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PH a
Hello everyone. Over the course of my entrepreneurial journey as a skincre founder i learned a lot and spoke to dozens of people from around the world, read many articles from various cosmetic sources. One day i read about the PH pf the skin and that of products.
PH represents the alkanality or acinity of a solution on a scale on which 7 is neutral, anyhting above 7 is considered alakline and anything below 7 is considered acidic. Why does it matter anyway to us skincare business owners and formulators alike? Well our human skin has a PH that is acidic between 4.7 and 5.7 making it pretty aicidic. So what i have learned is that we should look for comsetics that will maintain this level of acidity in our skin because anything above that will disrupt the skin acid mantle and will cause reactions such as acne, eczema, dryness; oiliness etc. So my question is: is it true that all skincare produycts must be acidic? Also i saw brands using the PH of their products in their communciation and marketign efforts? Why is that? i mean if all products must be acidic anyway then why advertising this as if its something new? When i see a brand writing on their bottle PH to balance the skin; why do they say that cus anyway having a ph that is alkaline is a big NO for the skin so why telling us that their PH is acidic we know already it should be acidic? I wanted to use that in my marketing efforts but then i said is it a good idea cus everyone knows that products are supposed to be acidic anyway yet i see brand mentionning it in their packaging? What do you guys think?
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17 Replies
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hi
Well, you are right in general and wrong in detail. in General, if your product is around a ph of 5 it is skin neutral and therefore will not influence the skin acid barrier.
But for some ingredients acidic ph is not viable for example all Carbomeres will not give you any viscosity at a ph of 5 you need to be above 6 closer to 7 normally. although some ingredients will be destroyed by an acidic environment so your cream needs to be at a higher ph to stabilize that specific ingredient.
The skin can handle ph up to 7.5-8 above it will not like it a lot. For the lower range, I would say you can use down to 4 some have even 3.5 in extremes. Just think about normal water from the tap the ph is variable from 8 to 5 depending on where you are living and the skin does not have problems with it if you shower every day. So pH is mostly important for development to stabilize a cream / your Claim ingredient.
Although many modern conservation systems will need acidic ph of around 4.5-5-5 to work well.
so you see as you said in general ph is clear from the start but in the end, many products need another ph because of the ingredient and the skin can handle that normally very well.
the claim “ph skin neutral” is a claim that is made for years and years, does it relay help the skin? discussable you need to ask a dermatologist how big this impact on skin health would really be but for the customer, of course, it is an easy-to-understand claim way your product is better than one that is not skin neutral.
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This is often overblown. Skin is not passive in this context, waiting for a product to set its pH.
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Yeah, I’ve always looked at skin pH as just a marketing story with little to no impact on the product effectiveness. It’s an example of cosmetic industry Science-washing.
Others include…
Microbiome
Epigenetics
Micellar water
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Thank you all for your feedbacK.
I agree with you Perry as i always wondered if the PH on products is just a marketing tactic to give more credibility to a product.For the microbiome we see that a lot; is it also a marketing tactic/science washing? But im not sure I understand what micellar water have to do here?
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Hi Gordof thanks for your reply but im not sure I understand/So this means that not all cosmetics have a PH that is close to that of the skin and this means tbat because skin is exposed on a daily basis to things that disrupt its natural PH then this mean we need products that will adjust the unbalanced PH of the skin.Is this what you mean? So if im correct how do i know anyway that my skin PH is unbalanced and that I need something to balance it? Lets say that somethign disrupted my skin PH and made it alkaline and now i need something to bring it back to acidic; how do i know in the first place that my PH has become alkaline? Could you please explain? Thanks
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Ghita - skin generally takes care of itself.
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Hello PhilGeis.Do you mean we dont need skin balancing products?
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Not within the typical formula range of cosmetics.
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Micellar water is another example of science-washing. It’s just a fancy way to say detergent or surfactant.
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Hi Perry.I didnt know this. Well what i have learned is that science and marketing are married in the cosmetic industry but hey when a water has micelles what are you going to call it aside from micellar water? Detergent for a skincare product sounds too harsh; too irritating; you use detergent for toilet to to clean the kitchen not hyour face and when you add ingredients that sooth and hydrates the skin i believe it is no longer a detergent, what do you think?
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A verry troubled marriage, if I may…both having different ethics.
Calling this “new” type of products micellar is misleading (to say the least), since most cosmetic fluids had always had micelles.
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Hello @ketchito, thanks for your feedback/Im not sure i understand.Are you saying that because all cosmetics have micelles then calling a micellar water micellar is inappropriate because everything should be called micellar right?
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When you have surfactants in Shampoo, face wash, dishwash etc, they all have micelles.
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PhilGeis said:Ghita - skin generally takes care of itself.Yes, I would agree 100%.With the research, I have done the skin mantle has the capacity to restore quickly.We specialise in saponified liquid products, and the pH tends to be around 9.5. And interestingly, and again from some very old research (I’m in my early 70s), the cleaning effectiveness is enhanced at these high pH levels. -
@mikethair
I’m with you in old - and most hard surface cleaners have an alkaline pH. Protein is often more soluble at alkaline pH. -
Hello @mikethair thanks for your response.So are you saying that a soap begins to clean only when its PH is alkaline?
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@Ghita37 Soaps only exist at high pH’s.
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