It has been almost a week since I bought the pH indicators from TTSH pharmacy. I was curious to find test out the pH of my current skincare products. Below are some of the items that I have tested so far.
The items tested include;
pH9 - Ettusais Medicated Soap
pH6 - Ettusais Acne Version Up
pH5 - Ettusais Acne Aqua Shooter
pH6 - The Body Shop Tea Tree Facial Wash
pH7 - Himalaya Neem Facial Wash
pH6 - IPSA Metabolizer R2pH4 - Eurcerin Clarifying Facial Tonic
pH5 - Dalacin T Topical Lotion
pH9 - Vichy Thermal Facial Mist
pH6 - Laneige MakeUp Mist
Frankly speaking, I wasn't exactly sure how to interpret the above results. So I went googling for more info on ideal skin pH. And here's what I have extracted from ezinearticles.com
"... The pores of our skin are made up of a combination of oil and sweat glands helping to keep our skin healthy and elastic. An excessive sebum secretion is often associated with oily skin and acne. This is particularly common in adolescents as the increased levels of sex hormones stimulate sebum production and secretion. When in balance, the combined excretion of oil and sweat from the skin's pores has a pH of about 5.5 ... The pH of normal, healthy human skin is somewhere between 4.5 and 6. However, this varies with age. Typically, newborns have a pH closer to neutral (pH 7) that quickly turns acidic in order to protect young children's skin ... With increasing age however, the skin's pH becomes more and more neutral, and thus more susceptible to bacterial growth. This reduced acidity kills fewer bacteria than before, leaving the skin susceptible to bacterial growth and infections. The skin weakens as a result and begins developing problems with increasing age ..."
"... the skin's pH is important and maintaining a slightly acidic pH of around 5.5 is critical. The skin's pH value is one of the major contributors to acne and other skin problems. Propionibacterium acnes is a bacteria that normally lives on the skin and is a normal bacteria found in all persons regardless of the presence or absence of acne. However, in individuals prone to acne, the number of P. acnes is greatly increased. It has been found that the growth of this bacteria is very much dependent on the pH value of the skin and its growth is at its minimum at the normal skin pH of 5.5. A slight shift towards the alkaline pH would provide a better environment in which it can thrive ..."
This simple pH indicators has given me a new insight to proper skincare routines, which I will elaborate further in my next post. Any readers who have been been testing out their skincare products might want to post and share your findings here too?
1 comments:
There's probably some truth to the cause of acne due to an imbalance in the skin pH, but that's assuming that everything else remains "constant". That means in a situation where you never had acne problems before, but without a change in stress level or eating habits, and for some reason your skin pH level changed, you suddenly developed acne.
Acne-specialised skincare will definitely help, but you should also do your part first in maintaining your stress level and controlling your diet (e.g. avoid oily food, junk food, etc.) No "miracle" skincare would ever do any good if you gorge on heaps of french fries on a daily basis. - Beauty Credit
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