Increased skin pH values in patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) contribute to poor antimicrobial and permeability barrier functions of the skin. In practice the majority of topical preparations available for dry skin conditions do not provide sufficient pH and buffering capacity for maintaining optimum skin surface conditions. To address this issue, we tested a novel zinc lactobionate preparation to determine whether the regular application would lower skin surface pH, and in doing so improve the condition of lesional skin. The assessment for local severity of AD was done with the SCORAD and skin dryness was assessed by capacitance measurement. The results showed that the test product lowered skin pH and improved atopic dermatitis skin lesions from moderate to mild during 2 weeks of application. In the treated area a lowered pH of about 0.85 units was found. Together with the lowering of pH, the local SCORAD significantly improved from 8.3 at average down to 4.0, while on the untreated area only a slight improvement (from 8.2 to 6.4) was found. Synergistic effects of the test product's pH lowering and emollient properties might explain the observed improvements of clinical signs of AD and further research against a comparator would allow the specific contribution of pH modulation to these improvements to be unambiguously isolated.