Did you know your skin is naturally as acidic as tomato juice or a cup of black coffee? If you’re dealing with skin dryness, breakouts or irritation, your skin’s pH could be partly to blame. The skin surface pH, also known as the “acid mantle” plays an important role in maintaining the structure and functionality of the uppermost layer of the skin (the stratum corneum), and overall skin health. The natural pH of the skin’s surface is mildly acidic, and it ranges between 4.0 and 6.0. The optimal skin surface pH provides an all-important protective barrier, kind of like an armour, against environmental pollutants, irritants and allergens. This pH environment helps to keep the skin hydrated and resilient, plays an important role in creating favourable conditions for good microbes that we want on our skin, and helps to keep away the harmful microbes that we don’t want on our skin¹.

Disruptions in the acidity of our skin’s surface pH² have been linked to various skin conditions. For example, an elevated pH, where pH is greater than the natural pH of the skin – is likely to disrupt the skin barrier, leading to dryness, irritation, sensitivity, breakouts and vulnerability to infections and damage. These are all key characteristics of common inflammatory skin conditions including eczema and acne³. Therefore, maintaining the natural pH of the skin is essential for overall skin health.

Washing too frequently with pH-disrupting skin cleansers and moisturising with moisturisers that aren’t pH balanced can damage the skin’s protective acid mantle. So if you wash with a regular soap that usually has a pH above 7.0, known as an alkaline pH,⁴ the skin’s pH is then likely to also be elevated, and it can take some time before the skin can restore its natural pH. This in turn can make the skin weak and vulnerable to attacks by pollutants, irritants, allergens and harmful microbes. Maintaining the skin surface pH can easily be achieved through the use of pH-balanced gentle cleansers and moisturisers. 

Here at Ego, we ensure optimal pH levels in our products for maximum skin compatibility. Ego’s QV cleansers and moisturisers are specifically designed to help maintain the skin’s natural acidic environment,⁵ they are pH-balanced and contain skin-friendly ingredients. QV cleansers and moisturisers are free from ingredients like soap, colour and fragrance that can be irritating to the skin. QV cleansers help to hydrate the skin while cleansing, all without disrupting the skin pH protective barrier. QV moisturisers are also carefully designed to simultaneously help support skin pH and barrier function, increase hydration, and soothe dryness^6,7. Choosing pH balanced products will help keep your skin happy by maintaining your skin’s pH, and your skin health.