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How do I effectively preserve this?
I am making a water-based perfume with a fragrance oil concentration of about 7%. I am using a large % of polysorbate (above 10%) and thinking of including peg-40 hydrogenated castor oil. I am aware that sodium benoate and phenoxyethanol have issues when introduced to a formula with highly ethoxylated surfactants, so how can I go about effectively preserving my cosmetic without adding any ethanol?
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10 Replies
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parabens.
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Belassi said:parabens.I support this proposition. ^^
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Won’t parabens simply migrate to the oily phase of the solubilised solution, especially without any stabilisers such as cetyl alcohol to hold them in place (if they even do that)?
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You don’t have an oil phase, you have a fragrance phase
. Solubility of parabens in there is likely lower than in ‘real’ oil. Fair chance that it will work but you’d have to try it out. -
Wouldn’t the oily phase be the tween 80? Lol I might just be totally confused
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There are different types of parabens. You would use methyl for the water phase and butyl or propyl for the nonpolar component, usually in a ratio of 2:1.
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Being a water based formula you may wish to consider using paraben Sodium salts which are readily water soluble.
Otherwise you may need more emulsifier (polysorbate, PEG-40 HCO or some other like Polysugamulse) to solubilize the (plain) parabens.
For that much fragrance, you may wish to add some DPG to aid in solubility as to reduce emulsifier usage.
Also, consider adding an antifoam agent as too much emulsifiers can foam on spraying, and customers may not like it. -
I am currently using DPG at about 5% of the formula and I’m wondering whether to use a bit more or whether to swap it out for hexanediol. I recall reading that DPG is very useful as opposed to MPG in perfumery due to former’s low hygroscopic nature. Thank you for your advice on using sodium salts of parabens - that does sound like a good idea. I am currently using 15% Tween 80 but I will see about decreasing this or switching it out at least partially for peg 40 hydrogenated castor oil. I can try and eventually get my hands on the polysugamulse; it seems to be a bit difficult since a lot of companies don’t seem to like delivering to a residential address.
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Could you recommend me an anti-foaming agent? Since my perfume would be sprayable, would foam still be problem?
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Am I correct in thinking that for this application, peg-60 hydrogenated castor oil could be an even more effective solubiliser than peg-40 hydrogenated castor oil? There is also peg-60 castor oil (non-hydrogenated version) and I wonder if it’ll be more effective than the hydrogenated version.
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