Soap base damage to skin

In daily life, people are paying more and more attention to facial beauty. At the same time, many people use a lot of cleansing products. At this time, some people will choose soap-based cleansing products. Soap base is a simple raw material for making soap. Soap-based cleansing is actually a cleansing product containing saponified ingredients. However, the irritation ability of this product is still relatively strong, and it still has some irritating effect on sensitive skin. So what harm do soap-based products do to the skin when we use them in daily life?

Soap base is the most basic and most commonly used raw material for facial cleansers. More than 80% of facial cleansers on the market are soap-based formulas, which are essentially the same as the soaps we usually use, except that the ingredient ratio, form, and fragrance are different. Because this formula technology is extremely mature and manufacturers also have marketing needs, they need to control costs, or add some foam or use different scents to distinguish them.

For example, the ingredients of facial cleanser are: water, myristic acid, glycerin, stearic acid, potassium hydroxide, lauric acid, and fragrance... This is the soap base. Myristic acid, stearic acid, etc. are fatty acids, and potassium hydroxide is a strong alkali. When they are put together, the saponification reaction will produce soap base.

The so-called soap base formula is mainly composed of five ingredients, namely: sodium hydroxide, lauric acid (dodecanoic acid), myristic acid, palmitic acid, and stearic acid.

Among them, lauric acid (dodecanoic acid) is a solid fatty acid and is produced from natural vegetable oil, so it is often used as a raw material for the production of soaps, detergents, and cosmetic surfactants.

Second, excessive soap-based cleaning does affect the skin

Soap base has a strong cleansing effect and is added to facial cleanser to enhance the degreasing effect. However, because soap base is alkaline, it is not suitable for our weakly acidic skin. After the pure soap base comes into contact with the facial skin, the natural barrier "sebum film" on the skin surface will be destroyed due to excessive cleansing, and the skin will lose too much oil. For its own protection, the skin will secrete more oil to prevent excessive loss of moisture from the skin, causing the skin to lose its ability to moisturize and lock in moisture, resulting in the skin becoming drier the more it is washed.

However, the ingredients of facial cleansers are not simply soap bases. Some oily raw materials, such as glycerin, are added, as well as some relatively mild surfactant ingredients. In addition, the skin is weakly acidic, so in order not to cause damage to the skin, some acidic ingredients will also be added to neutralize it to ensure that the finished facial cleanser remains neutral or weakly acidic (lauric acid (dodecanoic acid) itself is also a weak acid).

4. If you are worried, you can choose a facial cleanser according to your skin.

It is understood that there are three common types of facial cleansers, corresponding to different skin types: soap-based cleansers (oily skin), zwitterion surfactant cleansers (medium-dry skin), and amino acid cleansers (sensitive skin). You can choose a facial cleanser according to your skin type.