The Beauty Brains: How to Check the pH of your Cosmetics

The Beauty Brains Cosmetic chemists answer your beauty product questions! We are a group of cosmetic scientists who understand what the chemicals used in cosmetics really do, how products are tested, and what all the advertising means.

How to Check the pH of your Cosmetics Aug 30th 2012, 06:01 Susan asks…In an attempt to save some money and guarantee myself a well formulated, fresh vitamin c serum, I am considering mixing philosophy’s Vitamin C powder into Bobbi Brown’s Intensive Skin Supplement serum. I was wondering if you can tell me by looking at the ingredients if the resulting mixture will be in the correct ph range to be effective (2.5 – 3.0 is what I’ve read is optimal) for the vitamin c to work. I know I could DYI, but I would rather not, and the last time I tried to buy Skinceuticals, the three bottles I tried were yellowish upon opening, so they went right back to the store. The Left Brain responds: Unfortunately there’s no way to predict the pH of a product just from looking at the ingredients. That’s because the pH is determined in part by the amount of the ingredients used. The only way to know for sure is to measure it and the easiest way to do that is to use litmus strips. You can buy them on Amazon.com for less than $10 so it’s probably a good investment if you’re serious about mixing your cosmetics. FYI, here are the ingredient lists for the products Susan asked about: Philosophy turbo boost vit. c powder Ascorbic Acid, Panthenol, Zinc PCA, Copper PCA, Camellia Oleifera Leaf Juice, Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate, Arginine, Cysteine, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice Bobbi Brown Intensive Skin Supplement Water, Butylene Glycol, PEG-8 Dimethicone, Methyl Gluceth-20, Glycerin, Polymethylsilsesquioxane, Sucrose, PEG-60 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Tocopheryl Acetate, Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Fruit Extract, Acetyl Glucosamine, Scutellaria Baicalensis Root Extract, Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Morus Bombycis (Mulberry) Root Extract, Camellia Sinensis (Green Tea) Leaf Extract, Caffeine, Sodium Hyaluronate, Acetyl Hexapeptide-3, Ceramide 2, Linoleic Acid, Retinyl Palmitate, Betula Alba (Birch) Extract, Cholesterol, Isopentyldiol, Caprylyl Glycol, Xanthan Gum, Oryzanol, Sodium Sulfite, Sodium Metabisulfite, EDTA, Disodium EDTA, BHT, Sodium Dehydroacetate, Phenoxyethanol, Methylparaben, Ethylparaben, Propylparaben, Butylparaben, Isobutylparaben If you’d like to check the pH of your products you can buy Litmus strips using our link and you’ll be supporting the Beauty Brains.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions