GLOW RECIPE | WATERMELON GLOW PHA +BHA PORE-TIGHT TONER

This review was originally part of my blog article titled, Acid Toners – Some of the Best BHA / AHA Toners for Face from Paula's Choice, Farmacy and More. You can still catch the full piece here.

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I’ve long been a fan of Glow Recipe’s clean K-beauty skin care with a twist. A fruit twist, that is. In particular, I love the brand’s Watermelon Glow Sleeping Mask and the Avocado Melt Retinol Eye Sleeping Mask — which I reviewed in an article titled, Dry Skin Saviors that Keep Skin Perky and Glowy. You can catch it here.

As I recall, the Watermelon Glow Sleeping Mask was Glow Recipe’s first-ever product. I know because I scooped up a jar the day it launched. They’ve since gone on to introduce something like 87 watermelon-infused products, including the Pink Juice Oil-Free Moisturizer and Watermelon Glow Ultra-Fine Mist.

Clearly, if you’re a fan of the superbly hydrating, thirst-quenching summer fruit, Glow Recipe owns the market for watermelon skin care.

The newest introduction into Glow Recipe’s juicy watermelon fruit collection is the Watermelon Glow PHA +BHA Pore-Tight Toner — one of the best acid toners for exfoliating the skin.

Umm, let me get one thing out of the way at the outset.

You cannot shrink your pores.

You can’t actually tighten them either. You can make them feel tighter and, with acid exfoliation or a well-formulated Niacinamide serum, you can unclog them so they don’t appear as visible — and aren’t the first thing a date sees from across the room.

Like all of the brand’s watermelon-infused products, the Pore-Tight Toner smells like watermelon, though it’s not nearly as strong as in the other products in the range. I know a lot of people find it too sickly sweet. I’m cool with it though. Pore-Tight Toner is a water-light treatment that also happens to be relatively gentle for an acid toner.

The first thing I notice about the Watermelon Glow PHA +BHA Pore-Tight Toner is that co-founders Christine and Sarah, with whom I worked at L’Oreal, had the smarts to replace useless water in the formula with Cactus Extract — which is far more hydrating for the skin. In fact, water doesn’t offer any benefits to skin beyond a temporary humectant effect.

The second ingredient is the brand’s signature Watermelon Fruit Extract, which is deeply hydrating and loaded with nourishing vitamins and amino acids.

In terms of acids, Glow Recipe opted for Gluconolactone, a gentle PHA that does triple duty as an exfoliant, moisturizer and antioxidant — and which I estimate is at about a 5% concentration. At a pH between 6-7, the Pore-Tight Toner is in the sweet spot for PHA’s to do their thing.

In addition to Gluconolactone, the brand included Willow Bark Extract, a popular, natural form of Salicylic Acid that can penetrate deeply into the pores to flush out dirt, gunk and hardened sebum— precisely what makes pores appear larger than they actually are. Salicylic Acid requires a lower pH to be most effective, but the Pore-Tight Toner seems just right to me.

My analysis of the formula INCI leads me to believe that the level of Retinol is about one percent. Glow Recipe says they’re using encapsulated Retinol that “allows it to sit on the surface of the skin longer and release smaller amounts at a time, making it more gentle than traditional retinol treatments.”

Not surprisingly, the Watermelon Glow PHA +BHA Pore-Tight Toner is a pleasure to use!

I’m no fan of pink skin care, but I recognize the appeal of the brand’s girlie packaging. Glow Recipe certainly has that in spades — and it’s paid off for them, too.

Funny, I rarely tell this story but pink packaging was the final motivation for me to launch the Skincarma Blog in the first place. I had been scrolling my personal Instagram feed one morning three years ago when I came across a shelfie comprised of all pink products.

As if pink somehow indicated that the product was good for the skin. Seriously?! Not only did the poster of the shelfie seem to believe that, but her followers did too. The praising comments made me sick. I was mortified, but not surprised. That’s the raw power of big beauty marketing working as intended.

At least if the packaging is pretty, what’s inside ought to be good for your skin. And I have to say, Glow Recipe’s Watermelon Glow PHA +BHA Pore-Tight Toner is quite pro-skin health. It’s got a gentle exfoliating effect, and an extreme hydrating benefit, too.

About tightening those pores, though? That’s just as nonsensical as pink packaging…

SHOP THE BLOG: Purchase the Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow PHA +BHA Pore-Tight Toner for $34 here.

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