Your Skin and PH levels

The Acid Mantle

The acid mantle is a sebaceous gland /oil/ and sweat glands /sweat/ production, which forms Natural Barrier to keep our skin at the correct pH.


The acid mantle act as a barrier to environmental pathogens and irritants as well preventing water loss from the inside. The pH range of our skin is 4.5-5.
Beauty products are formulated to be in the similar range like our skin so as of mild acidity pH 4.6-5, to help skin to look good and feel its best. The anti-aging products have formulation in lower pH range around 3-3.5. The lower pH of these products causes dead skin to be removed better and thus making your skin look younger with less wrinkles.
Maintaining this thin layer of acid mantle helps the skin remain healthier and free of  blemishes.

The pH Scale

Most of my clients associate a higher percentage  with its strength and its ability to clear skin. They forget the pH is what matters. My client stated: she is using 30% glycolic acid  every 10 days not knowing what is the pH. The pH is a measure for acidity and Alkalinity of the solution. The pH number represents the relationship between the Acid and Alkalinity /Basic/. As the chart above illustrates the higher the acidity the lower the pH, inversely the higher the alkalinity the higher the pH. When the two (acidity and alkalinity) are combined the solution can become neutral. Clearly a facial product that is neutral will be of no help to your skin. This is why the pH is important!
Doctors are able to perform medical peels that have  50%- 70% and resulting in pH levels as low as 1.7pH. Such a procedure results in a deep peel and would take the skin to recover and is not for everyone. In a spa a peel solution should be around a pH 3.0 and a percentage of 20-30%.

Acids and your skin
Different acids target different problems in the skin. Thus knowing the acid make up of products is critical to helping you solve your skin problems. Glycolic acid is the most popular because of its smaller molecular size and ability to penetrate deeper in epidermal layer. Very often formulations include a combination of two different acids. Salicylic acid is often use alone or combine with glycolic to treat acne. For hyperpigmentation (brown spots from sun damage) include kojic acid and Vit C or retinoic acid. A common favorite of anti-aging products is a combination of glycolic + lactic acid.

Age and your skin
As you get older your skin cells take longer to recover. This results that your skin can become dull, dry and having wrinkles. "The skin cell turn over rate for a client age 16-20 is, on average, 14 days. For every year a person ages beyond 20, it increases by one day per year. At age 30, it takes an average of 24 days for cells to turn over and reveal younger, healthier skin. At age 40 it takes 34 days and, at 50, well over a month at 44 days." (Linker, Elaine. How pH affects the formulation of a product, pg. 70. Skin Inc. October 2012) Acid treatments help clean the skin and make your skin look healthier and younger.
Talk to your esthetician about the right treatment for your skin.