toner burning

[jadelilly]

Hi Everyone, I have a question... I made a toner for my hubby (25% witch hazel, 3% glycerine, 2% leucidal liquid sf, 4% skin safe fragrance, the rest distilled water with powdered cucumber extract dissolved into it. It was fine the first day but today when he used it, he said it burned...a lot. He hadn't shaved today nor did he have any cuts or anything. My son used it and said the same thing, it burned.
What could have happened to cause burning...especially not on the first couple days but now? Thank you for any input you might share with me!

 

[Meganmischke]

It might be too much fragrance. Or some people just cannot tolerate fragrance on their faces. I would try max 2%. 1% is probably better and think standard.

 

[CanaDawn]

allergies to something wouldn't show up on first exposure to the allergen. That's pretty much how they work. So, I would suspect that your hubby and son are sensitive to one or more of the ingredients. If it were me, I would try a patch test or swipe with each ingredient to see if any of them alone caused the reaction. That's all I have to suggest

 

[CaraBou]

All reasonable thoughts so far. Swabbing is a great idea, but dilute each substance you are testing so that it is nearly the same concentration as is found in your toner. Using most of those ingredients at full strength is not a good idea.

I too think 4% is way too much fragrance for the face. It may be skin safe in general terms but the face is special. My face is so sensitive (I have rosacea), I no longer put apply any product containing FO. Even lavender and tea tree EOs must be in very low amounts for me.

Witch hazel will set me off too, though I realize many people can handle it. But it can contain alcohol and other irritants. I definitely would test it.

Good luck in figuring it out and please keep us posted. Good facial care is the most elusive beast I have ever tried to tame.

 

[CanaDawn]

CaraBou thanks for mentioning diluting. The thought crossed my mind as I typed last night, but didn't make it all the way out to the post.

 

[jadelilly]

Thank you all for the ideas. I will dilute and test each thing tonight on hubby. I had started with 1% fragrance (actually started with none but he did not like the cucumber extract and witch hazel smell at all and kept asking me to add more to cover it) The more I think about it, I think it probably was that (I usually don't use fragrance in face care products)
I knew I'd get some good input here! thank you so much!!!! I'll let you know what happens when we do the testing tonight.