DIY Toner. So easy, it's ridiculous. And you get the satisfaction of making your own beauty product, with none of the mess of those yogurt/honey/oatmeal masks that probably work but are too much like slathering your breakfast on your face.
All you need is a generic bottle of drugstore witch hazel and a little vial of essential oil. Put a few drops of the oil into the witch hazel, shake to dissolve before using (each time-- the oil will float to the top of the bottle) and you're done. I like to decant the stuff into a squeeze bottle, both for ease of use and for aesthetics. (I've thought about designing a pretty label, but alas, my impending employment will probably get in the way of that project.)
Witch hazel is a great toner--- fights acne without drying, preps the skin for moisturizer, removes makeup and dirt. (It's also a very pretty plant!) I like the grapefruit oil that you can get at Whole Foods (a fresh astringent pick-me-up smell), but you could also use any mint oil, eucalyptus, lemon, rose, whatever suits your fancy. All for about $3 for a 12 oz. bottle.
perfume by Tokyo Milk. Very unusual-smelling: a combination of tobacco (like the leaves, not cigarette smoke), apple (but not squeaky clean green apple shampoo smell, more musky, like late fall apples that have been lying on the ground for a while), tea leaves and amberwood. That description doesn't do it justice and makes it sound like it smells like an apple rotting in an ashtray, which it doesn't at all. It's warm and kind of savory and smells like the perfect olfactory counterpoint to a crisp fall day.
