In Real Life

Skin Care | Understanding pH

If you've ever listened to a skin care tutorial, you probably recognize this term. It begins with p, ends with a capital H, and it's among the primary reasons for why there are skin variations. But blurting out something like that is easy, the game changer is when you truly understanding what pH means for you and how to take advantage of it to improve your skincare routine.

As gross as this may sound, your face constantly undergoes a process where it oozes sebum which is a mixture of natural chemicals, sugars, wax, and fatty acids designed to protect your skin from infectious bacteria and moisture loss. This inconspicuous layer of secretions on your face is called the "acid mantle" and it contains both hydrogen ions (H+) and hydroxide ions (OH-). It's the hydrogen ions that puts the H in pH.

Literally translated as the "potential for hydrogen," pH is a scale used in chemistry to quantify the concentration of hydrogen ions in a water based (aqueous) solution. Basically it's a calculation that tells you how acidic liquids or, in this case, your skin's oils are. 

When someone says there is a high potential for hydrogen (pH), they're saying that there are more hydrogen ions (H+) = less hydroxide ions (OH-) = less acidity. To save your breath, a liquid with little to no acidity can also be called alkaline or basic. 

When someone says there is a low potential for hydrogen (pH), they're saying that there are less hydrogen ions (H+) = more hydroxide ions (OH-) = high acidity. It's simply an acid.

Another way of approaching this is more hydroxide means more acidic. Less hydroxide means less acidic. But because the H in pH stands for hydrogen, there's an unfortunate tendency to ignore the hydroxide. 

Confused yet?

Don't worry! I'm going to give you an analogy to help break this pH calculation down into something more #relatable.

Think of a cup partially filled with lemonade. Adding water wouldn't make the taste of the lemonade stronger, it actually dilutes it and makes the beverage taste more watery. But decreasing the amount of water you add to the cup (or adding no extra water at all) means you have more of that delicious lemony flavor to savor.

It's the exact same thing with pH!

Similar to the water in our analogy, adding more hydrogen ions "dilutes" the solution in the cup and makes the acidic "taste" weaker (not stronger). The solution therefore becomes alkaline or basic! On the other hand, decreasing the amount of water you add to the solution in the cup makes the acidic "taste" stronger meaning you'll have more of that acid to use. 

I can picture so many faces lighting up as it starts to make sense. You can thank me by supporting this book. But lets take our learning one step further: If you had to guess whether your skin had low pH (lots of acid) or high pH (alkaline), which would you say?

To those who guessed that our skin cells have low pH, you're correct! We're slightly more acidic!

Since pH is a scale with 0 being the most acidic, 7 being neutral, and 14 being the least acidic; your skin falls somewhere around 4 to 5.5. Below is a roughly estimated scale that may put things into perspective.

pH 0 = Battery acid

pH 1 - 3.5 = Stomach acid, lemon juice, vinegar, soda, orange juice, wine

pH 4 - 5.5 = Human face, acid rain, beer, egg yolk, black coffee, tomato juice, banana, 

pH 6.3 - 6.6 = Saliva, milk, urine

pH 7 - 7.4 = Pure water, blood, tears

pH 8 = Sea water, baking soda, eggs

pH 9 - 10.5 = Clorox, baking soda, milk of magnesia, toothpaste

pH 11 - 13.5 = Bleach, oven cleaner, soap/soapy water

pH 14 = Drain cleaner

I explained all of that information above just to say this: To achieve a neutral skin surface (where you're neither oily nor dry), you need to be able to find that happy medium for your pH. Kind of like how nurses push and pull on the bar as you stand to get your weight in the doctors office; they're trying to find that spot where the scale neither tilts to the left or right but floats perfectly between the two sides.

It's literally a balancing act!

And it's crucial to get this right and keep it right because just going one decimal place above or below your perfect pH balance means adding or loosing 10x more acidity. You could have neutral skin and by adding a certain product or eating a certain food or going under a certain weather your skin could instantly begin producing too much oils or too little.

Scary, yes, but believe it or not this is something you can control. It all begins with knowing what your pH level currently is and how to reach that desired balance. Ready to get started? Read on.

--- Note from author

I hope you're as fascinated by this information on pH as I am. More is yet to come! Feel free to comment any questions, observations, or reactions here and I'll respond when possible. Thank you again for supporting my work!