Toners

ANUA Heartleaf 77% Soothing Toner Mini

This is genuinely very soothing for something that's basically fancy water. It's like water+. There's no scent and it has a slight slip in texture versus what comes out of my tap, which is basically 50% water and 50% rocks. I particularly like that it hasn't got hyaluronic acid in it which I always find to be sticky without much benefit. If I didn't discover the other toners, I would've hoarded the remaining UK stock of this one when I found it in October 2024 because ANUA already reformulated it in East Asia with a dozen more ingredients and HA... It's also pretty pricy for what it is, so I can't say I can repurchase it.

Beauty of Joseon - Green Plum Refreshing Toner AHA + BHA

I love this, I don't know why, but the acids seem to make it sink in just a little bit better and it is also HA free. It smells very faintly like fresh pickled plum ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. My face did not have any reaction to this until I started using retinol (which is already irritating on its own but also sensitises) so unfortunately I can't use it without careful timing, but I made an oopsie and impulse-bought a spare one because I love it so much. When I used it liberally in the first couple of months, it did make my palms peel a little, but then they also became so, so soft.
My gut is telling me I should completely stop using it on my face until I adjust to my retinol and/or use that all up so for now it's repurposes for my body KP.

Hado Labo Shirojyun Premium

I kind of hated this because it was just so, so sticky. I would apply more, thinking more layers would help, but it would hydrate me for ten minutes while renewing the stickiness. It also didn't do anything for my skin so I will never buy it again.

ISNTREE Green Tea Fresh Toner Mini

The one that made me realise HA isn't all that bad.
I think the more things I try, the more I find I can't count on the list of actives 100% and that sometimes the best thing is a sample, if that's available, because the formulation can make one 'dud' ingredient absolutely fine in any given product. I only notice the sticky texture if I touch my face, otherwise I don't feel it sitting there. Maybe it's the other ingredients or the type of HA that make the toner absorb better.

Regarding usability: it has a tea-like scent that's almost chalky in the way fresh clay can smell, and it's brown which can stain. I say 'can' because I didn't find it particularly messy, it doesn't exactly leave a residue on hard surfaces or my skin, but it's not a good idea to get it on pale clothing and when I rub my face with a tissue, it will come away yellow-ish even though my skin colour looks unchanged. This might not be one for paler skinned people or those who don't like 'exotic' scents (I say that because I don't think most in the West often encounter this kind of medicinal, herbal greenness in every day things, especially not cosmetics).

Naturie Hatomugi Skin Conditioner

I got this because it's in bulk, it's cheap, and the original goal of my toner journey was just to hydrate my face and bone dry body. I have no real complaints, only that it has a very slightly strange feel when it dries down? It's probably because it isn't 100% pure water but doesn't have active acids like the Isntree toner to make it penetrate deeply into the skin. Pretty much disregard this because I have some sensory sensitivities that go off at the most random things, which means this is a huge nitpick.
My first bottle was opened in March and I still have about half of it left.

Summary:

It's so hard to choose but the Naturie toner beats out everything else for my purpose by cost, hands down. I got it from Amazon.co.jp for its native retail price, which converts to about £3.40 which is crazy for a 500ml bottle! I got it with other items that made it worth the import.
Toners, in my mind, are supplementary and most importantly for hydration, since the concentration of actives in them aren't usually high enough to be hard hitting. So really there was no question that this was the winner when:

The Green Tea toner can stain and costs almost as much as...
The ANUA toner, which is the priciest and now limited anyway because of the reformulation
The BOJ Green Plum toner has a conflicting active