After a few forum searches and inquiries, I found out that Beauty Bar carries this product line. And it was just my luck that there's a Beauty Bar branch at a mall near us. But to my dismay, this toner cost around P900 at that time. I was still a college student and despite my fervent yearning, it was simply too expensive for me.
Fast forward to a few years later, I was already employed and have even started buying smaller and cheaper Burt's Bees items (lip balms basically). And I loved them. I was sold to Burt's Bees. But I have grown hesitant to buy the Garden Tomato Toner, because even if I can afford it already, I still find it expensive.
I did end up buying the soap and the toner (while my friend gasped at the price that I was paying for the two items) and was excited to finally try them on my face. I love the packaging - the smoked vintage-y glass bottle and like that the toner didn't smell of alcohol or any harsh chemicals. It smelled a little sour though, like the sourness of fresh tomatoes.
I was so thrilled about using the product that I sort of expected that it would miraculously transform my skin into kutis-artista. Well, maybe not THAT much, but my expectations were high nonetheless. I've used other local-brand toners before and I didn't like the effects on my skin. Upon application, my face would turn red. Then super shiny. After a few days, my mom noticed that my face looked darker than the rest of my body. Because of that, I vowed never to use another facial toner again.
But Burt's Bees, I argued to myself, is different. It's natural and it has people swearing by how effective it is. And it's too expensive a toner for it not to work wonders. Unfortunately, it yielded the same disappointing results. I wanted to give it a few more days, thinking maybe my skin needed to adjust to the new product first before it reveals the promised healthy, even-tone, pimple-free, oil-free layer. But my face got darker and darker each day and I started to develop small bumps on the forehead. The shine/oil nor the pimple weren't showing any signs of retreat either. I felt like if I continue using it, things will just get worse for my skin.
So I stopped using it after only two weeks of trial. Being natural doesn't mean that it's effective and just because it's effective for a hundred people doesn't guarantee that it will have the same effect on you (assuming that all those reviews and testimonials on the website are real).
I didn't throw it away, though. I fell in love with the bottle so I kept it inside my closet, along with my other not-so-good purchases . Then one day, while in a hurry to go to work and looking for something to clean my shoes with, I took a handful of cotton, and wet it with the toner and used it to clean my shoes. You know, it's a good leather shoe cleaner and that's how I've been using it since then. Too bad that it just ended up as an expensive shoe cleaner. But at least I found good use for it.
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