Also known as Beta Hydroxy Acid (compare to AHA), salicylic acid is the key additive in many skin-care products for the treatment of acne, callouses and corns, keratosis pilaris and warts. It treats acne by causing skin cells to slough off more readily, preventing pores from clogging up. This effect on skin cells also makes salicylic acid an active ingredient in several shampoos meant to treat dandruff. Use of straight salicylic solution may cause hyper-pigmentation on unpretreated skin for those with darker skin types (Fitzpatrick phototypes IV, V, VI), as well as with the lack of use of a broad spectrum sunblock.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/
Skin, like anything else, has it’s own pH. It’s been experimented and researches have shown that the skin had a skin of pH 4 to 6. At birth, babies have a pH of 7 (neutral) which fastly become acidic to protect them against bacterias.
Cleaning your face with a soap bar which is not for facial use is most likely to be bad for your face. A body soap bar has generally a pH between 9 and 11 which would make your face more alkaline. Having your face in a pH higher than 7 is not good because it kills good bacterias. For this reason, you should only choose pH-balanced face soap.
You should take into account that it is a BAD idea to use salicylic acid in conjunction with benzoyl peroxyde (another agent which is known to treat acne).
Benzoyl peroxide works by destroying P. acnes, the bacteria that causes the condition acne. It acts as an antiseptic and oxidizing agent, reducing the number of comedones, or blocked pores. It may be 2–3 weeks before you begin to see improvement.
Source: http://www.acne.com/
Here my part of experience:
Having faced acne for about 2 years so far, I’ve come to the point where it doesn’t really matter anymore, but if I could remove it, that would be great. I started my journey by doing some kind of scientific experiment which can be described like so: I would apply the same method for 7 days in a row and if there was no difference, I would progress to a new method.
I first started by cleaning my face with water then applying some soap on my face and that would be it. At that moment, I had no idea that a alkaline pH wouldn’t help my case, but I kept doing it. Things started going worst after 3-4 days. At the end of the week (which was April 14) I decided I would use Salicylic acid because I had started writing this post and had realised that it would fix my current problem. Only applying the Salicylic acid once and I had amazing results the following day. About 50%+ of my acne was less apparent and bumpy. Nice. Only negative aspect of using this is that you have to keep applying it if you want to keep the results.
Yet, only taking pH into consideration would be missing the whole thing, but at least now there’s one aspect handled! Try doing a pH stabilisation week (a week were you’ll try to keep your pH near 5 (the lower the better against the Proprionibacterium acnes)) and if you got great results, please share them with me so I can compile them and see if it’s really a big part of the equation or not.
Encouraging study results:
A four-week crossover study to compare the efficacy of an acne cleanser containing 2% salicylic acid with that of a 10% benzoyl peroxide wash was conducted in 30 patients with acne vulgaris. The results demonstrated that only patients treated with the salicylic acid cleanser had a significant reduction in comedones. Patients treated with the salicylic acid cleanser for the first two weeks showed a significant improvement in acne, but worsened during benzoyl peroxide therapy over the following two weeks. In contrast, patients initially treated with the benzoyl peroxide wash for the first two weeks continued to improve with salicylic acid cleanser over the next two weeks.
Source: Department of Dermatology, State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn
Excellent info in regard to acne. This is a serious topic, and it is so hard to find reliable acne information online. Thanks and keep up the good work!
I love this so precise article…
but how would i have to test all the washing material before i used on my face???
I always thought if you didn’t use soap your face wouldn’t be prone to acne. This is a good article.
I’ve been visiting your blog for a while now and I always find your posts interesting. Thanks for sharing!
Here’s my number one tip for dealing with acne:
A gentle skin cleaning regimen rather than severe scrubbing with harsh cleaners is recommended. A mild cleanser that can be used twice a day is all that is needed.
Salicylic acid does work wonders… I highly recommend investing some money on buying a great concealer with Salicylic acid so you can calm and hide the pimple at the same time!:)
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