How to Choose Soaps and Facial Cleansers

Dermatologist Dr. Glynis Ablon outlines the differences between soaps, cleansers and body wash.

Dr. Travis Stork: -- will help us answer some of the questions about what's really good for our skin is Dermatologist Dr. Glynis Ablon. So thanks for coming back and joining us. Glynis Ablon: Thank you. Dr. Travis Stork: In a -- there are so many soaps, cleansers, body washes out there. We are going to talk about those in a minute but why do we need them? If you look at this animation, there is a good reason we need soap, it's because water and oil don't mix and most of the time when you wash off, that oil and dirt will not get off your skin because it actually repels water. So water go right over that oil and dirt particle on your hands. That's where soap comes into play. What the soap actually does is it surrounds that oil and dirt particles and tracks it to the water so that when you wash your hands, your face that oil and dirt together will go off of your skin. But there is a difference between soaps and what is one of the biggest difference is? Glynis Ablon: Well, first of all, there are three basic kinds of whether it's a soap or a cleanser, there are three basic kinds. We are dealing with the soap, true soap, combers, which are soaps that have an additive surface agent on it and then the syndets or the synthetic detergents. Dr. Travis Stork: Okay. Glynis Ablon: And we have the PH of our skin, which is on a scale of 1 to 14. We know water is neutral, which is 7 and our PH on our skin is actually a little acidic, about 4.5 to 6.5. So, when you use the soaps or the combers, you are getting a PH that's actually alkaline about 9 to 10 and so that's what change the PH of our skin, dries it out and can cause irritation. Dr. Travis Stork: So we need soap but it may not in excess, may be harmful. Dr. Jim Sears: That's the one thing; you can use one thing everywhere. Dr. Drew Ordon: Were you going to straighten this out? Right. Glynis Ablon: Let's straighten it out. Let's start with the fact that we are going to pick one of those three kinds of cleansers, it doesn't matter if there are thousands of ones out there, they will fit into one of those categories and the idea is that when you have a syndet or synthetic cleanser or synthetic detergent that is something that's going to be the least irritating, that's typically what you will find in your facial cleansers, or moisturizing cleansers. Dr. Drew Ordon: So you probably should use something different on the face. Glynis Ablon: The idea is that the face is different, the skin is different as we have mentioned in the earlier segment and the idea is that you want something that's going to be less irritating, something perhaps with more moisturizer in it, so its more moisturizing as well and does the cleaning. Dr. Lisa Masterson: And you may need something different as your age or you go through different things like pregnancy, just because your skin changes. Glynis Ablon: Absolutely the skin does change, you may have dry skin at one point or you may have oily skin. So you are looking for when you go there, you are looking for something again in one of those three categories that will help your skin type whether it's dry, sensitive or oily or acne prone. Dr. Drew Ordon: Then body wash. How is a body wash different than what you would use on the face? Glynis Ablon: I love body wash and it's my favorite because the body washes are typically mostly water. If you look ingredients, you are going to find mostly water, but the idea is that you can use those lovely sponges, the synthetic sponges that do not harbor bacteria and you put them, you wash your body. You are using less product and so it's going to be all again less irritating versus something that you put on your face, again you are going to want something that's more sensitive, something that's got more moisturizer in it so it can help your skin.