What is Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow PHA+BHA Pore-Tight Toner?

A pink, watermelon-scented exfoliating toner with PHA and BHA that is designed to gently smooth skin texture, refine the look of pores and add hydration.

Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow PHA+BHA Pore-Tight Toner

Q: Is Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow PHA+BHA Pore-Tight Toner worth it?

The gurus are split. 8 of the 11 gurus give it their stamp of approval while 2 would skip it, which lands it in the middle at a Guru Score of 74%.

Q: What is Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow PHA+BHA Pore-Tight Toner's Guru Score?

Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow PHA+BHA Pore-Tight Toner holds a Guru Score of 74%. That is our read on how warmly the experts talk about it, based on the verdicts of 11 expert reviewers we have collected.

What the gurus are saying.

Every take we've logged from this product's reviews across YouTube. Click any row to watch the moment they said it.

All takes Yay takes Nay takes Mixed takes Hide sponsored

AliceintheRabbitHole

59k subs

~Yay

"I finished off another Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow PHA and BHA Pore Tight Toner. I keep saying I'm going to quit buying this, but I do like Glow Recipe, even though I know a lot of people don't like them for being a cute brand."

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"It's not necessarily my favorite product but it is a unique product and I do still like it. It's high in glycerin, which is a humectant, plus three percent PHA gluconolactone, betaine salicylate as a gentle BHA, and tea tree, all in an incredible thicker than water texture. I really feel like it would take about five different toners [...] to replace this one single toner, so it does deserve all of the hype it's had. It won't be for everyone, but I do like it and it's truly a standout product."

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"This is not my absolute favorite product in existence, however it is a product that I think is very difficult to dupe. In a video talking about Glow Recipe I pulled out five different toners, all of which had characteristics that remind me of certain aspects of this product, five in total to dupe one product."

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"I used to love this. I did like this product, I liked Glow Recipe, and I feel like Glow Recipe is one of those brands where I really liked them for a long time, but more recently I've moved away from them. I still think the products are cute, they're really fun to use, I will absolutely say that."

CYoung

95k subs

~Mixed

"Even though they call this an exfoliating PHA toner it's actually pretty heavy, so if you're more on the dry side or have a little more mature skin this one is better for you. I like the watermelon scent and overall I like this one."

The Style and Beauty Doctor

222k subs

~Yay

"I got to give it to Glow Recipe on this one. Even with the funky ass watermelon scent, the glow I cannot deny. How supple and juicy my skin feels. I would use this product if they ever came up with something unscented. [...] I'm not quite sure if a product can be unscented with the watermelon fruit extract in it. I don't know if they could ever come up with something that didn't have the scent, or if that's even possible given what's used in the products."

April Basi

72k subs

~Yay

"For toner, Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow, so gentle and smells amazing."

Caroline Hirons

250k subs

~Yay

"My favorite product from there is and my most used is their Watermelon Glow PHA+BHA Pore-Tight Toner. It's one of the only exfoliants I can use that's gentle and I can actually see an effect from."

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"My favorite product from there is and my most used is their Watermelon Glow PHA+BHA Pore-Tight Toner. It's one of the only exfoliants I can use that's gentle and I can actually see an effect from."

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"My favorite product from their and my most used is their Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow PHA+BHA Pore-Tight Toner. It's one of the only exfoliants I can use that's gentle and I can actually see an effect from. There are brands like [COSRX] which I do love but it's maybe a bit too gentle because I have a mix of a very oily T-Zone but I need a good BHA kind of thing so they just do that perfectly like a good mix of gentle but effective."

Kelly Driscoll

91k subs

~Yay

"I love it. You're paying for a bit of an experience here, a beautiful aesthetic bottle, the pink color, the scent. [...] I think the ingredients for what's available at Sephora are fairly unique. I'm loving the use of PHA here, it's a new generation AHA, so it's all about getting those dead skin cells off the top surface of your skin, making your skin a lot more smooth, helping to address texture and pores, and helping to give your skin a really beautiful bright glow."

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"Generally my opinion of this is pretty good. [...] It didn't blow my mind, it's not my favorite toner, it's not even like my middle-of-the-pack favorite toner, but that doesn't mean that I don't like this product. [...] For me it wasn't super impressive but there's nothing here that I'm very critical about. [...] I'm pretty neutral to it. I think that it is a very fun experience."

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Dr. Mamina

282k subs

~Yay

"This toner by Glow Recipe I think it's nice, it has like a gentle blend of PHAs, polyhydroxy acids, and BHAs. Polyhydroxy acids are great form of exfoliating acids for people who have like dry or sensitive skin. I think this one also has some ceramides and it's part of the watermelon line so it also has like hydrating properties from watermelon. This toner also has hyaluronic acid, so it's like soothing, hydrating, and gently exfoliating."

Cassandra Bankson

2.46M subs

~Yay

"I was hesitant because it has citrus and my skin doesn't always do well with citrus, specifically bergamot and grapefruit. But I kept seeing people talk about this online, so I decided to try it. This is very different from their watermelon toner. I like their watermelon toner, but it's more of a niacinamide active for me, whereas this actually has CoQ10 as well as some vitamin C ingredients, and they say it's safe for sensitive skin. I tried this and I have fallen in love."

Hyram

4.33M subs

~Nay

"The Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow PHA+BHA Pore-Tight Toner, I think pass, if I remember right, because I believe they do use natural fragrance. Their fragrance components aren't super bad, but I usually prefer products without fragrance, so I'm going to have to say pass, but I do love Glow Recipe."

All 3 takes from Hyram

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"I don't love the fragrant components that they use in some of their other products, like this one, for example. But it's still a formula that's chalk full of a lot of antioxidant ingredients. And as far as risk of fragrance sensitivity goes, they're on the very low end of the spectrum because they use more natural extracts rather than like perfume fragrance in their formulas."

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"Okay glow recipe I believe she's using the glow recipe toner and then the serum as well"

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James Welsh

1.58M subs

~Yay

"I absolutely love still, but this is like the evolution of snail mucin without the snail... [...] it's nice that we have this alternative and especially for those people who really kind of like focus more so on what it is and is put off by the amazing benefits that mucin can have. I feel like this is such a good thing to do have this kind of like cruelty-free alternative."

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"This toner does not contain aggressive exfoliating acids. The PHA is actually known to be great for sensitive skin. PHAs are [...] a gentler version of AHA that does everything AHAs do but gentler, due to their larger molecule size, so they don't penetrate the skin as deep and as quickly as a regular AHA does. Studies have shown that PHAs work very well on easily sensitized skin, including rosacea, which is why my skin loves this so much."

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"With Watermelon, which is rich in antioxidants, we have Betaine Salicylate. So you get that really nice, gentle exfoliation. A mix of Betaine and Salicylic Acid. Polyhydroxy Acids, a very nice, gentle exfoliant. Cactus Water, which helps hydrate and moisturize the skin. Tea Tree Extract, which for me works wonders on soothing my skin and soothing redness. I absolutely love this. I absolutely love it as a toner/essence."

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"If you haven't tried this before, if you don't mind a little bit of fragrance, my skin is easily sensitized, I have rosacea, and the fragrance in here does not bother me. It's a small amount of fragrance, perfectly safe amount of fragrance. It's an amazing toner just to use consistently every single day to see those gradual skin evening, pore tightening, pore clearing kind of benefits that you get from a BHA."

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"This product just feels light, it's refreshing, it's instantly hydrating. When my skin is craving, dying for some hydration, this is what I go for. I just use this every day and night. I absolutely love it. My favorite product of all time. Not just Glow Recipe. Ever."

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"The Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow PHA and BHA pore-tight toner is one of my favorite products of all time, my favorite toner of all time. It's gentle, using betaine salicylate instead of salicylic acid plus a PHA, and takes that Korean approach of teaming exfoliation [...] up with hydration."

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"Glow Recipe's Watermelon PHA plus BHA Pore Tight Toner is another toner I use pretty much day in, day out. As someone with rosacea I have to be gentle with exfoliants, and with its PHA and betaine salicylate as a BHA this is super gentle exfoliation with that K beauty twist of added hydration. People comment on the fragrance, but that smell is probably cucumber rather than fake watermelon. My rosacea prone skin does not mind it at all, it loves it."

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"It uses bain sulfate instead of salicylic acid, a really gentle version of BHA, so it's a great starter exfoliant for those new to exfoliation but also for those who want to exfoliate low and slow. I can't remember when I didn't use [...] this, it's [...] one of my favorite products of all time."

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"It's so gentle I can use this every single day without any irritation to my skin. It's like thick water, [...] full fat water that just Glides over the skin and quenches and hydrates. I feel that instant dose of hydration. I love it so much and it keeps my very porous nose looking smooth."

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"Glow Recipe's exfoliants are my absolute go-to products. Their BHA toner is one of my favorites that I always repurchase and rely on."

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"Glow Recipe BHA PHA Watermelon Toner is my favorite BHA of all time, a very gentle BHA which really, really suits my rosacea-prone skin. When it comes to keeping your skin happy and healthy, preventing inflammation of any kind is something I'm trying to do as I get older. [...] For me, gentler exfoliation and lower percentages more often seems to be what my personal skin really, really enjoys."

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"The gentler BHA alternatives in here, willow bark and betaine salicylate, work amazingly on my skin. I've been using this product for like three years non-stop now. I go through it like it's water because it feels like water. It's super hydrating. This is the original PHA toner. It's so nice. It's got this gloopy texture to it that means you can pour it in the palm of your hands and put it over your face without any of it dripping down your hands or your face and just wasting product."

Dr. Vanita Rattan

1.23M subs

~Nay

"It's actually a bit sickening the smell, it's just too much. It's just too much. Can you imagine layering this on top of each other over and over all day long? It does feel refreshing, no irritation, it is actually an enjoyable experience just because of how light it feels. But [...] I don't know why they've gone to town with this fragrance on this thing."