Ph of skincare products
Is the pH of rosacea skin any different than "regular" skin?
Just wondering if it might make a difference in the the acid/alkaline level of cleansers.
This is of course a complicated q because so many factors are
involved.. I had a post on it in the archive, I'm no expert, but I
had the name of a skin ph meter you could buy, however it's not
cheap
I've speculated in the past varying individual PH levels will have
bearing on how we can tolerate a particular product over another
person. And our ph can fluctuate depending on what we do to our
skin, such as overwashing or using a product that is too harsh for
our type.
In general skin has a ph from 5.0-5.5, and oilier skin has a more
acidic ph. Men's skin also has a tendancy to be more acidic. That
translates into less moisture being stripped and a faster
restoration of the acid mantle...
When one soap has a ph of 8 and another 9, I know 1 point doesn't
sound like a lot, but each point is actually a 10 fold increase in
water loss from your skin.
As far as our ph being different than normal skin, I'd have to say
so-starting with if your baseline is oily or dry. Inflammation in
the dermis offsets epidermal function. So I have to believe before
the rosacea got going, our ph's were more "normal" and consistently
maintained given our epidermis was working better.
It's been my thinking that the chronic inflammation of our bvs not
only makes our epidermis less efficient at holding water, but that a
rebound effect is occuring inside as well(like when you get acid
rebound from taking anti-acids for too long)..The body is
compensating by pulling nutrients, such as water and oxygen, away
from our skin-hence the tightness we all seem to fight...I know that
sounds backwards, but when you think about it, overly dilated blood
vessels=heat loss, so you'd need to conserve water. Much like being
dehydrated in the desert or in cold environments, where oxygen/blood
are pulled away from the skin... Feel free to correct me if I'm
wrong Dr.Nase
So, all of this is going to effect how your skin responds to a
product, and I think Ph is very important .. Especially when water
alone in excess(ph neutral 7) can make your skin too alkaline(.ie.
turn ph up), thereby making skin more vulnerable the next time you
cleanse.
As a rule of thumb, I'd stick to things in the 5.5-7.O range.