Hydration is the common thread linking toners, facial mists, and essences. While toners rebalance skin post-cleanse, mists offer mid-day refreshment, and essences supercharge hydration and absorption. But with so many options, which should you choose?
Enter the Daily Vanity Beauty Awards 2025.
We’ve rounded up the top-performing formulas – tried, tested, and loved by experts, readers, and editors – so you can find the perfect pick for your skin and budget.
Best Brightening Toners
Glow Recipe Cloudberry Bright Essence Toner Experts’ Choice Editor’s Choice
What it does:
This fluid, almost gel-like toner absorbs effortlessly into the skin, offering a refreshing burst of hydration. Infused with cloudberry and vitamin C, it works to brighten, even out skin tone, and leave your complexion feeling smooth, plump, and naturally luminous.
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Estée Lauder Nutritious Radiant Essence Lotion Reader’s Choice
What it does:
This soft, fluid lotion has a cooling, cushiony feel that instantly soothes the skin. Enriched with sweet kelp and red algae, it helps rebalance moisture levels, smooth uneven texture, and support skin barrier repair for a healthier-looking complexion.
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Best Combination Skin Toner
Laneige Water Bank Blue Hyaluronic Essence Toner Readers’ Choice
What it does:
The silky, water formula glides on effortlessly, delivering deep hydration and a refreshing feel. Infused with Blue Hyaluronic Acid, it helps soothe irritation, improve skin texture, and prep your skin to drink up the benefits of your next skincare steps.
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Best Dry Skin Toners
Beauty of Joseon Replenishing Rice Milk Editor’s Choice Reader’s Choice!
What it does:
This bi-phase toner pairs nourishing rice extract with oil-controlling powder to promote a clear, balanced complexion. With its fast-absorbing, watery consistency, it delivers lasting hydration and a healthy glow, while helping to smooth skin texture and regulate excess sebum.
Where to purchase:
Porcelain Deep Hydration Lotion Experts’ Choice
What it does:
This lightweight, watery lotion delivers intense, long-lasting moisture with hyaluronic acid and ceramides, soothes sensitive skin with cucumber extract, and protects against environmental stressors such as UV rays, making it the perfect non-greasy toner or mist for radiant, healthy-looking skin.
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Best Sensitive Skin Toners
Origins Mega-Mushroom Treatment Lotion Editor’s Choice
What it does:
This lightweight, watery lotion absorbs instantly to soothe and hydrate sensitive skin. Infused with Reishi and Chaga mushrooms, it reduces redness, strengthens the skin barrier, and restores balance for a calmer, more resilient and visibly healthier-looking complexion.
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Evans Dermalogical Gentle Soothing Toner Experts’ Choice
What it does:
This lightweight, watery toner absorbs quickly into the skin, delivering hydration and a soothing effect. Enriched with sodium PCA, chamomile, cucumber, and purslane extracts, it helps calm sensitive skin, retain moisture, and leave the complexion balanced and refreshed.
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La Roche-Posay Physiological Soothing Lotion Readers’ Choice
What it does:
This gentle, water-like lotion soothes and hydrates sensitive skin with glycerin and La Roche-Posay Thermal Spring Water. Its alcohol-free formula balances the skin’s pH, leaving it soft, refreshed, and free from irritation, perfect for daily use.
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Best Hydrating Essences
Then I Met You The Giving Essence Experts’ Choice Editor’s Choice
What it does:
Then I Met You The Giving Essence is a lightweight, hydrating essence with 78% fermented ingredients and 5% niacinamide. It refines skin texture, brightens, and balances sebum production, leaving skin luminous and moisturised, suitable for all skin types.
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Benefit Cosmetics The POREfessional Hydropop Readers’ Choice
What it does:
This gel-like, water-based essence has a smooth, lightweight texture that absorbs quickly, leaving the skin refreshed and hydrated. Infused with niacinamide to brighten and refine pores, and rose hip extract to nourish, it provides long-lasting hydration without feeling greasy.
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Best Anti-Ageing Essence
Innisfree Black Tea Youth Enhancing Treatment Essence Readers’ Choice
What it does:
This refreshing, water-like essence has a smooth, lightweight consistency that absorbs easily into the skin. Formulated with fermented green tea, peptides, and niacinamide, it hydrates, brightens, and enhances skin texture, leaving the complexion revitalised and ready for the day.
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Best Brightening Essence
Clinique Even Better Brighter Essence Lotion Readers’ Choice
What it does:
This lightweight essence lotion hydrates and brightens the skin with Clinique’s CL302 Brightening Complex™. Infused with salicylic acid, vitamin C, and green tea extract, it gently exfoliates, reduces dark spots, and promotes a radiant, even complexion with deep hydration.
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Best Facial Mists
FOREST MD Stem Cell Repair Essence Editor’s Choice
What it does:
This lightweight essence, enriched with Swiss apple stem cells and Tremella mushroom extract, boosts skin regeneration and hydration. It targets fine lines and dullness, enhancing skin elasticity and luminosity, leaving your complexion smooth, radiant, and refreshed with consistent use.
Where to purchase:
Caudalie Beauty Elixir Editor’s Choice Readers’ Choice
What it does:
This fine mist, infused with green grape, rose, and rosemary essential oils, hydrates and refreshes the skin. It tightens pores, sets makeup, and imparts a radiant glow, leaving your complexion smooth, luminous, and revitalised throughout the day.
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Meet the Expert Judges
Our panel of pros brought their insider know-how to help us crown the standouts.
- Ginger Lynette, a seasoned makeup artist with a decade-long career, has worked her magic on celebs, brands, and international campaigns. Her mantra? Enhance, not erase.
- Dr Xu Rongrong, aesthetic doctor at The Urban Clinic, believes great skin starts at home with the right products. Her holistic take blends effective routines with in-clinic precision.
- Dr Ang Sue-May, a dual-accredited Consultant Dermatologist and founder of Shine Dermatology, champions long-term skin health over quick fixes, and knows exactly what ingredients deliver.
- Dr Byron Tee, also from The Urban Clinic, specialises in advanced hair and skincare. His focus is subtle enhancements and real, radiant results.
- Kelly Chew, hairstylist at Chez Vous: HideAway, is the queen of low-maintenance Korean textures. With 12 years of experience, she’s mastered the art of effortless hair that lasts.
- Melvin Tseng, makeup artist, producer, and beauty creator, is a creative force who turns bold visions into beauty statements – think avant-garde looks with an editorial edge.
