Originally Posted by satojoko /img/forum/go_quote.gif
No toner because it strips the skin and can lead to new or more breakouts for people who are prone to them. It also often causes the skin to overproduce oil to compensate for stripping it, leading the same problem with breakouts. It can become a vicious circle which is very difficult to get out of. If you're using a good quality cleanser that doesn't leave a bunch of nasty residue behind, which is important for anybody, toner is completely unnecessary. The majority of witch hazels also contain quite a bit of alcohol. Alcohol strips the skin. So even witch hazel will cause exactly the same problem as a typical toner. Even for people with normal, combo or dry complexions, toner/witch hazel can still cause imbalances. Normal skin can become oily, combo skin MORE oily, and dry skin can become more dry but at the same time oily. In that case a person can end up with flaky patches yet have greasy looking skin. Not good. Even if the toner doesn't cause breakouts, it can cause the skin to age faster. I doubt most people would mix up water, alcohol, perfume and some chemicals in their kitchen to wipe all over their skin, so why do they use toner? Check your toner ingredients and google them. Just because it's got a tiny bit of 'extract' in it doesn't mean it's good for your skin either.
No silicone in hair or skin products because firstly, regarding the skin, it creates an occlusive barrier which doesn't allow your skin to breathe and prevents it from properly eliminating toxins as skin is designed to do. That traps dirt, oil, sweat, sebum, bacteria under the silicone. Kinda like wrapping your face in plastic wrap, but worse. Which leads, once again, to >> breakouts. And if your skin can't breathe, how is it supposed to heal the scar tissue from that acne? So-called oil free moisturizer is usually loaded with silicone. Regarding the hair/scalp, silicone does much the same thing to the skin on your head. Except that on the scalp it tends to build up with all the sweat, extra oil, dirt, hairspray, mousse, etc. This can quickly lead to dry, itchy scalp, chronic dandruff, clogged hair follicles, scabbing on the scalp & around the hairline and other super-sexy issues. With the hair itself, it again creates an occlusive barrier which doesn't allow the good stuff in hair products to penetrate the shafts. So if I've got a hair conditioner with dimethicone, etc in it and I then use a leave in treatment afterwards which has great ingredients in it like castor oil, coconut oil, shea butter, panthenol, keratin, how are all those things going to penetrate my hair shafts to make it stronger and healthier? How are those good ingredients going to be effective for my scalp? Impossible. Another example: if your shampoo/conditioner have silicones in them plus all sorts of other great stuff like hemp oil, jojoba oil bla bla, how will the good oils get past the silicone and into your hair where it's needed? In the case of a silicone based leave in hair product, you're leaving a coating of the garbage on your hair and scalp ALL DAY. So as you sweat, walk around in dusty, polluted air, and your scalp produces oil all day, where is it all gonna go? Once again, trapped under/within the silicone gunk built up on your noggin. Your natural hair oils cant even normally distribute themselves throughout your hair in that case to keep it from drying out and becoming frizzy, flyaway and porous as it normally would prevent it from becoming, or at least reduce the severity of. Silicone has become a cheap filler which most companies are now happily using to maximize profits. It has zero lasting or even temporary positive effects on the hair or skin.
When eliminated toners from my skin care routine and silicones from my skin AND hair care routines, my skin began to heal and balance out, blackheads started disappearing, scars started healing, my scalp stopped itching and flaking,
Hair Colour: Reddish brown, kinda like Loreal Feria #51. Used to be platinum blonde Age You Started Wearing Makeup: 12? 13? Somewhere around there Favorite Beauty Product: My own personally formulated gel eye makeup remover/Monave's liquid & mineral foundations - couldn't pick one 
