The balance of skin- PH balance

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Sep 13, 2008 in Hair & Beauty

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I want to open the eyes of consumers. You should know what you put on your face! Ever switch to a new facial product and experience poor results? This could be related to the products PH.

Over the summer I started using a new face wash - thoroughly clean face wash by desert essence. My skin got worse. It was dry, but I was constantly getting new breakouts. With ingredients like sunflower, greent tea, and tea tree oil it sounded like it would be good for the skin. Well it's not. And that's not just because the first ingredient is soap (SOAP is for hands. Soap is for bodies. SOAP 'aint for faces!) but wen tested for PH this self-described "PH balanced" product tested as a 9.

FYI our skin is acidic, we have an acid mantle that protects our skin from bacteria, environmental damage,helps regenerate skin cells, and restore our natural moisture.

The ideal skin has a ph of 5.5 but skin ranges from 4.5 - 6.2. With that said, you don't want to be putting anything on your face that has a PH greater than 6.

More products than you can believe are not balanced for our skin! You should know what you are putting on your face!

So today as an experimentation, my friend and I, armed with PH sticks, took over sephora and CVS in search of new products. I was washing my face with something just less than soap, my cousin: moisterizing with clinique hydra which might come to a surprise to many, it has a ph of 7.5. So needless to say, we need new products.

Our most interesting finds:

All foaming cleansers have alkaline PH. This includes purity foaming cleanser!! 7.5! Dior foaming cleanser, and fresh foaming cleanser. Darn I always though the foaming cleansers were fun to use. Here's why: there is soap and detergent in the ingredients to make this product foam. Soap has a PH of 10 and will destroy your skin over time.

Neutrogena face washes were all alkaline, the orange one was a 9.

Clean and clear scrub was 8.

Philosophy never let them see you shin scrub was an 8.

Philosophy's purity (a favorite for everybody) was a 5. This product is gentle, and perfect balance to the skin. I've used it and it delivers... which is why it is an award winning face wash.

DDF brightening face wash was a 3.5/4 A low acid PH is good to exfoliate the top layers of the skin. It's great for problem skin and oily skin.

Sephora face wash was 5.0 and only 7 dollars

Many acne products have alkaline PH. This will dry out your skin, and not in a good way. When you use a PH over 7 on your face the consequences are numerous.

-natural moisture barrier is stripped away leaving skin dry, red, even flaky

-pores are left open, exposing them to bacteria and further breakouts

-aging is accelerated, weakening the skin and it's barrier against environmental damage

If you have acne, professional products like DDF, Dermalogica, Murad, and kinerase are the best products for your skin. They are well worth your money because you will see results. These are proven products created by dermatologists and used by estheticians, who are the pickiest people when it comes to skin care!

I ended up buying Juice Beauty organic face wash. I love all the natural products. The first ingredient: grape juice. Grapes right now are huge in skin care, filled with powerful antioxidants and natural acids. This wash has a ph of 4.5, which is gentle enough for me yet effective to control future breakouts. Well I just started using it so I'll keep everyone updated on how my skin looks a month from now.

So for all that are curious to test their own products, I got my PH strips in the fish isle at a pet store.

-Hana.

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Comments (4)

Hey just read your blog... I as well have the same problem as you. I use purity myself... but i also use lush's products. Have you tried the lush brand at all? Report Spam Posted by lovelyk at 9:06 PM on 09/15/08
Lush is a great brand! I haven't tried much of their face care line - just one face bar that had the total misfortune of melting 3 days later when I took it with me down to south carolina (in the car!).What lush products do you use? They have a good face moisturizer? Report Spam Posted by tropicanahana at 1:46 PM on 09/19/08
how do you know the ph balance? where do you go and find it out? Report Spam Posted by unknown015 at 2:38 PM on 11/11/08
Unfortunately, to find the PH balance really requires testing with PH strips. Products aren't regulated at all and companies don't list the ph on their product (Which they should! But most people don't understand this, and if they did many companies would be losing a lot of money). Also your regular sales associate isn't going to know this. So go to a store like sephora or ulta where you can compare products and use ph strips. Don't worry this is allowed!! At department stores however, it may not be. From what I've been told, you get scolded for even inquiring about ingredients and ph at places like Clinique or estee lauder!! Look for products that contain any of the following ingredients: acids - salicylic (best for oily/blemished skin, very acidic. under 1% for face wash, 2% is strongest over the counter and great for on pimples and pores), Alpha hydroxy (good for blemished, and also uneven or aging skin. Very acidic, a product with this will help cell turnover and refine skin), stereic, lactic acid, caprylic acid, L-ascorbic acid (vit. c), Tocopheryl acetate (acidic vit. e), Ascorbyl palmitate or ascorbyl (vit. c derived), (copper peptides, palmitoyl or matrixyl), and ceramides (great for dry and mature skin. A little heavy for oily skin). These are all acid ingredients when in a skin product, will have an acidic ph. avoid products with soap, sodium lauryl sulfate, polyethylene glycol (PEG), oleth, laureth, 2- ethylhexyl, phthalate, titanium dioxide, urethane, and ethyl carbamate. As far as I know Parabens like: butyl, ethyl, propyl, methyl, nonyphenol don't have effect on PH but do avoid products that list any of these on top of their ingredient list. They aren't good for the skin, but are found in nearly all products as a preservative, so make sure they are on the bottom of the ingredient list! Report Spam Posted by tropicanahana at 7:53 PM on 08/31/09