Skin Interactive: Blog

As one can tell from the name of our skin care line, pH plays an important role in determining how effective topical skin care ingredients are in improving one’s skin. If you look around all the beauty shops in the world, there are literally millions of products on the shelves. The real truth is that you can distill all of these products down to about forty jars to meet the needs of EVERY person in the world. In fact, there are only about two handfuls of clinically proven active ingredients, known to impact human skin quality.

All the differences among the myriad of products on the market come down to smell, texture, packaging, concentration of active ingredients, and the pH (or level of acidity) of the active ingredients. So where does bioavailability come in? Let’s begin with a basic definition: Bioavailability refers to the difference between the amounts of a substance, such as a drug, herb, or chemical, to which a person is exposed and the actual dose of the substance the body receives. Bioavailability accounts for the difference between exposure and dose.

Our skin lives healthily at a pH of around 4. Most soaps are quite alkaline (pH above 7), and should never be used on the face. Common therapeutic skin care treatments include alpha hydroxyl acids such as glycolic, salicylic, or lactic acid. When using products such as these to help turn the skin over, freshening its appearance, the ideal treatment pH is 3.0. So what does this all mean as a consumer? Let’s take glycolic acid as a common example. Many glycolic acid products list the concentration or percent of glycolic acid in the ingredients on the box. This is only part of the formula determining its bioavailability. If you compare 3 products, each with a concentration of glycolic acid of ten percent, and the first has a pH of 5, the second with a pH of 4, and the third with a pH of 3, the one at a 3 pH is 100 times more effective as the one at a pH at 5. The pH scale, like the decibel and Richter scale is logarithmic. This means that a movement of 1 point represents a tenfold change. Therefore, the same concentration of glycolic acid at a ph of 3, is 100x more bioavailable than one at a pH of 5! Knowing the true bioavailability tells the whole story of the skin care’s expected efficacy, and why we at pH Advantage provide complete disclosure to our customers. Given that there are so few products which are effective, getting the right bioavailability is crucial. Our products are produced, where appropriate, to deliver MAXIMUM bioavailibity of each product we sell, allowable by law. So, an educated consumer is our best patient. Knowing they are getting the best products, and the correct bioavailibity, should clear up the need to search through all the millions of other products on the market!

Barry J. Cohen, M.D.

301-656-6398