Healthy skin sits at about pH 4–6. This mild acidity, the acid mantle, keeps water in and irritants out.
Too acidic · below about 4
Skin’s own range · about 4.5 to 6
pH 5.5 sits here
Too alkaline · above 7 (soap: 9–10)
Soap sits at pH 9–10. Skin sits near 5.5. The gap does this:
Soap · pH 9–10
SKIN MATTERS · pH 5.5
Do: rinse well. Very hard water? Finish with filtered water.
Do: wash after heavy sweating. Use a non-stripping cleanser.
Do: morning, night & after heavy sweating. No more needed.
pH strips are inexpensive. Buy them online, or at a lab-supply or aquarium shop.
Expect a colour between 5 and 6.
Not always. “pH-balanced” has no fixed legal meaning, so a brand can print it without giving a number. pH 5.5 is a number, and a number can be tested. Ask any brand that says “pH-balanced” what the figure is.
Probably not exactly. Healthy skin surface pH usually falls somewhere between about 4 and 6. It varies by body area, age, time of day and when you last washed. 5.5 is a sensible point inside that range. It is not a measurement of your face.
No. This is a cosmetic cleanser, not a medicine. It cleans without stripping and is suitable for acne-prone skin. It does not treat, cure or prevent acne or any other condition. If you have a skin condition, see a dermatologist.
Because the correction takes time and effort. After an alkaline wash, skin pH can stay raised for an hour or more. If you wash two or three times a day, that adds up. A cleanser already in skin’s range gives your skin less to correct.
It does not cancel it out, but it is a fair point. Tap water is usually neutral to slightly alkaline, and rinsing with it raises skin surface pH for a while on its own. Nobody who washes their face can avoid that. What you can control is whether your cleanser adds to the shift. An alkaline soap does. A pH 5.5 cleanser does not.
Sodium hydroxide is strongly alkaline on its own, but in cosmetics it is commonly used in very small amounts to adjust a formula to its target pH. It is used up in that reaction. What matters is the final pH of the finished product.
Not for a daily cleanser. Lower is not automatically gentler. Very acidic products can sting and are usually designed as treatments, not as a wash you use twice a day. For a cleanser, being inside skin’s normal range matters more than chasing the lowest number.
A sealed, properly stored cosmetic is designed to stay within its specification through its shelf life. Store the tube closed, away from direct sun and heat, and use it before the date printed on the pack. Best before 24 months from the date of manufacture.