The Importance of the Skin’s pH
The pores of our skin are made up of a combination of oil and sweat glands (sebaceous and sudoriferous glands) helping to keep our skin healthy and elastic. Making sure the skin’s pH is in a healthy range will ensure the health of our skin even more.
The Acid Mantle
This slightly acidic layer, the “acid mantle”, is our body’s first defense mechanism against invading bacteria. This defense layer develops at puberty when we start to produce more hair on our bodies and activate the sebaceous oil glands at the same time. This is what changes our skin pH to somewhere between 4.5 and 6.2, which is the normal pH range for the skin. Children are more susceptible to disease, viruses and fungal infections such as ringworm because the pH of children’s skin is closer to the neutral pH of 7.
In the late teens to early twenties, our acid mantle is well developed and provides good protection against potentially harmful, external environmental factors. Consequently, our skin usually looks healthy, heals quickly when injured and seems to take care of itself.
Age and the Importance of the Skin’s pH
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. Interestingly, the pH value rises beyond 6 when a person actually suffers from a skin problem or skin disease.
The aging process of the skin causes biochemical changes in collagen and elastin, the connective tissues underlying the skin. The skin’s firmness depends upon collagen and elastin for a youthful look. The loss of skin firmness and elasticity differs from individual to individual, depending upon their genetic makeup, general health, over exposure to the sun and their skin care regime.
How to Prevent and Correct the wrong pH of the Skin
Facial exercises help greatly in restoring much of this loss to the muscles and connective tissue and a good, organically based, natural skin care line with the correct pH, as in Carolyn’s Facial Formulas™ skin care line, helps to further restore the skin to its healthiest state. The pH of all the CFFormulas™ products are between 4.5 and 6.2.
As the skin becomes less elastic, it also becomes drier and the underlying fatty tissue (subcutaneous layer of fat) begins to disappear and the skin begins to sag. Our skin is less supple, and wrinkles begin to form. At this stage, our skin is more easily injured, heals more slowly and tends to dry out more quickly.
Soap can be too Alkaline
Using ordinary soap on your skin can create a harmful imbalance in the skins acid mantel. It can have a pH factor between 9 – 11 and this high alkalinity cannot only dry out the skin, but it can actually harm the acid mantel that is protecting the skin from infection.
Another factor regulating your skin’s pH is the presence of micro flora on your skin. That is, Staphylococcus Epidermis. It is involved in the breakdown of fatty acids. Therefore, it is partly responsible for the acidic pH of the skin. The use of ordinary soap, not only changes the pH of the skin to be more alkaline, effectively removing the protective acid mantle, but it also kills the bacteria responsible for creating, at least in part, the acidic pH of your skin – twice the trouble.
There’s Hope
Not to worry. All you have to do is be sure you’re using skin care products that have the proper pH between 4.5 and 6.2 and you will restore the proper balance to your skin and the acid mantel in no time. Since all of the CFFormulas™ products have this perfect pH, your skin is therefore saved from any injury or distress caused by the environment, either be it sun, soap or other unfortunate things. There’s even a schedule for radiant skin for you to follow so that within a very short period of time you can rebalance your skin’s pH and be on the way to having a healthy, beautiful skin of which you can be proud.