Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating preservatives

  • preservatives

    Posted by MAGDA on October 5, 2020 at 8:49 pm
    Good morning, I am Pamela from Santiago del Estero, Argentina, I am recently venturing into cosmetic formulation.
    What worries me the most is the issue of preservatives, my intention is NOT TO USE PARABENS so I consult it.
    In Argentina some supplies are not available here.
    I was using Cosgard as the only preservative, to which I did not add any chelating agent (very bad).
    I read in some discussions on this forum that a person was suggested to use the following ratio of chelator, natural preservative, and antioxidant:
    Euyl pe 9010 1%
    EDTA 0.2%
    Capric triglyceride 0.5%
    Citric acid 0.2%
    I would be grateful if you could guide me in this combination to ensure a good conservation of the product.
    If this combination is feasible, approximately how long would a cream that has 65% water in its formulation last?
    Thank you very much. attentively
    Cst4Ms4Tmps4 replied 4 years, 4 months ago 4 Members · 5 Replies
  • 5 Replies
  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    October 5, 2020 at 9:53 pm

    And what it the reason you don’t want to use one of the safest and most reliable type of preservatives?

  • MAGDA

    Member
    October 5, 2020 at 11:05 pm

    Good afternoon ngarayeva001, thank you very much for answering, I am trying to use preservatives that do not have parabens, this is because in Argentina there are many people who have intolerance or allergy reactions to certain parabens, one of them is me, I know that parabens are much more safe and accessible, but wanted to see alternatives to them.

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    October 5, 2020 at 11:39 pm

    The preservative that you use depends on what type of product you are making along with the pH and formula structure.  You’ll need to be a bit more specific in what you are asking. 

  • MAGDA

    Member
    October 6, 2020 at 12:12 am
    thank you very much @Perry
    I would be needing a preservative system to make a cream at pH 5- 5.5 the formulation would be
    water: 65%
    glycerin: 2%
    olivem 1000 (cetearyl olivate, olive sorbitan) 5%
    Jojoba oil 8%
    Rosehip Oil 12%
    Shea butter 1.5%
    beeswax 1.5%
    urea 1%
    alpha tocopherol 0.05%
    Euxyl pe 9010 1%
    I would be missing a chelator like EDTA, I was thinking of adding a percentage of 0.2%
    I also do not know if it would be necessary to add 0.2% citric acid and Myritol (capric triglyceride) 0.5%
  • Cst4Ms4Tmps4

    Member
    November 13, 2020 at 9:53 am

    @MAGDA

    1) You DO NOT USE PARABENS? No problem! Use DMDM Hydantoin! I am not telling you what it is other than it is VERY EFFECTIVE AND SAFE is used as recommended. 0.5% to 0.6% usage rate. You could use less but…I, for one, do not want to take the risk of stupidly making myself suffer from preventable skin ailments. I might even go blind!

    2) How is not using chelating agent very bad? You are fine if you use distilled water. I never use distilled water. I use deionised water bought from petrol station, for battery use!  :p

    3) Maybe adding Citric Acid helps to act as buffer for Urea. From my humble experience, all is fine if I use up the finished product quickly. 

    In case you wonder why the heck I am talking about, I invite you to read THIS. Madly long and technical, but amazing! Amazing to me, that is! Hehehehehehehe!

    I probably could not help you further than this due to my finite experience and knowledge. I make things for myself only, not for selling, thus I do not have question about what (named) products to use. I do not go by products nor allow names of companies to determine what I want to make. I dislike to limit myself to named products. Meaning, let us say that I could not find Myritol, I could use Capric/Caprylic Triglyceride on the rack in any pharmacies. Many pharmacy staff and pharmacists here think that I am an arrogant fool because I never tell them names of drugs, I utter the actual chemical names instead.

    Besides that, very often, substances that have ‘cosmetics’ label of them prices are very high, I am not doing a business with what I make so I will not earn back the money. But the high price is sometimes, only sometimes, justified because those are usually highly purified (I mean deodorised). Capric/Caprylic Triglyceride at a pharmacy does have ‘goat’ smell as it is. Myritol may not have much of that smell as it is modified one (According to what BASF website writes).

    Xanthan Gum is similar. Cheap/common Xanthan Gum (yellowish powder) from bakery shop has an uneasy scent, odour gets a bit worse when mixes in water. For sometime I wondered why the heck my product has shitty scent. Expensive Xanthan Gum from Jungbunzlauer (white powder) has scent but not uneasy, odour becomes imperceptible in water.

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