adding uncoated Aspirin next, which supposedly helps with inflammation and redness, and I'll keep you posted!
What about you? Have you used green tea as a toner? Sea salt?
