Why Does Everyone End Up at the GP With a Skin Problem?

Ever notice how many GP appointments seem to end with a tube of cream?

Turns out that's not a coincidence. Skin is the single most common reason people in the UK see a GP. Not chest infections. Not back pain. Skin.

The numbers are bigger than you'd think

About 24% of the UK population consults a GP for a skin complaint in a given year. That makes skin disease the most common reason for a new GP consultation, ahead of every other disease category. A separate study using video-recorded consultations found a similar picture: around 1 in 7 appointments involved a skin problem, and 84% of those never needed a referral to a dermatologist. They were dealt with, or at least discussed, in the room.

So this isn't a fringe issue. It's one of the most ordinary reasons to book an appointment, right up there with the things you'd expect.

What people are actually turning up with

It's rarely anything dramatic. Audits of general practice show dry skin, mild dermatitis and rash are among the five most common skin complaints GPs see. And here's the bit worth sitting with: in one practice audit, around 7 in 10 dry skin cases and roughly 2 in 3 dermatitis cases could plausibly have been managed without a GP visit at all.

That's not a criticism of anyone who's booked that appointment. Skin that's uncomfortable, flaking, or won't settle is a reasonable thing to get checked, especially the first time. But it does say something: a lot of what ends up in front of a GP is the kind of everyday irritation that starts somewhere very ordinary. Often, it starts in the shower.

The bit that gets oversimplified

Here's where we'd love to tell you the answer is "go natural" and leave it there. It isn't quite that simple, and we're not going to pretend it is.

Skin has a naturally acidic surface, sitting at around pH 5.5. Dermatologists call this the acid mantle, and it matters: it helps the skin hold onto moisture and defend itself against irritation. Alkaline cleansers disrupt it. That's a real, well-documented effect.

Here's the bit most soap marketing skips: true soap, of any kind, is alkaline. Not because it's cheap or badly made, but because of the chemistry. Soap is what you get when fat or oil reacts with an alkali. There's no way round that. So the question was never "natural or alkaline" - it's "how alkaline, and what else is in the bar."

Where the real differences actually are

Well-cured, properly formulated true soap typically settles at pH 8 to 10. Badly cured or lye-heavy bars can push past 11, and that's when soap gets genuinely harsh - the kind that leaves your hands feeling tight and papery. The gap between a pH 9 bar and a pH 11 bar is a real difference in how it feels on your skin, even though both are technically "natural soap."

We checked ours with a standard testing strip: it read approximately 8 to 9. That's the gentler end of the true-soap range, not the harsh end, and it's consistent with a properly cured bar rather than a rushed one.

There's a second, separate thing going on with our formulations. Saponification produces glycerine as a natural byproduct, and we don't take it out. A lot of commercial soap makers do, because glycerine is valuable enough to extract and sell separately into lotions, leaving a stripped-down bar behind. We also superfat, which means we use slightly more oil and butter than the lye needs to react with, so some of it stays in the bar unreacted. In our soaps that's shea butter, olive oil and coconut oil. None of this is marketing language: it's what's left in the bar, checkable on the ingredients list as sodium olivate, sodium cocoate, sodium shea butterate, and glycerine.

And the surfactant itself is soap, not a synthetic detergent. That's a different ingredient class to what's doing the cleaning in most shower gels, which typically rely on sulfate or sulfonate-based detergents alongside a fragrance blend labelled simply "parfum."

What we're not claiming

We're not going to tell you our soap is pH-neutral, because it isn't, and nothing that's genuinely true soap can be. If pH-neutral is what you're after, that means a syndet (synthetic detergent) bar, a different formulation with its own trade-offs, not a gentler version of soap.

We're also not claiming our soap outperforms every well-formulated cleanser on the market, or that it removes bacteria better than anything else. What we can stand behind is specific: cold-processed, superfatted with real oils and butters, glycerine left in rather than sold off, tested at the gentler end of the true-soap pH range, and a short ingredients list you can actually read and check. That's the honest version, and it's a better one than "natural, therefore better."

So what's actually worth knowing

The genuinely useful takeaway isn't a slogan. Skin irritation from washing is common. It's largely about what's actually in the product, how alkaline it is, and whether anything's been stripped out or added to mask the difference, not about whether the label says "natural." Small, unglamorous choices in a daily routine are a real lever, even if they're not a substitute for seeing a doctor when something needs it.

That's the honest reasoning behind how we make our soap. Not a miracle fix. A properly cured, properly superfatted bar, with nothing taken out and nothing hidden behind a word like "parfum."

FAQs

Is skin really the most common reason people see a GP?

Yes. National surveillance data puts it at around 24% of the population consulting a GP for a skin complaint each year, making it the single most common reason for a new consultation - more than any other disease category.

Do most skin complaints need a GP?

Often not, though it's sensible to get anything new, spreading, or unusual checked, especially the first time. Practice audits suggest a majority of dry skin and dermatitis cases could plausibly have been self-managed. This isn't medical advice for your specific situation - if you're unsure, ask a pharmacist or GP.

Is natural soap automatically gentler on skin than shower gel?

Not automatically, no, and the label alone doesn't tell you much. All true soap is alkaline by chemistry, whether it's natural or not, typically pH 8 to 10 when well made. What actually varies is how well the bar is cured, whether it's superfatted with real oils and butters, whether the glycerine has been left in or extracted, and whether the surfactant is soap or a synthetic detergent. Those are the things worth checking, not the word "natural" on its own.

Why does washing make skin feel dry and tight?

Skin's surface is naturally slightly acidic, which helps it hold moisture and resist irritation. Alkaline cleansers, and surfactants generally, can strip the lipid barrier that keeps water in, which is what causes the tightness and flaking people often put down to "sensitive skin." The degree of alkalinity and the surfactant type matter more than whether a product is labelled natural.

Sources

• British Association of Dermatologists, written evidence to the House of Commons Health Select Committee (LTC 89).
• Schofield J.K. et al. "Skin conditions are the commonest new reason people present to general practitioners in England and Wales." British Journal of Dermatology, 2011.
• Sanderson E., Barnes R.K., Ridd M.J. "The content and conduct of GP consultations for dermatology problems." British Journal of General Practice, 2020.
• BJGP practice audit, "Dermatology in primary care: an audit of the proportion of patients who present to general practice with a dermatological problem that could be self-managed," 2020.
• Irritant Contact Dermatitis, clinical review, Medscape/emedicine.
• Surfactants and atopic dermatitis, PMC review, 2015.
• Hassing J.H. et al. "Irritancy of low concentrations of soap and synthetic detergents as measured by skin water loss." Dermatologica, 1982.
• Comprehensive evaluation of physico-chemical, antioxidant, and antimicrobial properties in commercial soaps, PMC, 2024 - typical commercial soap pH range.
• Soap-making technical sources on saponification chemistry, curing, superfatting and glycerine retention.

Last reviewed 15 July 2026 by James Allan. Smelly Men soap pH checked with a standard testing strip; not a calibrated lab measurement.