Where Does Toner Go in My Skin Routine?

Short answer: On just-cleansed skin, before any serums, moisturizers, or other treatments. Long answer: The right toner can pretty much revolutionize the kinds of results you’re getting from any skin-care routine; here, the best tips for optimizing your regimen.
BEST BASICS FOR EVERY SKIN TYPE
Whether you’re sensitive or you can use very powerful treatments without reacting, gently exfoliating in your first few steps paves the way for your whole routine to function better. These two work together beautifully to cleanse thoroughly, exfoliate, and hydrate skin all at once. Over time, they refine, brighten, and soften skin.
-
Jelly Face Wash
Cleanse, smooth, and brighten your skin morning and night with this unique, soft, exfoliating jelly face wash made with natural fruit enzymes, arctic cloudberry, and bitter orange peel.
goop Beauty GOOPGLOW Cloudberry
Exfoliating Jelly Cleanser goop, $28/$25 with subscriptionSHOP NOW -
Flower Acid Toner
This two-in-one daily treatment toner gently resurfaces, hydrates, and leaves skin glowing in just one step.
goop Beauty GOOPGLOW Flower Acids
Resurfacing Toner goop, $45/$40 with subscriptionSHOP NOW
SEE KATE’S ROUTINE
Kate Vaught, our senior manager of beauty product development, explains that clean ingredients and ingredient technology in general have made this kind of gentle but powerful skin care possible: “We’re discovering ways to get the results we want without the irritation that used to be part of achieving those results,” she says.
“I love the jelly cleanser—I’m a physical-exfoliating-cleanser die hard, and the cocooning jelly texture feels so incredible on my skin,” Vaught says. “I smooth it on for a full-on soft-skin sensorial moment, and my skin feels so clean and dewy. Then, after cleansing, I give the toner a little shake, add a couple drops to a cotton pad, and sweep it everywhere, focusing on areas that need a little bit more exfoliation, like the T-zone, around the nose, and around the lips, while avoiding the eye area. Take it down your neck (or even on your hands if you like). It exfoliates in such a gentle way and feels hydrating, balanced, and refreshing.”
How to Build Your Routine
After cleansing and toning, layer on a treatment serum tailored to your skin goals, then follow with moisturizing, protecting ingredients on top. Don’t forget sunscreen—it’s the ultimate beautiful-skin-every-day miracle, and if you do any kind of exfoliation, it’s even more important to help protect your skin.
-
Normal to Dry Skin
-
1. Treatment
A dose of long- and short-chain hyaluronic acid molecules, this serum is ultramoisturizing, giving skin an instant boost.
Dr. Barbara Sturm Hyaluronic Serum goop, $300SHOP NOW -
2. Moisturizer
This has to be the thickest, richest cream ever made. With thirteen different oils, it’s dense, ultramoisturizing,and skin-soothing.
Surya Balancing Collagen Cream goop, $185SHOP NOW -
3. Sunscreen
This hydrating natural sunblock sinks right in and protects skin with SPF 30.
The Organic Pharmacy Cellular Protection Sun
Cream SPF 30 goop, $69SHOP NOW
-
Sensitive Skin
-
1. Treatment
Made specifically for sensitive, dry, or reactive skin, this silky serum delivers powerful but gentle ingredients to brighten, smooth, and firm.
Tata Harper Superkind
Bio-Barrier Serum goop, $130SHOP NOW -
2. Moisturizer
This silky-smooth lightweight moisturizer, made with nourishing botanicals and hyaluronic acid, deeply nourishes even the most reactive skin.
Tata Harper Fortifying Moisturizer goop, $120SHOP NOW -
3. Sunscreen
This beautifully textured everyday tinted mineral sunscreen blends like an absolute dream.
Unsun Mineral Tinted
Face Sunscreen goop, $29SHOP NOW
A Routine for Ultimate Youth-Boosting
-
1. Treatment
This daily glow serum combines two skin-care powerhouses—vitamin C and hyaluronic acid—for skin that looks radiant, moisturized, and healthy.
goop Beauty GOOPGLOW 20% Vitamin C + Hyaluronic Glow Serum goop, $125/$112 with subscriptionSHOP NOW
-
2. Moisturizer
This luxuriously rich supercream significantly improves firmness, elasticity, glow, the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, and brightness after just four weeks. A single application leaves skin nourished, firmer-looking, and moisturized for forty-eight hours.*
goop Beauty GOOPGENES All-in-One
Nourishing Face Cream goop, $98/$86 with subscriptionSHOP NOW -
This clinically tested eye cream helps firm and smooth the appearance of crow’s-feet, fine lines, puffiness, and dark circles for a fresh, visibly well-rested look.
goop Beauty GOOPGENES All-in-One
Nourishing Eye Cream goop, $55/$50 with subscriptionSHOP NOW
-
3. Sunscreen
This lightweight cream melts into your skin, blocking both UVA and UVB rays with zinc oxide. (And have you ever seen a cuter tube of sunscreen?)
-
Grown Alchemist Natural Hydrating
Sunscreen SPF 30 goop, $39SHOP NOW
-
Extra Credit
-
Once a Week
An intense exfoliating overnight glycolic acid glow peel that refines, retexturizes, and brightens skin while you sleep.
goop Beauty GOOPGLOW 15% Glycolic Acid
Overnight Glow Peel goop, $125/$112 with subscriptionSHOP NOW -
Every Few Days (but Never within Twenty-Four Hours of the Peel)
This clinically proven microdermabrasion exfoliator delivers the benefits of both physical and chemical exfoliation, instantly polishing away roughness, smoothing uneven texture, and revealing a healthy-looking, glowing complexion.
goop Beauty GOOPGLOW Microderm
Instant Glow Exfoliator goop, $125/$112 with subscriptionSHOP NOW
Which Toner, Essence, or Tonic
Is Right for My Skin?
While our flower acid toner works for all skin types, there are more great, complexion-supercharging options in the clean space.
-
All-in-One Multitasker for Every Skin Type
goop Beauty GOOPGLOW Flower Acids Resurfacing Toner goop, $45/$40 with subscriptionSHOP NOW -
Breakout-Fighting
True Botanicals Clear Nutrient Toner goop, $48SHOP NOW -
Moisturizing and Astringent
UMA Brightening Rose Toner goop, $65SHOP NOW -
Active Essence
Vintner’s Daughter Active Treatment Essence goop, $225SHOP NOW -
Makeup Remover and Essence
Furtuna Skin Acqua Serena Micellar
Cleansing Essence goop, $78SHOP NOW -
Deeply Exfoliating Tonic
goop Beauty G.Tox Malachite + AHA Pore Refining Tonic goop, $75/$68 with subscriptionSHOP NOW
*Based on an eight-week third-party consumer-perception and clinical study conducted on thirty-three women ages thirty-five to sixty-five.