I love exfoliating toners and all kinds of exfoliation in general because it just makes my skin feel like new. Until recently it was pretty hard to come across an exfoliating toner especially in drugstores. I recently found a new one at DM so let's look at how it compared to my favorites.
The MON By Stefanie Giesinger is a skincare brand sold at DM which comes up with new product every once in a while. Their products are not bad but I haven't really found any favorites in their range yet. Recently they launches a glow day cream, cleansing foam and this glycolic acid toner. You know I love toners so let's look into it.
The Glycolic Acid Toner is meant for all skin types, contains salix nigra bark extract and dragon fruit extract and gently exfoliates your skin to make it more soft and get rid of any dead skin cells. It retails for 150 Crowns and you get 200ml of product which is a very decent amount. It comes in a plastic bottle and you kind of have to shake the toner out of the bottle to the cottonround. You're supposed to use it once to twice a day, leaving out the area around eyes.
Now, looking at the product I was stoked that there is an accessible glycolic acid toner in the drugstore and I bought it the minute I saw it. At home I looked at the ingredients and there's alcohol denaturate as the seconds ingredient. In oldschool toners this was a thing but I really expected better ingredients in this product. Some people say it's fine to use because it just evaporates from the skin and I am no esthetician so I won't tell you what to do, I will still use it and hydrate afterwards.
The exfoliants in the formula are glycolic acid and lactic acid which are the same as in the Revolution Glycolic Acid toner. It smells nice, probably due to the parfume in the ingredients. It's slightly yellow which could be also caused by some artificial coloring or just the ingredients.
How to use
I feel like many people still don't use toners and many people are still scared of the word "acid" in their skincare. These exfoliating toners are usually quite gentle unless you have very VERY sentitive skin. I never really had a reaction to any.
They help to clear out the pores, get rid of dead skin cells, make the complexion more glowy and if you have acne scars or hyperpigmentation, I believe that chemical exfoliants can help with that too. If you want to know more, do your research, there's plenty of information online.
I usually like to use these in the morning when I choose to not wash my face. I don't wash my face most mornings because I don't want to be stripping it since it's been pretty dry lately. I will use it on a cotton pad, wipe it across my face, usually I focus the most on my nose area because that's where my pores get the most conjested.
Some exfoliating toners make your skin more sensitive to UV rays, but you should wear SPF every day anyway. If you don't and you use a toner like this, at least put it on if you decide to include exfoliating toner in you routine. In the morning, of course. This toner doesn't have such a disclaimer on the bottle or on the website so I assume that the concentration of the exfoliating ingredients is very low.
2 weeks of using
I would say that the effects of the toner are very similar to my Revolution Glycolic Acid 2.5% toner or the Pixi Glow Tonic. I use exfoliating toners mostly in the morning and this one does a nice job of wiping any dirt and impurities of my face. My pores appear cleaner when I use exfoliating toners and with this one I noticed the same effect.
Overall I would say it's a nice and even cheaper alternative to the Glow Tonic then the Revolution Glycolic Acid toners. I couldn't find the percentage of glycolic acid in this toner in particular so I assume that it's very low. I think that makes it a great exfoliating toner for beginners or a smaller percentage alternative to some stronger ones.
Final thoughts
Overall I would say that this toner is very nice and MON surprised me with even bringing out this type of product. I am usually quite sceptical about drugstore toners but this one feels very nice and affordable.
It didn't irritate my skin at all and since there's no UV sensitivity on the packaging I would say the glycolic acid percentage it very low. Therefore I would recommend it if you want to start with exfoliating toners or toners in general. It's also a nice alternative to different stronger exfoliating toners I own.
Do you use exfoliating toners? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!