Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating water-soluble preservative for anhydrous product

  • water-soluble preservative for anhydrous product

    Posted by mhart123 on December 8, 2020 at 4:47 pm

    On the chemists corner preservative webinar, they had mentioned a few times using water-soluble preservatives in anhydrous products vs an oil-soluble preservative.  Does anybody have recommendations or had any luck doing this?  Formulas I would be interested in adding a preservative to are below.

    Stick: Sunflower oil, coconut oil, beeswax, shea butter, jojoba oil

    Jar: Vegetable Oil, Castor Seed Oil, Sunflower Seed Oil, Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Beeswax, Carnauba Wax, Shea Butter, Hydrogenated Olive Oil

    Jar: Vegetable Oil, Shea Butter, Sunflower Oil, Jojoba Oil, Glyceryl Rosinate, Beeswax, Olea Europaea (Olive) Oil Unsaponifiables, Sunflower Seed Wax

    beeswaxexpert replied 3 years, 10 months ago 4 Members · 7 Replies
  • 7 Replies
  • PhilGeis

    Member
    December 8, 2020 at 5:04 pm

    You;d consider adding preservative esp if water contamination in use.  Is that likely for your product?

  • MarkBroussard

    Member
    December 8, 2020 at 5:16 pm

    @mhart123

    Why on Earth would you complicate matters by adding a preservative that is not compatible with the solubility of your product ingredients when you could just add some Caprylyl Glycol + Glyceryl Caprylate (and) Glyceryl Undecylenate and be done with it?

  • mhart123

    Member
    December 8, 2020 at 5:25 pm

    @PhilGeis These products are for use on babies and kids for chapped, irritated skin.  The stick formulation could likely be used around the nose/mouth area so I think it would be likely for contamination to occur from snot or saliva. Personally I would dry the area before applying, but that doesn’t mean everyone will do it that way so I would think that would introduce a possibility for microorganisms to grow?

    The jar products could just be contamination from repeatedly dipping in fingers that may potentially be dirty but I’m not sure what potential for growth there is.  We just sent these out for challenge testing this week - which also was mentioned in the video that challenge testing is not necessary for anhydrous powders so would that hold true for an anhydrous balm?  Is there a better type of testing to do to ensure micro safety?

  • mhart123

    Member
    December 8, 2020 at 5:29 pm

    @MarkBroussard it was mentioned in the webinar that an oil soluble preservative will not be effective if water was somehow introduced to the product, unless I misunderstood what they were saying

  • PhilGeis

    Member
    December 8, 2020 at 5:39 pm

    Mark - because you want preservative and efficacy in the water that invades the product.  I’d not be confident your suggestions would effectively accomplish that.
    In any case, please don’t consider just adding any preservative will simply “be done with it” .  If you’re preserving vs water ingress - test it.

  • MarkBroussard

    Member
    December 9, 2020 at 12:32 am

    From the description of the 3 products, it looks like you have a balm stick and two balms in jars … but, none of these would appear to be for use in a high water enviroment or applied with wet hands.  I would not appear that water ingress from normal use would be an issue.

    If these products were designed to be used in an environment with a high possibility of introduction of water, such as a shower oil, then perhaps you have something to be concerned about.

  • beeswaxexpert

    Member
    December 11, 2020 at 3:40 am

    Suggest use natural pure beeswax from http://www.beeswaxexpert.com Good for the skin, but not water soluble. you can try check BEESWAX 

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