Scientific Skin Care News 1

“Roopada”

Scientific Beauty News Letter

2.    What Soap Does to Your Skin
Cleansers are made to remove dirt, sweat, adhared oil (Sebum), dirt and debris from the skin. The cleansing effect is achieved through the action of surfactants.

Surfactants dissolve surrounding dirt particles and oils in water and remove them from the skin. Harsh surfactants also exfoliate the skin leaving it dry.

Soap
§  The most commonly used cleanser
§  Made from a combination of fats (of animal or vegetable origin), oils and salt
§  Can plug hair follicles (pores)
§  Can cause dryness and irritation due to anionic surfactants
§  Disturbs the skin’s natural pH
§  May leave a residue on skin

§  The soap surfactants also have following harmful effects on the external layers of epidermis.

1.      After wash dryness.

2.      After wash tightness.

3.      Damage to the barrier function of the skin.

4.      Irritation and itching

5.      Redness.

The epidermis is made up of the corneocytes. The external layer of epidermis is made up of threads of keratin in an organized matrix. The soap surfactants bind with these proteins allowing them to become over hydrated and the cells swell. Due to this swelling, the surfactants penetrate into the deeper layers of skin, where they can interact with the nerve endings and immune system.

This possibly causes itching and irritation.

After some time, the water from the swollen cells evaporates and it leaves the corneocytes drier than before. This also causes reduction in the levels of the Natural moisturizing factors from the skin, basically stratum corneum.

The soap surfactants not only interact with the proteins, but also with the stratum corneum lipids.  The surfactants enter in between the lipid bilayer and increase the permeability and destructs the cell membrane layer up to certain extent. Soap even causes damage to the lipid structures causing reduction of the lipid content of the skin making it drier.

Also the soap interferes with the pH of the stratum corneum. Soap based cleansers are more alkaline (pH up to 10) and attack the skin directly. The skin pH is almost 5.6 and there is a large variation in the pH.

Commonly advertised soaps describe themselves well, some say they leave you squeaky clean even when they have added moisturizers. But Soap is a relatively harsh and drying surfactant. Soap-based wash products often dry and irritate the skin, leading to erythema and itchiness, which together often exacerbate the inflammation and dryness of Atopic Dermatitis.

Soap surfactants  influences the skin surface. The composition of the epidermal bacterial flora and activity of enzymes in upper epidermis along with acids makes it healthy. Soap disturbs the pH and affects the bacterial flora of the skin.

Made from fatty acid salts, soaps clean by reducing the surface tension of your skin with anionic agents such as carboxylate, sulfonate and sulfate ions which are potential irritants. The fatty acids in soap can have harmful effects too, by plugging follicles (pores) and causing acne.

 Credit : Rahul Phate’s