Somewhere along the line, I seemed to have dropped the toner step in my beauty regime. Realising this was a mistake, I recently tried and tested some natural alternatives, and came up trumps with these three organic beauties.

Dr Alkaitis, Organic Replenishing Serum, £38, 120 ml
I first heard about Dr Alkaitis when I interviewed Lula Braithwaite, the owner of Lovelula.com. Lula raved about the new brand, so I just had to give it a go.

Dr Alkaitis use "certified organic, biodynamic and ethically wild-crafted ingredients in their raw state for the greatest effectiveness". Not surprisingly, they call it therapeutic skin food. And I'm with Dr Alkaitis when he says "If you can't eat it, don't put in your skin".

Dr Alkaitis' replenishing serum is a multi-tasking performer: It astringes, tones and balances your skin, it replenishes and plumps, and also acts as an anti-inflamatory. All this, while feeling light and refreshing on your skin. Love it.

So how does it do it? Inside the bottle you'll find Organic Aloe Vera gel, Witch Hazel, Organic Grape alcohol, Wild Chamomile flowers, European Elder Blossoms, French Lavender flowers, Rosemary, Wild Fennel, natural vitamin B, vitamin C complexes and 100% pure essential oils. It's so packed full of goodness, you could almost eat it. Yes, I'll admit, it's a little bit pricey, but in my mind, this miracle product is worth it.

Pukka Rosewater Pump Spray, £9.75, 100ml
I love Pukka teas for their taste, ethos and approach to business. So when I found their toner on the lovely new beauty site, How On Earth, I decided to give their toner a whirl. A fabulous move!

I am forever spritzing my face with this beautifully simple concoction. It freshens me up immediately. It also relaxes me.

Pukka’s organic rosewater is purity in a bottle. Get this: It's distilled from roses grown at a high altitude to optimise essential oil content; The roses are hand picked at dawn to protect their valuable aromatic oils from evaporating in the sunlight; They are gently steam-distilled to optimise its wonderful fragrance. Yep, it smells delicious.

So delicious I highly recommend eating it. For something different, pour a splash into a drink of water.... so refreshing. Or add some to rice pudding... divine. We couldn't drink from a bottle produced by the mainstream giants, now could we?

Simply Soaps, Lavender Skin Toner, £3.95, 100ml

I've raved about Simply Soaps organic handmade soaps before, and today I'm happy to share the goodness of their lavender skin toner.

As you would expect, this toner is a simple concoction of lavender essential oils and witch hazel. And look at the price... we can't argue with that, it's a bargain!

I would say this toner is particularly effective for oily skins, which mine is not most of the time. But having used for those monthly cycle occasions when my skin threatens a wobbly, I'm happy to report that armed with this simple beauty, all threats are staved off!

 
So, having missed out the toner for several years now, I'll never drop this step again. And while I didn't expect to add 3 toner steps to my regime, these three organic beauties do the trick nicely, and my skin is all the happier for it!