Clarifying Face Wash for Oily Skin

Details

A gel wash for skin that is shiny by noon and blocks along the T-zone. One acid, salicylic acid, at 1.0 percent, in a base built to keep it usable every day. The cheat in an acid cleanser is that the percentage is the only number given, and the percentage is not what does the work. Salicylic acid gets into a pore because it is oil-soluble, and only the un-ionised free-acid form is oil-soluble. How much of it is un-ionised depends entirely on the pH. Salicylic acid has a pKa of 2.97, so the fraction that is free acid is 1 divided by 1 plus 10 to the power of pH minus pKa. At pH 4.0 that is 1 over 1 plus 10 to the 1.03, which is 1 over 11.7, or 8.5 percent. So 1.0 percent salicylic acid at pH 4.0 is 0.085 percent free acid at any moment. At pH 4.8, which is where a lot of gentle-sounding acid cleansers sit, the same 1.0 percent gives only 1.5 percent free acid, or 0.015 percent. Same front-of-pack number, one sixth of the active. This is why the pH belongs beside the percentage and why we print both. The second cheat is menthol. A cold burn on the face reads as clean and costs nothing, and it does not do anything an oily skin needs. There is no menthol and no camphor here. The third is the carrier: salicylic acid dissolves poorly in water, about 0.2 g in 100 ml, so at 1 percent it must be carried in a solvent. The cheap solvent is denatured alcohol, which dries an oily skin into making more oil. Ours is propanediol at 4.0 percent. This is the oily end of a three-wash shelf. Normal to combination skin should buy the gentle daily face wash. Dry, tight or reactive skin should buy the cream face wash. If you are oily and shave daily, the men's daily face wash is the same idea without the acid.

• Full INCI, in descending order: Aqua, Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Coco-Glucoside, Propanediol, Glycerin, Salicylic Acid, Phenoxyethanol, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Zinc PCA, Xanthan Gum, Sodium Hydroxide, Ethylhexylglycerin
• With percentages: Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate 8.0, Coco-Glucoside 6.0, Propanediol 4.0, Glycerin 3.0, Salicylic Acid 1.0, Phenoxyethanol 0.7, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract 0.5, Zinc PCA 0.5, Xanthan Gum 0.4, Sodium Hydroxide 0.15 to pH, Ethylhexylglycerin 0.1, and Aqua is the balance at 75.65
• The 1 percent line falls after the salicylic acid, so the salicylic acid is the last ingredient whose position in the list carries any information
• Measured pH 4.0, on every lot, with the free-acid fraction of 8.5 percent stated beside it
• Green tea leaf extract at 0.5 percent, which is a real dose of a mild antioxidant and not a hero claim. It is here because it belongs at 0.5 percent, not because tea sells
• Zinc PCA at 0.5 percent for midday shine
• Sulphate-free with the replacement named: sodium cocoyl isethionate, an isethionate ester rather than a sulphate, at 8.0 percent as supplied, plus coco-glucoside at 6.0. Total active surfactant about 9.9 percent
• No alcohol denat, and the propanediol at 4.0 percent is what replaced it as the acid's solvent
• No parabens, and no MIT or CMIT put in behind them. Phenoxyethanol 0.7 with ethylhexylglycerin 0.1
• No fragrance of any kind, no menthol, no camphor, no dyes, no plastic microbeads, no walnut shell
• Honest trade-off one: an acid used daily can over-strip. Start once a day at night. If the skin gets tight or flaky, drop to alternate nights, and understand that a wash that is doing nothing is safer than one that is doing too much
• Honest trade-off two: salicylic acid raises sun sensitivity, so a sunscreen is not optional alongside this. Take the daily sunscreen fluid, which is built for oily skin and leaves no cast
• Honest trade-off three: a rinse-off acid has 30 to 60 seconds of contact with the skin, so it is the gentlest and also the weakest way to use salicylic acid. If you want the strong version you want a leave-on, and this is deliberately not that
• Not for use during pregnancy without asking a doctor, and not for children