Witch hazel is a beneficial ingredient in skincare products, but you need to be careful about how you get it.

You may be familiar with witch hazel as a first aid product that soothes irritated skin. It is found in the first aid aisle of a drugstore, alongside hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol.

Witch hazel is such a cheap household commodity (typically $2-3 for a large bottle) that it is produced by private label. The drugstore’s name is the “brand name” on the bottle. In the image above, Walgreen’s, CVS, and Target are private label versions of witch hazel.

Witch hazel in skincare products offers a number of beneficial properties beyond soothing skin. When it is produced as a toner, it is a mild astringent that feels cooling and refreshing.

But it is also antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, antiseptic, and anti-fungal. This range of benefits makes it a useful ingredient in serums and moisturizers.

Be Aware Of The Alcohol Content

You need to exercise caution with the witch hazel toners sold in drugstores. These typically contain 15-30% alcohol (ethanol).

15-30% is a high amount of alcohol and not recommended for direct use on skin. This particular kind of alcohol, and this much of it, is drying and disruptive to the skin’s barrier function. (More about Alcohol In Skincare here.)

If you have oily skin, it might be tempting to use this kind of toner to reduce the oil. But the short-term relief that you gain is far outweighed by the long-term damage you inflict on your skin.

When you degrade your skin barrier, you set yourself up for a host of skin problems. If you already suffer from an issue such as acne, an impaired barrier just makes it worse.

Take a look at this example here. This is Target’s private label brand Up & Up. On the ingredient label, you can see that witch hazel is at an 86% concentration. That means 14% of this product is something else (alcohol).

Up&Up Witch Hazel front labelUp&Up Witch Hazel ingredient label

 

I use this kind of witch hazel to soothe my skin after a bug bite or rash. That doesn’t happen everyday. And when I get a bite or rash, it’s only a small area on my body. So using it for an occasional bug bite or rash isn’t a big deal. Putting this all over my face every day would be disastrous.

Don’t use the witch hazel from the first aid aisle on your face!

There are witch hazel toners that are made for the face, which are found in the skincare aisle. Thayers, Dickinsons, and Humphreys are the most popular brands in the U.S. But these have a lot of alcohol too. So you shouldn’t use these either unless they are alcohol-free.

What To Look For Instead Of The Drugstore Version

If you are seeking the benefits of witch hazel, you’re better off buying a hydrating toner that contains witch hazel as one of its ingredients (among others), rather than a witch hazel toner from a drugstore.

Many toners, softeners, and essences contain witch hazel, so it is not difficult to find one. It’ll cost you more than a drugstore toner, but it is well worth the investment.

There’s another good reason you should look for a toner outside the drugstore aisle. It will contain hydrating ingredients (called humectants), such as hyaluronic acid, glycerin, and butylene glycol. Humectants are water-binding ingredients that keep your skin hydrated longer.

Here is an example of a hydrating toner with a fair amount of witch hazel. It’s the first ingredient in the list. This is a toner that I recently purchased.

Cosmedix Benefit Balance

Ingredients: Hamamelis Virginiana (Witch Hazel) Water, Aqua, Glycerin, Polysorbate 20, Cassia Angustifolia Seed Polysaccharide, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract, Camellia Sinensis (Green Tea) Leaf Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Citrus Paradisi (Grapefruit) Peel Oil, Santalum Album (Sandalwood) Oil, Lactic Acid (L), Glucuronic Acid (D), Allantoine, Menthol (L), Glutathione (L), Ethylhexylglycerin, Phenoxyethanol

 

If your budget limits you to drugstore products, look for an alcohol-free witch hazel toner. Thayers has a few, such as the Rose Petal and Lavendar versions.

Photo: Royal Horticultural Society Garden Wisely Plant Centre

Photo credit: Royal Horticultural Society Garden Wisely Plant Centre

Where Does Witch Hazel Come From?

It’s a funny name, isn’t name? What exactly is it?

Witch hazel, otherwise known as Hamamelis virginiana (its Latin botanical name), is a herbaceous plant that is distilled for its hydrolat.

A hydrolat is the byproduct of essential oil distillation. It is composed of the water-soluble molecules of the plant and the water soluble components of its essential oil.

Hydrolats are also called distilled plant waters. Sometimes they are called hydrosols, though hydrolats and hydrosols are technically not the same thing.

The aroma of a hydrolat is softer and milder than the aroma of its essential oil. It is often used to lend a pleasant fragrance to a product when an essential oil would be too strong.

Witch hazel, like cucumber, does not yield an essential oil. Instead, it is distilled for the hydrolat.

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