Well, if I may tell my personal opinion: there is no essential need for toner after cleansing unless you like it (like me) or you have oily skin. Toners can be rough on your skin if you don't know the balanced ingredients.
Dr.Eckstein's basic toner (called Lotion) is a refreshing facial toner for almost every skin condition. It smooths and lightly vitalizes the skin with natural essential oils. Because of it's well selected composition of substances it leaves the skin feeling refreshed and hydrated. The active ingredients derived from chamomile have a soothing, balancing and normalizing effect. Lavender has slightly disinfecting effect, whereas orange oils stimulate, vitalize and improve the blood circulation. The refreshing scent of the essential oils vitalizes in an ideal way.
You can apply it after cleansing with a cotton pad or pour some into your hand and apply it onto your skin.
Voila, now your skin is ready to absorb some good nutrients....
Why does it matter how much moisture the skin has? Any biological system, including the skin, survives by carrying out a multitude of biochemical reactions. In essence, biochemical reactions are chemical "transactions" involving biologically important molecules. The vast majority of biochemical reactions proceed normally only if the reagents are properly dissolved in water or, in some cases, oil. Lack of water in or around cells disrupts normal metabolism and tissue repair. Therefore, dehydrated skin has a decreased capacity for repair and regeneration.
Dry skin has a decreased capacity to heal, it is far more susceptible to various forms of skin damage such as sun exposure or harsh detergents. Furthermore, dry skin is also more prone to skin infections and irritants because it has many tiny cracks allowing the offenders to sneak in.
In other words, it makes a good sense to have a well-moisturized skin. Even though moisturizing won't lift your eyelids or reverse wrinkles (except maybe recent fine lines), it will help slow down any further damage, and allow other treatments to work better. In fact, if your skin is excessively dry, most skin care treatments have far less chance to produce desired results.
Now your skin is prepped for moisturizing:
Moisturizing is particularly important when relative humidity is low because the latter promotes faster evaporation of moisture from the skin. In particular, dry weather and indoor heating season call for extra attention to moisturizing.
Also, not all people are created equal in terms of the need to moisturize. For example, people with oily skin may need little or no moisturizing. (In fact, people with oily skin tend to develop fewer wrinkles as they age.) On the other hand, people with dry skin or even normal-to-dry skin need to moisturize. Skin dryness tends to increase with age. Most people over forty have some degree of skin dryness and need to moisturize. Skin dryness tends to be particularly severe in women near, during or after menopause.
For best results, skin should be moisturized both from the inside and outside.
Moisturizing from the inside means keeping the body well hydrated. When dehydrated, the body preserves the water supply to critical organs, such as the brain and the heart, but "cuts off water" to peripheral organs such as skin. Therefore, keeping the body well hydrated is an important part of keeping your skin well moisturized. Adequate fluid intake is key. However, just as important is to avoid foods and beverages that cause excess water loss. (Yes, beverages too. Ironically, some drinks can actually cause you to lose more water than you take in.)
Moisturizing from the outside is based on proper use of moisturizing creams and lotions.
I recommend using long-lasting moisturizers, which will keep your skin hydrated throughout the day. The good news is that even though long-lasting moisturizers are a lot more effective, they usually do not cost more.
Dr.Eckstein offers a wide variety of moisturizers for day and night.
Today I want to talk only about the Beautipharm Day Cream (developed by Dr.Eckstein's son Gerd) which also includes a SPF 15 and is very light.
The All Day Moisturizing Balm is a rich, essential balmn to smooth and moisture the skin throughout the day. It helps to sooth dryness and protects from harmful sunrays present year-round.
Contains UV-A + UV-B protection SPF 15, Vitamins A + E, Bisabolol and Allantoin
What To Do With Break Outs?
You may have noticed that you have a few more break outs than normally and since our skin did not have time to adjust to increased perspiration it's a very common thing.
The best treatment is Azulen Paste as soon as you feel one coming up and dab it on there either at night or even work it with your foundation if you are a little handy. Azulen Paste contains azulene (a calming chamomile extract) zinc oxide, Vit. B complex, A, E, allantoin, and sulfur. Within a few days it will be gone - promise!!!! It was developed by Dr.Eckstein as a highly concentrated paste for the spot treatment of skin conditions with tendency to acne and possible impurities. It helps improve and accelerate skin's own natural balancing abilities and calms the affected areas by helping to reduce redness and swelling after removal of impurities. There is also a powder one could wear with foundation.