pH of Your Bath? It Matters

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sea salt in scallop shell on black rock background, closeup

The “acid mantle” of your skin protectively kills germs and bacteria for the body. If your skin gets too alkaline instead of acidic, that protective mantle will not work.

About pH
* pH measures acidity and alkalinity
* 7 is neutral
* numbers below 7 are acidic
* those above 7 are alkaline.

The acid mantle of your skin is typically an acidic pH 4.5 to 5.5.

Vinegar is an example of an acidic ingredient, baking soda and most soaps are an alkaline one.

pH Chart

* Optimal pH level of healthy skin surface: 5.5
* Vinegar: 2.5
* Dead sea salts: 5.8 pH
* Sea salts: generally around neutral once dissolved
* Epsom salts: 5.5-6.5 (considered a neutral salt)
* Baking soda: 8.2

Baking soda will destroy the acid mantle with its pH of 8.2, and it is risky to use it in the bath because of this. Baking soda is not a “bath salt,” so don’t confuse the two as many do (see chart, above).

If you do use baking soda in the bath (and I’ve heard of people using more than a cup or two) you need to help the skin to return to an acid mantle at the end of the bath. Some do this by adding a cup of highly acidic vinegar to the tub at the end of a bath, neutralizing the alkaline baking soda. (Note that when you do this you will get fizzes and bubbles as the vinegar and baking soda react.) Others rub the body with coconut oil, an oil with an acidic pH.

Too much soap use also removes the acid mantle, as soap is about a pH of 7.

Neutral salt baths, such as Epsom Salts and sea salts, are known to be good for the skin.

Making yourself a neutral salt baths will work with your body’s electrical system to help your cells release poisons without at the same time destroying your body’s acid mantle. Investing in some Dead sea salts will be well worth your while if you have psoriasis or eczema, as will buying high grade sea salt for general baths.

Power Salt Soak
With this blend you combine the power salts for a healing, alkaline bath.
1 cup Dead Sea salts
½ cup sea salts
½ cup Epsom salts
A few drops essential oils of choice (see Chapter 4).

Fill the tub with warm water, and pour in the salts when there is enough water to dissolve them. Add the essential oils of choice right before you get into the tub. and add the salts

–By Annie B. Bond, best-selling author of five books including Better Basics for the Home (Three Rivers Press, 1999).

 

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By Annie B. Bond, best-selling and award-winning author of five green living books, thousands of blogs, and all the tips in the Greenify Everything App. Called "The Godmother of Green" by Martha Stewart Sirius Radio, she has been named the foremost expert on green living.

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