Review: Belif Creamy Cleansing Foam Moist and a Closer Look at pH

So I started writing my review of the Belif Creamy Cleansing Foam Moist, but wound up going off on a tangent about the pH of cleansers instead, and why pH is something you should consider when trying a new cleanser. If you want to read my review of the Belif Creamy Cleansing Foam Moist, it’s further down the page, and you can jump to it here.

I have dry skin, and for the longest time I had heard that foaming cleansers can be harsh on dry skin and to avoid them, but I never looked into the reason why. The answer is pH, and everyone, not just people with dry skin, should avoid cleansers with a high pH.

If you want to do a deep dive into the research on the pH of your cleanser, I highly recommend reading this post by Snow, of Snow White and the Asian Pear (also read her blog in general, it’s great). But if reading a blog post filled with scientific studies doesn’t sound like your idea of fun, here’s the gist:

Skin science

Your skin is slightly acidic by nature, in a range of 4.2 to 5.6 on the pH scale. When skin is in this range, it works at optimum efficiency as a barrier; protecting your skin from bacteria and disease while keeping moisture inside your skin.

However, the pH of your skin can be altered pretty easily. Even rinsing your face with water will raise its pH, and it can take a long time to return to normal after drying.

But wait, why does the pH of my skin matter?

The bacteria that causes acne thrives in higher pH (basic) environments. By raising the pH of your skin, you’re giving acne-causing bacteria an ideal breeding ground, which could give you more acne.

Even if you’re not acne-prone, it’s still a good idea to move to a lower-pH cleanser to keep your skin working well as a protective barrier. High pH cleansers strip the skin of oils and can cause water loss, which can speed up signs of aging like wrinkles. Keeping your skin at its ideal pH can also decrease the transmission of rhinovirus (aka, the common cold) because it dies in a lower-pH environment.

If you maintain a normal pH range for your skin, it will also bounce back quicker – so if you do inadvertently raise your skin’s pH, it won’t take as long for it to return to normal.

And like all skincare, your mileage may vary (YMMV)

It’s important to note that the pH of a cleanser is only one of many factors you should consider when buying and testing out products; your skin may love one lower-pH cleanser and hate another. Lower-pH cleansers may cause you to break out, or they may make a dramatic difference in your skin.

But narrowing down your cleanser options to lower-pH ones will help you maintain the overall health of your skin, which is always a good thing.

Of course you can still catch the cold when using a lower-pH cleanser, but hey, you use hand sanitizer, right? Think of replacing your high-pH cleanser with a lower one as just another way to protect yourself.

What about the pH of other skincare products?

Cleansers tend to have different goals than other skincare products; they aim to remove impurities and gunk, and for a long time it was believed that cleansers had to have a high pH in order to be effective. High-pH cleansers give you that “squeaky clean” feeling that makes your skin feel clean.

Unlike cleansers, many other skincare products aim to soothe and protect your face as opposed to cleaning it.

Soothing and protecting products (which include most toners, serums, moisturizers, and oils) are around the neutral range on the pH scale – if they went too far in either direction they would no longer be soothing or protecting. So for products like these, the pH is less of a factor because they are mainly neutral to begin with.

And then there are many skincare products that need to have a more acidic pH, like AHAs and BHAs. The acids in those products help turn over skin cells and fight acne at a more intensive level. I’ll be going into each of those in more detail, so watch out for future posts!

How can I find out the pH of my cleansers?

Ideally, you want a cleanser in range of 5-6.5. Any lower than that may be too harshly acidic for everyday use (depending on how your skin reacts to acids) and any higher than that ventures into high pH territory. Some brands advertise the pH of their cleansers, but most don’t.

Luckily, the wonderful community of /r/AsianBeauty compiled a spreadsheet of all the cleansers they’ve tested; you can view the spreadsheet here. It’s a pretty robust list and covers Western and Asian cleansers. If you can’t find any information on your cleanser on that spreadsheet, you can try Googling cleansername pH and see what comes up.

If information is scarce on a particular cleanser, you can test its pH at home pretty easily. You can buy pH test strips (these ones are ~$14 on Amazon) to use on any water-based cleanser you have (note: this method of testing pH won’t work on anything oil-based, you need a whole different set of tools for that).

It’s a pretty straightforward process to test the pH of a cleanser:

1. Grab your cleanser and pH strips and set up next to a sink
2. Replicate your process for cleansing, but on your hand – so if you wet your face, then lather up your cleanser before using, do that
3. Instead of washing your face, stick the pH strip (all four squares if you have the ones I linked above) into the cleanser to get your reading
4. Match up the colors on your test strip with the guide that came with your kit
5. Revel in your mad scientist skills

Basically, you want to read the pH of the cleanser in the way that you use it. It’s also important to keep in mind that you won’t get extremely accurate results with the test strips, but they will give you a solid understanding of where on the pH scale your cleanser falls

On to my review of the Belif Foaming Cleanser…

I got this cleanser as a part of the Belif Bestsellers kit, (here are my reviews of the toner and essence) and while I’ve been enjoying the kit as a whole, I do not recommend this cleanser. It has a pH of 7 which is fine, but isn’t doing anything to actively improve your skin health, which I would prefer to have in a cleanser.

This cleanser is wonderful in many ways, but I don’t feel good about recommending it based on how it felt on my skin.

It creates a wonderfully rich lather that feels very luxurious when you’re using it, and it has a rich, herbal scent that makes me feel like I’m at a spa.

But it really strips my skin when I rinse it off. This cleanser makes my skin feel squeaky clean, but that’s not what you’re looking for in a facial cleanser. Particularly for someone with dry skin, it’s a little unnerving to feel like all of the oils of my face have been removed; I need those! Because of the way it strips my skin and the higher pH, I wouldn’t recommend this particular cleanser.

If you are acne-prone and are looking for a good cleanser, I really enjoy the La Roche Posay Effaclar ($14.99, Target) cleanser. It has a pH of 5.5 and is gentle, while still reducing breakouts.

Phew, this post was a long one. If you’ve stuck around to the end, you’re the best! I promise they won’t all be this long!

Disclaimers: I purchased this product 100% myself. This post contains no affiliate links.