ISNTREE Green Tea Fresh Toner 20ml

my favorite chill toner! whenever i feel like my skin needs to rest from my chemical exfoliators (aha and bha toners).

I bought this from Shopee during Flash Sale because almost everyone who's into skincare were raving about it, the ingredient list is great and I got swayed by it's soothing and moisturizing ingredients. I have a combination dry sensitive skin and have mild rosacea on my cheeks so I was thinking this toner might "soothe" and "moisturize" my skin.

I use it without cotton pads. I just pat a few drops on my face with the palms of my hands. The consistency of this product is watery, like steeped tea. When I started using it, it stung my face and my cheeks turn red for a few minutes (I patch test this before applying it on my face and it didn't irritate my skin). I didn't know why it irritated my skin. I searched on product reviews on different websites if someone had the same experience as mine, and I found a few, some are worse. So I read the ingredients list again thoroughly thru incidecoder and probably found the culprit: Salix alba bark extract.

White Willow (Salix alba) bark extract, the fifth ingredient of this toner, is known to have an organic compound called 'salicin' which is related to salicylic acid. Salicin can also be converted to salicylic acid through a complex metabolic process. It can be a natural alternative to salicylic acid though further research is needed on its effectiveness. So why Salix alba might be the culprit? According to Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) via PubChem's website, salicin can cause allergic skin reaction (sensitization, skin) and because most if its ingredients are also sebum-regulating (green tea the main ingredient is a sebum-regulator), I would not recommended this toner for people with dry-sensitive skin, eczema and rosacea as it could make it worse. I would probably recommend this for someone with acne-prone, oily skin.

Despite slightly irritating my skin, I still use it 1-3x every other week when my hormonal acne pops-out because it actually helped lessened my breakouts and it declogged my pores. The scent is strong that I don't use it when I have a cold because I sneeze whenever I smell it. I don't use either physical or chemical exfoliants, so I am actually using this as my exfoliant. It's so weird that I purchased this product to help me soothe and moisturize my skin but it ended up being an anti-acne exfoliant.

Would I repurchase? Maybe? I actually wanted to try other milder chemical exfoliants like LHA or PHA toners. If neither of the two works, I might repurchase the 20ml because 200ml might be too much for me.