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Pentylene Glycol & Phenylpropanol
Dear friends,
Pentylene Glycol, is made from sugar cane bagasse; it is humectant and anti=microbial. Phenylpropanol, is derived from Cassia
essential oil and provides mild fragrance – bringing a comfortable, balsamic and floral note.Is Pentylene Glycol truly sufficient anti-microbial?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
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7 Replies
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No. You will need a more robust preservative system.
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thanks @Perry
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AFAIK it is anti-microbial and would suffice at high enough % though such high levels might not be feasible. Hence, I wouldn’t use it as sole preservative but rather in blends to boost other preservatives, for example such which don’t have 100% efficacy on their own.
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thank @Pharma
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Pharma said:AFAIK it is anti-microbial and would suffice at high enough % though such high levels might not be feasible. Hence, I wouldn’t use it as sole preservative but rather in blends to boost other preservatives, for example such which don’t have 100% efficacy on their own.
@Pharma Do you have any favourites that you like to use pentylene glycol with? I saw you mention in another thread that you like to use glyceryl caprylate, pentylene glycol and magnolia officinalis bark extract (also sold as MultiMEG)… which I tried but it completely broke my emulsion (I think even pentylene glycol alone does this when it’s added to the cooldown phase instead of the heated water phase).
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I’m still playing around with pentylene glycol. Yes, it does sometimes seem to negatively impact emulsions, so does GMCY. Thanks for sharing your observations. I had the impression it were the other way round???I’m currently adding it ‘blindly’ to all my creations because I just like it and it is, theoretically, a good fit and great additional safety strategy aka hurdle in conjunction with levulinic and anisic acid (there may be stronger similar blends/boosters but I prefer its ‘naturalness’ and multi-functionality).Right now, it’s hard to tell what makes them hold of separate… I’m still in the phase of playing/messing around with new ingredients, nothing serious, just observing and learning by failure. I know, my approach isn’t strategically optimal because I use too much new stuff at once. Especially the polyglyceryl esters behave differently than what I’m used to and they are somewhat less forgiving than PEG derivatives and other pharma standards. Combining that with a ‘natural’ hurdle approach and poorly understood production processes such as d-phase emulsification is maybe too much to really get to know each ingredient better but it makes my hobby more interesting.
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Pharma said:I’m still playing around with pentylene glycol. Yes, it does sometimes seem to negatively impact emulsions, so does GMCY. Thanks for sharing your observations. I had the impression it were the other way round???I’m currently adding it ‘blindly’ to all my creations because I just like it and it is, theoretically, a good fit and great additional safety strategy aka hurdle in conjunction with levulinic and anisic acid (there may be stronger similar blends/boosters but I prefer its ‘naturalness’ and multi-functionality).Right now, it’s hard to tell what makes them hold of separate… I’m still in the phase of playing/messing around with new ingredients, nothing serious, just observing and learning by failure. I know, my approach isn’t strategically optimal because I use too much new stuff at once. Especially the polyglyceryl esters behave differently than what I’m used to and they are somewhat less forgiving than PEG derivatives and other pharma standards. Combining that with a ‘natural’ hurdle approach and poorly understood production processes such as d-phase emulsification is maybe too much to really get to know each ingredient better but it makes my hobby more interesting.
@Pharma I haven’t had any issues with pentylene glycol negatively impacting emulsions as long as it’s added before emulsification (yet). If I add it in during cooldown, I often see and hear it fizzing the emulsion apart. All the manufacturers recommend adding these “difficult” ingredients after emulsification to avoid destabilisation but it seems to make it worse that way for me. It can look ok at first if I add it really late in the cooldown (giving the emulsion more time to get stronger) but the emulsion always starts showing signs of separation 1-2 days later. It seems GMCY, ethylhexylglycerin, caprylyl glycol give me the same problem so far.
I tried adding MultiMEG during homogenisation instead of cooldown (the manufacturer said it could be added in the water phase as long as long term heating e.g. 20 minutes over 80 °C was avoided). It seemed ok… but then I added a preservative that included caprylyl glycol during cooldown, and I could tell immediately that the emulsion had tiny breaks in it.. full of tiny oily micro bubbles/globules… and of course it started separating the next day. So now I don’t know whether the MultiMEG would have been ok if I hadn’t added the other preservative at cooldown. Every time I change more than one thing at once, I regret it… it’s always a false economy!
I wish I had your experience and background - it would make things much easier!
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