When taking a bath, you will find that after using the soap, you will feel dry and tight, while after using the shower gel, you will feel slippery. Why?

Some people may suspect that this is caused by not cleaning, but it is not. After using some shower gel, no matter how you wash it repeatedly, your skin will still feel smooth.

The main reason for the two different feelings of "dry" and "slippery" is that the types of surfactants contained in shower gel and soap are different, and not all shower gel will make people feel slippery after use.

What is surfactant?

Surfactant is a substance that can significantly change the surface state of solution. It can significantly change the surface state of aqueous solution system.

Surfactants are generally composed of two parts, one is lipophilic and the other is hydrophilic. They are both soluble in oil and water. This special structure is called "amphiphilic structure", so surfactants are also called "amphiphilic molecules".

Surfactants are mainly divided into ionic surfactants and non-ionic surfactants. What we often contact is ionic surfactants.

Surfactants in soap belong to anionic surfactants, while zwitterionic surfactants are mainly used in smooth shower gel after washing.