Which is better for bathing, soap or shower gel? Is soap alkaline or acidic?

Soap is a skin care product that many of us use for bathing, but now more people use shower gel for bathing, so many people don’t know which one is better. So let us find out which is better for bathing, soap or shower gel? Is soap alkaline or acidic?

Soap or shower gel, which is better for bathing?

Soap has better cleaning power, will make you feel refreshed after washing, and its ingredients are more natural. But shower gel is relatively mild, so if it is not used with a bath towel, it is sometimes difficult to wash off. Soap is easier to carry, you can carry a whole piece with you when you go out, but shower gel is relatively inconvenient. However, soap is alkaline, so it is easy to dry out the skin when used, and excessive cleansing can easily lead to dry skin, especially in autumn and winter. In terms of skin type, shower gel is suitable for dry skin, soap is suitable for neutral skin, and soap is suitable for oily skin. In addition, soap focuses more on cleaning ability, while shower gel is more like an upgraded product. Shower gel takes into account the comfort of people when bathing, as well as the durability of the bath fragrance.

Is soap alkaline or acidic?

Soaps now come in neutral, alkaline and acidic types. Generally speaking, soaps used for washing clothes are alkaline. Alkaline soaps have stronger detergency, while neutral soaps are less irritating to human skin. Acidic soaps have weaker detergency, but do have certain skin care effects. Traditional cold process soap and hot process soap are both fatty acid soaps with fatty acid salts as the main surfactant. The pH of fatty acid soap is alkaline and has strong degreasing power. Neutral soap is a complex soap with synthetic surfactants as the main body, which does not contain free alkali. It can be neutral or adjusted to a weak acid with a pH value below 7 to solve the problem of soap alkalinity incompatibility. It foams and cleans well at all water hardness levels without forming curds or sediment. There are many varieties of soap, including transparent soap, opaque soap, translucent soap, as well as some soaps with special matrices such as soap flakes, opaque soap blocks, soap cream/soap paste and soap powder, and soap liquid.

What is soap used for?

Soap is used for bathing, washing clothes, etc. Soaps can be divided into weak acid and weak alkaline according to their properties. Because normal skin is weakly acidic, many people have doubts about whether weak alkaline facial soaps will harm the skin. Weak acid sounds like it is very gentle on the skin, and many people are misled by this word and choose this type of soap. Even if normal skin uses a soap with a slight alkaline property, it can still maintain the skin's luster. The best proof of this is that soaking in a weakly alkaline hot spring will slowly soften the stratum corneum and make your skin translucent and shiny. But for allergic skin, weak acid soap must be used. Since the skin resistance of such people is declining and cannot return from alkaline to weak acid by its own strength, using weak acid soap is their best choice; there is no need to use it for normal skin.

What is soap made of?

Soap is made of sodium salt of carboxylic acid R-CO2Na, synthetic pigments, synthetic fragrances, preservatives, antioxidants, foaming agents, hardeners, thickeners, and synthetic surfactants. The main raw material of soap is sodium stearate. Soap is the general term for metal salts of fatty acids. The general formula is RCOOM, where RCOO is a fatty acid radical and M is a metal ion. The carbon number of fatty acids in everyday soaps is generally 10-18. The metals are primarily alkaline metals, such as sodium or potassium. Ammonia and some organic bases, such as ethanolamine and triethanolamine, are also used to make special-purpose soaps.