Alcohol is fine in skincare, and not all alcohols are the same.
Some are moisturising!
A thread.

“Drying alcohols” could be “alcohol” or “alcohol denat.” on an ingredient list.
They can absolutely dry and strip your skin if used too much or too often.

Historically, “toner” meant an astringent, alcohol based liquid that we applied 2x daily after cleansing with soap.
I’m looking at you, Clinique clarifying lotion https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💀" title="Schädel" aria-label="Emoji: Schädel">
It was designed to curb excess oil and it did, but it also stripped the skin of key moisture molecules.

It has several benefits in a skincare formula;
helps dissolve other ingredients, helps ingredients penetrate further into skin,
balances out the oiliness, ie oiliness of UV filters in sunscreen (to create a lighter finish)

For example, Skinceuticals HA Intensifier contains alcohol.
It’s 4th on the ingredient list.
I could speculate that its purpose in this formula would be to help thin out the texture and to push the serum’s other, more moisturising ingredients further into skin.

There’s also the fact that most skincare products contain quite a low percentage of alcohol compared to say, hand sanitiser, which should be upward of 60% alcohol.

Then we have fatty alcohols, which are oily liquids or waxy solids, and might look like “Cetearyl Alcohol” on an ingredient list.
These are moisturising for skin.
Here’s one in Cerave’s PM Facial Mousturising Lotion

In conclusion, “Alcohol” or “Alcohol Denat” is mostly fine but probably not if it’s the second ingredient in a toner you use twice daily,
and fatty alcohols are friends https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="♥️" title="Herz" aria-label="Emoji: Herz">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="♥️" title="Herz" aria-label="Emoji: Herz">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="♥️" title="Herz" aria-label="Emoji: Herz">