Various ear diseases and infections are treated with eardrops containing triethanolamine polypeptide oleate-condensate, such as Cerumenex in the United States. In pharmaceutics, triethanolamine is the active ingredient of some ear drops used to treat impacted earwax. It also serves as a pH balancer in many different cosmetic products - ranging from cleansing creams and milks, skin lotions, eye gels, moisturizers, shampoos, shaving foams etc. TEA is a fairly strong base: a 1% solution has a pH of approximately 10, whereas the pH of skin is below pH 7, more or less 5.5-6.0. Cleansing milk/cream emulsions based on TEA are particularly good at removing makeup.