Toner for oily skin

Fresh Rose Deep Hydration Toner has the best record for oily skin at 14 of 17 and is also the best pick sold on Amazon, with Clinique Clarifying Lotion at 11 of 13. The two are close enough to treat as a tie, and Farmacy Deep Sweep 2% BHA Toner follows at 9 of 12, while The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toner has the weakest record here at 6 of 12. Each record counts just shoppers who said they have oily skin, and every group here is small.

  • 156 store reviews counted
  • Ulta and Sephora shoppers
  • Sep 2017 to Oct 2026

Updated . How we count

Did it keep oil down? What shoppers with oily skin said
  1. Fresh Rose Deep Hydration Toner 17 said either way
  2. Clinique Clarifying Lotion 13 said either way
  3. Farmacy Deep Sweep 2% BHA Toner 12 said either way
  4. The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toner 12 said either way

Share of reviewers who stated an outcome for oil control. Ranked by the lower bound of a 90% confidence interval, so a product needs both a good share and enough reports to rank high.

Fresh Rose Deep Hydration Toner Best record Fresh Rose Deep Hydration Toner 14 of 17 say it kept their oil down without drying out their skin See price & reviews on Amazon

The ranking, product by product

Praise and complaints are the points reviewers repeat most, shown as a share of each product's counted store reviews.

1 Fresh Rose Deep Hydration Toner

Fresh

Rose Deep Hydration Toner

14/17 say it kept their oil down without drying out their skin

In 54% of its 37 reviews, shoppers mention hydration, while 8% say it broke them out and 5% call it sticky.

What buyers praise

  • Hydrating 54%
  • Gentle on skin 14%
  • Smoother texture 11%
  • Absorbs quickly 8%
  • Preps skin well 5%

What buyers complain about

  • Breaks skin out 8%
  • Sticky 5%
  • Stings or irritates 5%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 2 of 2
  • Sephora 12 of 15
  • Brand site 5 of 5 shown, not counted
By skin tone (from reviewer profiles)
  • Fair to light6 of 7
  • Light-medium to medium2 of 4
2

Clinique

Clarifying Lotion

11/13 say it kept their oil down without drying out their skin

The counts cover all four formulas, and shoppers pick the formula number for their skin on the listing. Of its 30 reviews, 20% call it gentle, though 17% mention a strong smell.

What buyers praise

  • Gentle on skin 20%

What buyers complain about

  • Strong smell 17%
  • Breaks skin out 7%
Where buyers said it
  • Sephora 11 of 13
By skin tone (from reviewer profiles)
  • Fair to light7 of 9
  • Light-medium to medium3 of 3
3 Farmacy Deep Sweep 2% BHA Toner

Farmacy

Deep Sweep 2% BHA Toner

9/12 say it kept their oil down without drying out their skin

Shoppers call it gentle in 23% of its 30 reviews and say it absorbs quickly in 7%.

What buyers praise

  • Gentle on skin 23%
  • Absorbs quickly 7%
  • Preps skin well 7%

What buyers complain about

No repeated complaints yet.

Where buyers said it
  • Sephora 9 of 12
  • Brand site 14 of 14 shown, not counted
By skin tone (from reviewer profiles)
  • Fair to light4 of 5
  • Light-medium to medium3 of 4
4

The Ordinary

Glycolic Acid 7% Toner

6/12 say it kept their oil down without drying out their skin

Its 6 misses said it left their skin oilier or dried it out. Stinging or irritation comes up in 22% of its 59 reviews, and 8% say it broke them out.

What buyers praise

  • Smoother texture 7%
  • Gentle on skin 3%
  • Hydrating 3%

What buyers complain about

  • Stings or irritates 22%
  • Breaks skin out 8%
  • Sticky 7%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 3 of 7
  • Sephora 3 of 5

Share of 59 store reviews that mention each point. A full bar is 50%.

Where these numbers come from

The 4 products ranked here carry 58,803 reviews at Ulta and Sephora. We searched them for oil control and read the newest matching reviews, up to 40 per product and store, posted between Sep 2017 and Oct 2026.

A review counts only when the reviewer used the product themselves. We drop reviews written in exchange for a free product or a sweepstakes entry (0 on this page), and products that are no longer sold.

Ulta also shows reviews first posted on brands' own websites. They run much more positive than store reviews of the same products (across 19 products with both, 76% of brand-site reviewers said the product solved the problem, against 55% of Ulta shoppers), so we show them on product cards but never count them.

Because we searched for the problem, people who had it are overrepresented. Compare products with each other rather than reading a share as your own odds.

Skin type, skin tone and age splits use what reviewers chose on Sephora's review form (and age on Ulta's when given). We only show a split when enough reviewers fall on each side.

Amazon buttons appear only on products that most reviewers here say fix the problem (at least 60%, with enough reviews to trust it). Everything else gets no buy link.

An AI model labels each review against a fixed list of points, and we spot-check the labels before publishing. We publish counts, never the reviews themselves.

Read the full method

Product pages we read

  1. Fresh Rose Deep Hydration Toner Ulta (37 reviews counted)
  2. Clinique Clarifying Lotion Ulta (30 reviews counted)
  3. Farmacy Deep Sweep 2% BHA Toner Ulta (30 reviews counted)
  4. The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toner Ulta (59 reviews counted)

Questions buyers ask

Which toner works for oily skin?

Fresh Rose Deep Hydration Toner has the best record (14 of 17), followed by Clinique Clarifying Lotion (11 of 13), Farmacy Deep Sweep 2% BHA Toner (9 of 12) and The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toner (6 of 12). The first two are close enough to treat as a tie.

How many shoppers are behind each record?

The second number in each record is the group size. It runs from 12 shoppers each for Farmacy Deep Sweep 2% BHA Toner and The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toner to 17 for Fresh Rose Deep Hydration Toner. Group size is already built into the order, so a card's rank reflects both its share and how many shoppers stated a result.

Which of these toners are sold on Amazon?

Fresh Rose Deep Hydration Toner and Farmacy Deep Sweep 2% BHA Toner are sold on Amazon by the brand or Amazon itself, and Fresh Rose Deep Hydration Toner is both the leader and the best pick sold on Amazon. We could not confirm the exact Amazon listing for Clinique Clarifying Lotion, so its button searches Amazon for it. The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toner has no buy link here, because too few shoppers reported a good result for us to recommend it.

Do these records test what is in each toner?

No. The counts are what shoppers with oily skin said after using each toner, not a test of ingredients, so follow the label directions on the bottle.

Related problems

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HiveTried earns a commission when you buy through the "See price & reviews on Amazon" buttons. It never changes the ranking: the order comes from buyer reports only, and a product gets an Amazon button only when buyers here say it works.