Editor’s Note: This article interviewed Director Lai Wei and Teacher Rico and edited them according to their answers.
Lai Wei: Member of the Cosmetic Dermatology Expert Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Health, Deputy Director of the Dermatology Association of Guangdong Medical Association, Director and Professor of Dermatology Department of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University;
Rico: Senior Cosmetic Research and Development Researcher
The skin care industry is experiencing a retro style. Cleaning the face has returned to simple soap from various kinds of facial cleansers.
[Environmental protection, pure natural, non-irritating, clean and moist…] Handmade soap has once again caught the hearts of women under these banners.
Mild moisturizing, clean and moist, pure natural multi-functional handmade soap is coming on our faces. Ladies either follow the trend to buy it or do it themselves. Go to the chemical store to buy NaOH (sodium hydroxide, also known as alkali tablets), ester (oil), search the making method online, and follow suit.
Unfortunately, handmade soap has caught up with the trend and DIY delights the body and mind, but face is not necessarily accepted according to the order!
Dermatologists said: Washing your face with soap is too exciting!
Handmade soap is generally strong in cleaning. If it is not too dirty and oily, it is not recommended to use handmade soap to clean the face, especially for people with sensitive skin.
At the end of the day, there is no essential difference between handmade soap and ordinary soap. No matter how many skin-beautifying ingredients are added to handmade soap, the fact that it is made of soap by traditional methods cannot be changed.
Soap has a good cleaning ability to skin, mainly relying on soap alkali. This ingredient can remove excess grease on the skin surface very well. The higher its content, the better the cleaning effect, but at the same time the stronger the irritation to the skin.
There is also a protective sebum membrane on the outermost part of the skin to keep the skin moist and shiny.
If the cleaning effect of soap alkali is too strong, it will cause damage to sebum membrane, the grease will be washed away, the barrier function will be damaged, and the moisture in the skin will also be lost.
This is also the reason why many people feel dry after washing their faces with handmade soap.
Moreover, some mild surfactants are generally not added in the process of making handmade soap to reduce the irritation of soap alkali.
Cosmetics Researcher: Alkalized Acid Face, Skin Is More Dry
Dry skin after cleansing is not a good phenomenon.
There are two reasons for dry hair when washing face with hand soap:
- First, due to the strong cleaning effect of soap alkali, some corneal lipid and NMF (natural moisturizing factor) have been washed away. On the other hand, soap alkali has good water absorption ability to the skin. After washing the face, a small part of soap alkali still remains on the skin, causing the skin to lose water rapidly.
The pH value of healthy skin is 5.5 ~ 6.5, which is weakly acidic. Most handmade soaps are alkaline, which will destroy the normal weakly acidic environment of skin and become alkaline.
However, alkaline conditions are highly irritating to skin, especially for sensitive skin and delicate skin of infants.
Alkaline conditions are also conducive to the growth of some pathogenic bacteria, and at the same time can enhance the activity of serine proteolytic enzyme in skin, accelerate the skin renewal speed, and make desquamation and dryness more likely to occur.
Moisturizing and hydrating? Handmade soap is difficult to do.
Do you expect handmade soap to protect your skin in all directions and achieve the functions of moisturizing and moisturizing? You think too much!
Handmade soap added with essential oils and herbs can only make the cleaning process more comfortable. In addition, after cleaning, some moisturizing ingredients are left on the skin surface, and the skin will not have obvious tightness.
However, the moisturizing and skin care ingredients left by the cleaning process are very limited and cannot achieve the ideal skin care effect.
Handmade soap contains some unsaponified stearic acid, glycerin and cholesterol in natural oils and fats. Although they are beneficial to skin and milder than ordinary soap, they are easy to wash away, not easy to deposit on skin and have skin care effect.
Pure natural? Without preservatives, the stimulation is greater.
Nowadays, most of the handmade soaps sold on the Internet are handmade in personal workshops. [Pure Natural] is a big selling point of this kind of handmade soap, which can undoubtedly cater to the public’s psychology. However, pure natural handmade soap actually makes face more vulnerable.
If you want to control the growth of microorganisms without adding preservatives, you are bound to improve your alkalinity, and the stronger the alkalinity, the greater the damage to skin.
In addition, handicraft workshops fromThe raw materials come from the production environment and cannot be monitored for quality. Some handmade soaps add fruit juice, vegetable juice, yogurt and other ingredients and claim to be [natural]. However, these ingredients are very unstable and prone to chemical reactions or microbial growth, causing skin discomfort and even skin infection.
Besides, these raw materials are no longer [pure natural] after being saponified by adding chemical raw materials.
Many businesses also said that the richer the filaments that handmade soap can pull out, the more it means it is [natural] good handmade soap.
The reason why some handmade soaps can be drawn is that they contain natural oils with high oleic acid, such as olive oil and camellia oil. Another reason for wire drawing is that some high molecular polymers, such as common polyethylene glycol (a common humectant), are added to the handmade soap, which have wire drawing properties.
As mentioned earlier, these chemicals, which look good for skin, cannot remain on the skin surface for a long time and play a role in skin care.
Handmade soap is actually a [dirt removal] artifact.
Handmade soap is not useless. For certain occupations or people who need to be exposed to dust all the time, such as construction workers and decoration workers, many dust particles will deposit on the skin surface. At this time, handmade soap can show strong cleaning power.
For ordinary white-collar workers, the skin is not as dirty as you think. You don’t need to use soap every day to thoroughly clean the skin. You can use ordinary facial cleanser. The skin is dirty and needs better cleaning. Only when you need to use manual soap. And the face is oily and easy to grow acne. Handmade soap can be appropriately selected.
Of course, after washing your face with handmade soap, don’t hope it can be in place in one step, but continue to do a good job of skin care and apply some moisturizing skin care products.
How picked out a suitable handmade soap.
It is recommended to choose handmade soap that is neutral or weakly acidic. When selecting, the first thing to do is to look at its quality and characteristics. Secondly, it depends on the brand and reputation of the production enterprise, the quality should be guaranteed, and safety should be put first. Thirdly, we should choose the appropriate handmade soap according to the nature of our skin and not blindly follow the trend.
Other recommendations:
1. When purchasing, look at the packaging instructions and choose handmade soaps that are neutral (pH = 7) and weakly acidic (pH = 5.5 ~ 6.5).
2. The soap containing moisturizing ingredients will be milder. However, after adding moisturizing ingredients, the cleaning effect of soap will be worse.
3. The purpose of using soap is to clean the skin. This purpose can be achieved after using soap. After using soap, the skin should feel fresh.
4. After washing your face with soap, your skin should not feel uncomfortable, such as red, itchy, tingling, tight, dry, desquamating, etc.