Found out 70% of my cleansers had a pH over 7 and I was shocked

I was scrolling through a skincare science subreddit last night and saw a post about pH levels in cleansers. Turns out a bunch of popular brands test way too high. I grabbed my own bottle of that creamy stuff I use on dry skin clients and tested it with strips from Amazon. It was at 8.5, which is basically stripping the barrier. I checked three more products I keep in my treatment room and two of them were over 7.5. Has anyone else tested their go-to cleansers and found something wild like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

sean11911d ago

I grabbed those pH strips off Amazon too and tested about a dozen cleansers I had lying around, and yeah it was rough. The ones marketed for oily skin were the worst offenders, some hit 9.0 which is basically alkaline territory. Your mileage may vary but I've found anything above 7.0 on my dry skin clients really messes with their moisture barrier after a few weeks. Stick to the low pH stuff around 5.5 if you want to keep things balanced.

carr.daniel10d ago

Honestly, this is exactly what I've been wondering about. How much of a difference do you actually see in your dry skin clients when they switch from something like a 7.5 pH cleanser to a 5.5 one? Like, is it a slow gradual thing over months or does the barrier bounce back fast once they swap products? Tbh I've been using a 7.0 cleanser for years and my skin's fine, but now I'm second guessing everything.