Dickinson’s Original Witch Hazel Review

Hey y’all!

Today let’s talk about one of my life-saving skincare products… the au naturel Witch Hazel.

When my face was covered with big painful cystic acne due to a skincare regimen I was trying at the time (Clinique Anti-Blemish Skin System – review later on), no amount of medicines and trips to my derma could remove it (I still don’t trust Clinique because of THAT experience!).

So I thought of turning to natural ingredients. After searching for hours, I decided on trying Witch Hazel as a toner. I thought to myself, if it won’t work, there won’t be much difference, my face is already ruined anyway.

Benefits of Witch Hazel

Witch Hazel helps prevent and treat:

• acne
• skin sores
• bruises
• redness and swelling
• ingrown hairs
• psoriasis or eczema
• oily skin
• excess sweating
• varicose veins
• cracked or blistered skin
• insect bites
• poison ivy
• irritated scalp
• sun damage and melanoma
• razor burn
• mucous membrane inflammation
• hemorrhoids
• allergic reactions

So off I went to Healthy Options, the premier retailer of organic stuff in Manila. I originally wanted to get the Thayers Rose Petal Witch Hazel Toner but, unfortunately, it was not available at the time yet so I picked up the Dickinson’s Witch Hazel Toner. 

My face is oily and acne-prone, and I live in the Philippines, which is very hot and humid, so I wanted to get the pink one which was alcohol-free. But it was also not available so I ended up with the yellow one which has 14% alcohol.

What Dickinson’s say:

Dickinson’s Witch Hazel Toner. As you can see, I am about to use up my third bottle.

Ingredients and claims

During the first week of using the toner, I did not notice anything. It did not improve my face nor did it exacerbate it. It did not irritate my skin despite the alcohol content.

But I continued using it and  I started noticing improvements on the oilyness of my skin on the second week. I still get oily after 5 hours but not like before where I get oily right as I leave our house. Because my oils were somewhat controlled, my face stopped getting acne* and my existing acne started shrinking (together with the help of my other Holy Grail Product: Epiduo).

*together with proper cleansing of the face, i.e. remove makeup, facial cleanser, toner, moisturizer

Overtime, I also noticed that my pores started shrinking. They’re still there, but it is no longer as huge as before, especially around my forehead and on the sides of my nose.

I continued using the toner and I am soooo happy with it that I am about to use up my third bottle. It also helps that it only cost about Php 600 for one 447 mL bottle. (One bottle lasts me for 6 months). I still get acne sometimes but nowhere near as before, and they disappear after 2 days anyway. Perhaps because it’s natural, but I noticed that my skin does not build up a resistance to it unlike with other skincare products.

So if you are experiencing severe acne and have the same skin types as mine, I recommend trying out this one – just a small bottle to see how you react with it. If you have dry skin, perhaps you can try the pink bottle, though I can’t really vouch for it since I never had dry skin.

The Thayer’s Witch Hazel with Rose Water was recently available in the Philippines so I am trying that one next. I will update you on how that one performs. But I still recommend the Dickinson’s one if you can get your hands on it.

So that’s it for my experience with the Witch Hazel. I am so thankful that I decided to try it out because it literally saved my skin from further damage. If you are using the same product, let me know how it performed on you. I hope it did well. 🙂

Thank you for reading this post and I will be in touch with you soon with my next thought dump ❤