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It wasn’t until 2023 that the best milky toners hit mainstream status stateside; in fact, I can chronicle its rise pretty clearly. Laneige made a splash with a new and improved version of its Cream Skin—a milky, nonsticky hydrator—in April of that year. Come June I hopped on Zoom to chat with Hailey Bieber about the upcoming launch of Rhode’s Glazing Milk, the fourth product in her line of streamlined skin-care essentials. At the time food-inspired beauty trends were at an all-time high. I made a joke about this continuing her “glazed-donut skin” ethos, and she laughed. “I want skin that looks like you want to take a bite out of it. That’s just me, though!”
Vogue’s Favorite Milky Toners
- Best With Makeup: Rhode Glazing Milk, $32
- Best for Dry Skin: Ilia The Base Face Milk, $58
- Best With Niacinamide: Tirtir Milk Skin Toner, $25
- Best for Oily Skin: The Ordinary Saccharomyces Ferment 30% Milky Toner, $14
- Best Spray: Violette_FR Boum-Boum Milk, $64
- Best Exfoliating: Eadem Cashmere Peel Gentle Exfoliating AHA Toner, $42
Six months later it’s January 2024 and Ilia entered the new year with a bang: debuting its The Base Face Milk. Founder Sasha Plavsic said at the time that she’d wanted to create a product to simplify one’s skin-care regimen, striking the right balance between a moisturizer and essence, akin to the formulas popular in Korea.
The latter is of importance. While the Western consumer is just catching on, milky toner has been central to K-beauty routines for years. “Milky toners fit seamlessly into the layering approach and emphasis on skin-barrier health that K-beauty is known for,” Sarah Chung Park, founder and CEO of Landing International, tells Vogue, adding that many TikTok-viral K-beauty brands (like I’m From, Tirtir, and Anua) offer cult favorites.
“Milky toner is basically the love child of a toner and a super-lightweight moisturizing lotion,” Michelle Lee, beauty industry adviser and former editor-in-chief of Allure, says. “Unlike the old-school astringent toners of the past, this new generation is all about hydration and barrier support. They tend to be silky liquids (they look similar to milk) that hydrate, soothe, and nourish with ingredients like ceramides, rice extracts, and chamomile.” Moisturizing properties aside, many of the market’s leading options offer added benefits like exfoliating, balancing, and brightening via AHAs, niacinamide, and botanical extracts.
Now, in 2025, the popularity of milky toner does not seem to be waning. Bieber continues to influence the masses with ways to use her Glazing Milk; take her well-loved, makeup-artist-approved foundation hack, for example. Trending in the K-beauty landscape and on TikTok certainly helps, too. “[Milky toners’] hydrating, skin-barrier-supporting properties align perfectly with current beauty trends that emphasize barrier repair, dewy skin, and minimalist skin-care routines.”
Ahead, a look at Vogue’s favorite milky toners for every skin type and concern, plus how to incorporate them into your routine.
Best With Makeup: Rhode Glazing Milk
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- Why We Love It: Bieber’s Rhode Glazing Milk is likely the most well-known milky toner on this list. Whether you’re layering it beneath foundation or mixing the two together, this product delivers weightless hydration with a radiant finish. “Known to protect skin barrier and hydrate, this is great for those who have sensitive or have combination skin,” details Noah Gratch, MD, FAAD. Blair Murphy-Rose, MD, FAAD, agrees that it’s great for those with sensitivities, thanks to its fragrance-free composition, powered by a cocktail of “ceramides, beta-glucan, and essential minerals like magnesium, zinc, and copper.”
- Key Ingredients: Ceramides, beta-glucan, magnesium, zinc, copper
- Size: 4.7 fl oz. / 140 ml
Best for Dry Skin: Ilia The Base Face Milk
- Why We Love It: Those with dry skin types should reach for Ilia’s The Base Face Milk, which Dr. Murphy-Rose describes as “a deeply hydrating and skin-fortifying formula designed to replenish moisture and strengthen the skin barrier.” The texture feels a bit richer on the skin than some of the thinner formulas on this list—similar to a face lotion or emulsion—leaving skin soft and smooth. “With hyaluronic acid to plump and hydrate, a barrier-renewal complex rich in lipids and fatty acids to enhance resilience, and microalgae extract for an antioxidant boost, this essence nourishes and protects the skin,” she continues.
- Key Ingredients: Hyaluronic acid, barrier renewal complex, microalgae extract, prickly pear flower extract
- Size: 3.4 fl oz. / 100 ml
Best With Niacinamide: Tirtir Milk Skin Toner
- Why We Love It: Lee makes a point of incorporating a milky toner into her personal daily regimen, specifically Tirtir’s. “I love that it comes in a gigantic glass bottle, and it makes my skin feel hydrated and helps start my routine off with a nice glow,” she says. Park is a fan, too, calling it “a rich, creamy toner that deeply nourishes, soothes irritation, and strengthens the skin barrier” via niacinamide, rice bran extract, ceramide, and panthenol.
- Key Ingredients: 2% niacinamide, rice bran extract, ceramide, panthenol
- Size: 5.07 fl oz. / 150 ml
Best Refillable: Laneige Cream Skin Toner
- Why We Love It: Laneige was ahead of the milky toner game when it debuted its Cream Skin moisturizer in 2019. It was reformulated in 2023 and has garnered praise from consumers and dermatologists alike. Both Dr. Gratch and Dr. Murphy-Rose give it stamps of approval. “[This] soothes and moisturizes with glycerin, meadowfoam seed oil, Centella, ceramides, and nourishing peptides,” says Dr. Murphy-Rose. “Formulated with white leaf tea water, the toner supports the skin barrier. This one comes with refillable packaging.”
- Key Ingredients: Ceramides, peptides, white leaf tea
- Size: 5.7 fl oz. / 170 ml
Best for Oily Skin: The Ordinary Saccharomyces Ferment 30% Milky Toner
- Why We Love It: When my skin is especially oily—mostly in the warmer months or if I’m wearing makeup all day—I’ll reach for this option by The Ordinary. The 30% concentration of saccharomyces ferment (“a yeast ferment technology with 3% fermented N-acetylglucosamine (NAG),” per the brand) is the star of its formulation, which helps exfoliate for smoother, brighter skin. This gentle exfoliation is paired with squalane to lock in moisture too. Dr. Gratch adds that it’s also rich in probiotics: “It is exfoliating while also being hydrating, and it is budget-friendly.”
- Key Ingredients: Saccharomyces ferment, squalane
- Size: 100 ml
Best for Sensitive Skin: Round Lab 1025 Dokdo Lotion
- Why We Love It: Dr. Gratch says Round Lab’s 1025 Dokdo Lotion is great for sensitive skin. “It is richer than your traditional milky toners and is formulated with deep seawater minerals, which is great for irritation and strengthening the skin barrier,” she says. The mineral-rich formulation (packed with magnesium, calcium, and zinc) improves skin’s moisture levels via hyaluronic acid, panthenol, and macadamia integrifolia seed oil, ensuring skin is soft and bouncy to the touch.
- Key Ingredients: Hydrolyzed hyaluronic acid, macadamia integrifolia seed oil, Chondrus crispus extract, panthenol
- Size: 6.76 fl oz. / 200 ml
Best Exfoliating: Eadem Cashmere Peel Gentle Exfoliating AHA Toner
- Why We Love It: Those wanting an exfoliating toner to visibly diminish dark spots and enlarged pores should stop their search at Eadem’s Cashmere Peel. The milky exfoliant utilizes the brand’s FastFade complex, featuring 9% AHAs and PHAs (think: lactic, azelaic, and tranexamic acids), alongside gluconolactone, rice water, and colloidal oat extract to even skin tone, clear blackheads, and improve skin’s radiance in just four weeks of consistent use. Inspired by Eadem co-founders Alice Lin Glover and Marie Kouadio Amouzame, this product masterfully pairs the hydration of a Korean essence with the resurfacing powers of the French toner.
- Key Ingredients: Lactic acid, azelaic acid, tranexamic acid, gluconolactone, rice water, colloidal oat extract
- Size: 5.08 fl oz. / 150 ml
Best for All Skin Types: I’m From Rice Toner
- Why We Love It: Lee is also a fan of I’m From’s Rice Toner, “which feels really good, especially when my skin is feeling sensitive,” she says. Rice extract is the hero ingredient, which Dr. Gratch previously said was “rich in antioxidants, vitamins B and E [to] help brighten and soothe the skin,” keeping it soft, plump, and nourished. Exceptionally gentle, this product can serve as a staple toner for any skin type or season.
- Key Ingredients: Rice extract, common purslane extract, rice bran extract, Japanese elm bark extract, Amaranthus caudatus seed extract, adenosine, niacinamide
- Size: 5.07 fl oz. / 150ml
Best Spray: Violette_FR Boum-Boum Milk
- Why We Love It: “Unlike your typical toner, this product comes in spray format, which allows you to refresh the skin throughout the day,” says Dr. Gratch—and that’s one of the main reasons we love it too. The packaging makes it easy to mist on the treatment at any step in your routine. Our favorite uses? Post-cleasing as a toner spray or throughout the day for a pick-me-up, with or without makeup. The milk itself is made of 99% naturally derived ingredients, primarily fermented birch sap, which constitutes 38% of the formula; it’s an agent known to calm and purify skin. Glacial water, squalane, and olive leaf extract are featured, too, adding skin barrier- and elasticity-boosting benefits.
- Key Ingredients: Fermented birch sap, glacial water, squalane, olive leaf extract
- Size: 100 ml
Best Calming: Farmacy Honey Milk Hydrating Essence
- Why We Love It: “Farmacy Honey Milk Hydrating Essence is another clean favorite that soothes and nourishes skin with chamomile, aloe, and Hawaiian white honey,” Dr. Murphy-Rose notes, adding that squalane and ceramides support and protect the skin barrier. The product’s calming qualities make it excellent for people with reactive skin types, from those who are acne-prone to those experiencing dryness or redness. Lightweight and moisturizing, this essence layers well in any regimen.
- Key Ingredients: Hawaiian white honey, ceramides, chamomile
- Size: 4 fl oz. / 120 ml
Best Drugstore: Byoma Hydrating Milky Toner
- Why We Love It: Thanks to Byoma, there’s a milky toner available at a your local drugstore—and it has Lee’s seal of approval. Crafted to lock in moisture, reduce redness, and soothe stressed skin, this toner blends the brand’s barrier lipid complex, polyglutamic acid, and cica into a thin hydrator that pairs well with any other step of your routine.
- Key Ingredients: Byoma’s barrier lipid complex, polyglutamic acid, cica
- Size: 150 ml
Everything You Need to Know
What is a milky toner?
“A milky toner is a hydrating yet lightweight skin-care product that has a milky texture,” Dr. Gratch explains. “They are designed to replenish moisture and soothe the skin. Often they include ingredients such as hyaluronic acid, ceramides, and squalane, which are key ingredients for the skin.”
What is the benefit of a milky toner?
Per Dr. Gratch, the benefits of a milky toner include increased hydration to the skin, barrier support, reduced irritation, and a dewy glow. “Milky toners are known to provide an extra layer of moisture, which is great for those dealing with dry skin,” he continues. “Many formulas contain ingredients such as ceramides, lipids, and probiotics to protect the skin barrier.” And because they’re packed with gentle, skin-soothing ingredients, Dr. Murphy-Rose notes that they are “often well-tolerated by various skin types, making them a versatile addition to many skin-care routines.”
Can a milky toner replace moisturizer?
A milky toner might be a good moisturizer replacement, depending on your skin type. “A moisturizing milky toner may be able to replace a moisturizer for oily skin or for normal skin in humid climates,” Dr. Murphy-Rose notes. “However, for many, it will not moisturize sufficiently on its own. Those with dry skin will benefit from layering a more occlusive moisturizer on top of milky toner to prevent transepidermal water loss and maintain hydration.”
How should you incorporate a milky toner into your routine?
Start with clean, towel-dried skin. “Often, skin-care products should be applied in order of consistency, from the thinnest to the thickest,” Dr. Murphy-Rose says. “Milky toners, which have a fluid consistency, should be applied immediately after cleansing, followed by a heavier moisturizer if additional hydration is needed.” If your toner of choice is an exfoliant, take caution. “If the milky toner contains exfoliating ingredients such as hydroxy acids (such as lactic acid), it is best to avoid using additional exfoliants in the same routine to prevent irritation. However, if the toner does not contain active exfoliants, it can generally be used alongside other skin-care products without issue.”
Meet the Experts
- Michelle Lee is a beauty industry adviser and former editor-in-chief of Allure.
- Sarah Chung Park is a beauty industry veteran and founder and CEO of Landing International.
- Noah Gratch, MD, FAAD is a board-certified dermatologist who specializes in treatments for acne, eczema, hyperhidrosis, rosacea, psoriasis, and skin cancer.
- Blair Murphy-Rose, MD, FAAD is a board-certified dermatologist in New York City and Newport Beach and the founder of Skincare Junkie.
