Neutral pH is 7.0 and 14.0 is very alkaline and 1 is like pool acid. That’s the pH scale. Like the Richter Scale used for measuring earthquakes every whole number change is a 10x multiple. So, a 3.0 pH is 10x more acidic than a 4.0 pH.

pH of natural skin moisture is observed at around 5 to 6 and this has been regarded by some as an extraordinarily important factor to match in skincare products.

If the Skin Dork may be so bold as to speak for the skin biology department – pH itself doesn’t matter much.

The issue is ionic charge. A very neutral anionic cleanser of pH 6 can be devastating in its inflammatory impact while a pH 9 product with no free ionic charge will result be irritation free.

On the acid side of the scale, a pH of 3 is not going to be a factor if the free ionic charge is low.

This head scratcher is resolved by understanding buffering. This is not a class in chemistry so let’s go for an analogy. Buffering is like having a Formula 1 race car that runs into a wall at 150 miles per hour and the driver walks away unhurt. The car may be in little pieces but the driver is fine. Buffering allows a low or high pH product to provide its utility without injuring the end user.

The skilled formulator will use ingredients in his finished product to buffer further the free ionic charge of the glycolic acid and reduce skin reactivity. These buffers range from esters to natural polymers that will absorb the free ionic charge while allowing the pH to drop into the 2 – 3 range.

The purpose is to exfoliate the skin without also causing a severe irritation response, even though a pH of 2 – 3 is very acidic. Nevertheless, the Skin Dork is not a fan of exfoliation because of its many other side effects that are harmful to skin biology. See EXFOLIATION and the REPAIR MODEL for more on that. The INTRODUCTION is also a great place to, well, start.

Most often the use of ingredients like sodium hydroxide or citric acid, which are highly charged molecules and a red flag are used to neutralize a product formulation that contains synthetic polymers. In doing that job these powerful ionics themselves are neutralized – at the end of the day, no harm no foul. Think of chlorine and sodium – two very nasty chemicals that when combined become an essential metabolite: table salt.

Good product formulators will take special care to ensure that the components neutralize well. This is another reason not to read too much into ingredient choices. There are many ingredients that would seem to have little or no value but when combined with others creates a 2 + 2 = 22 result. It takes many years of experience with formulation chemistry and skin observation to combine common ingredients to make an uncommon, outstanding product.