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Bacteria, yeast and mold in my shampoo even after i use preservative
hi i want to ask for help. i make a natural shampoo formula containing linseed mucilage about 55%, honey 10%, lemon juice 2%, the rest are hydrolized oat, wheat, slsa, cocobetaine, and i use optiphen BD as preservative. For the finishing product I have done microbial test (total microbial count) and the result was fine. The problem is after one month th result of total microbial count was above the standar. What do you think? is it because optiphen BD that not effective for my shampoo?
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11 Replies
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Seems to be a very susceptible matrix here, think you would need something very robust here. Hopefully someone can give you a precise input.
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thank you, i hope somebody can help me, i really need to solve this problem. And for additional information, viscosity of my shampoo decrease from 1000 cps to 850 cps, i dont know if this show the instability of linseed mucilage
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The linseed mucilage, honey and lemon juice are great food for bacteria. It is not surprising that your preservative is being overwhelmed. I would reduce the concentration of all of these significantly.
Also, what is your pH. This preservative is only suitable for products with a pH <6.
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What are you saying is the function of the linseed, honey and lemon juice in your shampoo?
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linseed mucilage and honey for moisture and nourish scalp. Basically i use linseed because it can ad viscosity to my shampoo and raw honey can act as humectan. I dont use any chemical ingredient except surfactan and preservative. So the formula contain linseed mucilage,honey,lemon, rice extract, essential oil and ingredient that i said before. Lemon juice i think it’s good for scalp and i use it so my shampoo become acid (ph 4,5).
I suspect linseed because i read in journal say ” A yet further potential benefit of linseed mucilage for topical application to the human or animal body is derived from the effect of proteolytic enzymes on the rheological properties of the mucilage. It has been found that the viscosity of a mucilage preparation is reduced as a function of time in the presence of proteolytic enzymes.” but i still dont have any idea. @ozgirl can you explain and if you can give me evidence that linseed are great food for bacteria? well i know linseed contain saccharide but it is gel and thick. -
I don’t want to appear unhelpful but you really should get some background knowledge and information of what you are trying to achieve and about the ingredients you are using.
The natural ingredients like that may be OK for an extemporaneously prepared shampoo but I would never formulate anything remotely resemling that if it were to be stored for more than a day or so.
As you suggest, there will be a lot more going on in your mix than merely microorganism infection.
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honey is mostly sugar, i.e. microbe food; any preservative will really struggle to prevent growth in a product with that much honey in it
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This is why companies use synthetic chemicals to make shampoos. They are just more safe.
If you care about the safety of your products more than your marketing positioning, you’ll reduce the level of ingredients like linseed mucilage, honey and lemon juice to levels below 1%.
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thank you, i really appreciate all of the input that given to me. I will learn more even i am a pharmacist but i am still new about this field. But @Perry if i have to cut the level below 1% then i won’t achieve the purpose of viscosicty and humectan of those ingredient, maybe i should change my formulation. Thank you
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For viscosity you can use xanthan gum or methycellulose. For humectancy/moisturizing you can use polyquaternium 10
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thank you @Perry for your suggestion
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