Your skin’s pH and why you need to start paying attention to how cosmetics affect the skin: A THREAD

Let’s start with the basics. What the heck is pH? In simple terms it’s a number that represents the chemical nature of a solution. It measures hydrogen ion conncentration! It’s measured from 0-14. Less than 7 = acidic, 7 = neutral, greater than 7 = basic and alkaline

Okay so what about the skin? Your skin’s pH is SLIGHTLY ACIDIC (remember what I just said). Typically normal/healthy skin operates between about 4.5-5.7. range can vary according to studies but not by a lot. The drier your skin is the more ALKALINE, the more oil, it’s more acidic

Why is pH so important? Well if it gets affected your skin’s bioprocesses will get affected: your skin will not shed skin cells normally, make essential lipids, your skin will lose even MORE WATER, and the barrier overall will get messed up among many other things

This where I’m going to talk about SOAP. Not just any kind of soap. African black soap and lye soap bars? Ah yes come at me baby i don’t care.

ABS and lye soap bars are made with lye and other oils. Now where does the pH of lye fall? AT 10 OR GREATER! Now I just said your skin is SLIGHTLY ACIDIC and here’s the other thing

So you may think okay it’s only ONE NUMBER difference or a few numbers? AHT nope it’s not. pH is LOGARITHMIC so what does that mean. If I had a pH of 5 and went to 6. That is a tenfold (10X) difference so imagine putting a lye soap bar on your face that is pH of 10 or higher?!

If I go from pH 5 (where my skin is operating at its best) to using a soap bar of pH 10 that means I am putting a soap that is 100,000X stronger on my skin barrier? You think your skin is gonna operate okay after that??????

when I put ABS on my face or a soap bar on my face my skin may clear sure but what’s happening underneath? 1) your skin is already losing water but it will lose water at a FASTER/HIGHER RATE 2) your skin won’t be able to shed skin cells which will lead to clogged pores and acne

3) your skin is already making lipids and moisturizing factors but now that process is affected 4) your microbiome is destroyed and the healthy bacteria are removed from your skin. Now do you really want that?

And this is where I’m talking about that “squeaky clean feeling” Some if you may think omg my skin is so clean well let me destroy the fantasy! You’re wrecking your skin barrier. Your stripping the oils/lipids etc. From your skin that is making your skin operate. Out here like

That squeaky clean feeling means whatever cleanser you are using on your face (ABS users especially) is too HARSH and stripping on your skin and that also means STOP USING IT IMMEDIATELTY. Even if you see your skin clearing, it will cause more problems later. STOP

Now here’s my question for people that use stripping cleansers. Why would you use a cleanser extremely out of the pH range when there are products that are formulated within your skin’s healthy pH range????? I’ll wait

Anyways let’s talk about alternatives in the industry! So people have strayed away from making lye soaps. One alternative are syndet bars: one example is DOVE. What is a syndet bar ? It is a bar made of synthetic surfactants and they are formulated closer to your skin’s pH

And even in liquid cleansers they are made with surfactants/surfactant blends that are mostly GENTLE and formulated near your skin’s pH so your skin’s barrier will stay in TACT and not be stripped

And also another thing! Your skin’s epidermis is WAY THINNER than your your body! It’s extremely fragile in comparison. You are causing way more damage than you think so I ask you to THROW THE STRIPPING PRODUCTS AWAY. Your skin will thank you later

Overall, so many things affect pH but here is a bulk of it:

How do you maintain your skin’s pH? Well for one like I said TRASH THE STRIPPING PRODUCTS TRASH TRASH TRASH. If you are ever in doubt about whether your cleanser is too stripping? Test for that squeakiness! RETWEET TO SAVE A LIFE

That’s all I have for today and I’ll answer your questions if you have any! Hope you learned something today - The Melanin Chemist