Six Steps to Perfect Skin pH

1. pH-Balanced Skincare

Recently, I received an email from my longtime customer: 

I’ve been using your products and practices for years. No reason to doubt any of your science, Tonya. But out of curiosity, I’m interested in the pH of your cleansers and moisturizers after reading this article: All of Those Products are Making Your Skin Worse.

Many people are searching Google for pH-balanced creams, shampoos, cleansers, and so on. Whether on product packages, TV commercials, or signage in stores, the term “pH-balanced” is everywhere. But have you considered exactly what the popular term means? Let’s find out what it’s all about and why it matters (or not) to you!  Continue reading pH-Balanced Skin Care.

What Determines Your Skin's pH Level?

Several factors decide a person’s individual pH level. Our skin becomes more acidic as we age, even more so depending on environmental factors and lifestyle. All the things that come in contact with your skin—smoke, air, water, sun, soap, cosmetic products, and pollution -- contribute to breaking down the acid mantle, interfering with the skin’s natural ability to protect itself.

What you eat is a fundamental part of your internal and external pH levels. Some foods that are more acidic before digestion become alkaline inside the body. Lemon is a good example of this. 

Animal products have the opposite effect on the body. They tend to be more alkaline before consumption but become acidic inside your body. To keep our body at optimal levels, we need to prevent our bodies from becoming too acidic. A diet of more alkalized foods—raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds—will assure a healthier body and a more beautiful complexion.

If you read my books, you know one point I emphasize… If you consume a mostly raw diet, you’ll become an enigma to those in the medical profession. For example, your blood test results will likely puzzle your doctor. Eat raw, and you’ll become different. More information in my book Quantum Eating.

It’s the same in the realm of beauty. By eating mostly raw, what would be inappropriate for a person on a cooked diet will be very beneficial for you. When you eat mostly raw foods and drink freshly squeezed juices, you make your body more alkaline. Your skin benefits greatly from daily masks which are on the acidic side.    
  
Medical standards and cosmetics formulas are tested on the population at large. They eat cooked food, overwhelmingly. If you’re juicing and you eat mostly raw, you’re different. You’ve surely noticed that already, socially. If you haven’t, you’ll soon discover that many general medical and cosmetic recommendations you hear or read might not work all that well for you. You’ll have to find your own standards and set your own routines.

You can’t deny this: Our cooked food population doesn’t do too well at slowing down aging. Desperate, many resort to Botox, injections, and cosmetic procedures. You, however, may achieve quite impressive results without resorting to any of these invasive procedures, Reason: You are different. You have made yourself different by the way you eat. You’ll need to be creative, observant, and unafraid to take a few risks (which always come with being different).

The main thing to remember: If you want better results than those achieved by most people, you must do things differently than most people do. As Pythagoras reminds us, what the majority does is absurd and ridiculous. As to the current explosion of cosmetic procedures, he couldn’t be more right.

2. Six steps to Perfect Skin pH

The pH of skin varies person to person but is typically between 4.5 and 5.5, depending on the type of skin. 

Your ideal skin’s pH is just that – it is specific to you. And your pH is what assures your best complexion.

How can you tell if your skin’s pH level is too low? Too high? Or just right? Here’s the simplest way… wash your face and feel your skin. Does it feel clean, smooth, moist, and soft? If yes, then your skin’s pH is just right. 

But if your skin feels tight, dry, wrinkled, your skin’s pH is too high—your skin is too alkaline. If your skin feels oily, or if it’s prone to breakouts and too sensitive, its pH is too low—it’s acidic. I believe the best route to an optimum pH balance for your skin lies in six specific practices…

1. Juicing. Fresh vegetable juices—the most natural and desirable form of nourishment and hydration—feed the blood, which in turn feeds your skin. 

I’ve been juicing daily more than 20 years and have always had 5 or 6 celery stalks in my daily vegetable juice. But if your skin is too dry or too oily, you might benefit from a pure celery every morning, on an empty stomach. See the book Medical Medium Celery Juice.

2. A high raw food diet. Your skin's pH must be balanced from the inside. Fresh green and vegetable juices alkalize the blood, bringing your pH balance in line. Consuming nutrient-rich raw foods and daily juicing are your best bets for ensuring you get plenty of nutrients to feed your skin. This way, you’ll avoid and eliminate eczema and other extreme skin conditions, which are the result of the skin being too acidic.

3. Daily exfoliation. A healthy skin pH is more on the acidic side. The skin is almost 100 times more acidic than pure water. It’s my conviction that daily exfoliation can bolster the acid mantle and encourage healthy skin cell turnover and regeneration.

4. Daily mask application. 

Facial masks containing plant acids can also help to maintain healthy skin. In their presence, your skin can combat harmful microbes and the damaging free radicals that are known to accelerate the aging process. 

5. Apple Cider Toner. Using a toner made with apple cider vinegar topically could help rebalance the natural pH of the skin, improving the protective skin barrier. Here’s just one simple recipe of a toner that you can easily make yourself.
Balancing Toner
1 cup water
2 Tablespoons organic apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons fresh aloe vera gel or juice
Shake together in a glass bottle and apply with a cotton ball after cleansing. Refrigerate.

6. pH-balanced cosmetics. Our cosmetics are strictly in line with industry standards for pH balance. 

Watch my short video on the right. There’s no makeup that’s a substitute for healthy skin. Get rid of your blemishes—don’t cover them up. And with the methods I advocate, you’ll find it’s entirely possible to achieve skin that looks supple, smooth, and spotless (even when you're in your 60s)—all without any more than minimal makeup, such as our gently tinted moisturizer. Here’s my absolute favorite cream: Rose & Pearl Illuminating Moisturizer.

Don’t bother trying to measure your skin’s pH. Instead, check the condition of your skin. If it’s clear, supple, and smooth, if it’s moist with no breakouts, you can be confident the products you’re using are optimal for your skin’s pH. It all comes down to experimenting and finding the products that work for you. I definitely found mine. If these work for you, great. If not, keep looking. It’s all individual. It’s always about you.