Testing the pH of a client’s facial products

I love it when new clients bring in their skin care products for me to peruse. I always test the pH of their products because finding out the pH of any product is truly the first and most important piece of information I can find out before knowing if a products is “good” or not.

• I fold a tissue in half the long way
• Then I line up the products behind it
• I’ll tear off a small piece of the pH test paper in order to test each product

This client brought in all of her moisturizers (photo above), but it is actually the cleansers and toners I like to test. It is much more likely that a cleansing or toning product will be alkaline; less likely for moisturizers, including eye creams. But still, it is important to test any and all products a client is using to be sure that no product—zero—are alkaline.

When my client saw that the sunscreen she’s been using was alkaline, she was surprised. She said the salesperson said it was also a moisturizer, but my client said it didn’t feel at all hydrating—in fact the opposite. I explained most likely that was due to the alkaline nature of this particular product.

The sunscreen is a cream so it is or should be moisturizing. But due to its alkalinity it was actually stripping the skin on some level of its natural moisture. Just the opposite of what you want in any cream product, sunscreen or moisturizer.

I put this article up not to slam her sunscreen product or even talk about these particular products in detail, but to show you how simple it is to get this important information before you start using new skin care products. And, obviously, you can test what you are using now to be sure they are pH balanced and OK to use on a daily basis. In case you're interested, the sunscreen is from a company called First Aid Beauty (FAB): Ultra Repair pure mineral sunscreen moisturizer.

The other products in this photo, although a bit hard to see, that tested pH balanced are:

• Shiseido Bio-Performance Advanced Super Revitalizing Cream
• Clarins Double Serum
• Kiehl’s Pure Vitality Skin Renewing Cream
• Kiehl’s Powerful Wrinkle Reducing Cream

In the articles on this blog, some listed below, is all the information you need to get the test papers and be one step closer to using the perfect products on your skin now.

For more information, see:

• Proper pH & your skin care products
• Questions about pH and pH papers
• Clinique’s 1-2-3—Just Say NO! (includes a pH test)