• Formulating

  Preservative failing PET - Help

  Posted by Paddym on February 7, 2022 at 12:54 am

  Hey everybody. We are currently working with a lab to produce a range of men’s hair styling products (waxes, clays, pomades etc.). We recently got word that our ‘clay’ failed PET. Here is an ingredients list to give you an idea of what is in the formula.

  Water

  Kaolin Clay

  NZ Glacial Clay

  Candelilla Wax

  PEG-40 HCO

  Cetearyl Alcohol

  Shea Butter

  Grapeseed Oil

  Polysorbate 20

  Glycerin

  Fragrance

  VP/VA Copolymer

  Phenoxyethanol

  The only perservative in there is currently Phenoxy, and the head chemist thinks that we would be better to change that to increase efficacy. We head from the PET testing that the product initially did well, passing phase one, but once bacteria was introduced into the product, it failed. The chemist at the lab is suggesting moving to either paraben or dmdm hydantoin.. neither I am wholey comfortable with. I would prefer to continue down the Phenoxy route, and would be keen to hear what could be added to it to beef up it’s efficacy… I hear EDTA can sometimes be effective. Any advise I will pass onto the head chemist. The only ingredient that you probably aren’t familiar with is NZ glacial clay, which meets the labs standard in terms of bug count, coming in at 50 (I’m not sure what the scale is) with the limit being 100. Keen to hear your thoughts.

  Cheers

  Paddy

  PhilGeis replied 2 years, 10 months ago 4 Members · 4 Replies

  • phenoxyethanol
  • preservatives
• 4 Replies

• 

  Graillotion

  Member

  February 7, 2022 at 1:00 am

  No mention of pH?

  Are your clay’s irradiated? 

  Do you have a chelate?  (I’ll be interested to hear what the chemist have to say…with clays and chelates.)

  Following.

  (Sounds like your chemist already knows how to solve the problem….except I would have but an ‘and’ between them, not a ‘or’.)   

• 

  Paddym

  Member

  February 7, 2022 at 1:08 am

  Kaolin is irradiated, glacial clay isn’t. Not sure about a chelate or the pH. I can ask

• 

  Abdullah

  Member

  February 7, 2022 at 1:44 am

  EDTA always help.

  If you can share the result of pet test we will know what is the weakness in your product and suggest you a preservative that is effective for that. 

  Usually a blend of preservatives is used because one preservative will be overkill for one organism and weak for another

• 

  PhilGeis

  Member

  February 7, 2022 at 12:15 pm

  Clay is hard to preserve and chelants do poorly with it.  DMDM hydantoin with parabens or an organic acid (if pH permits) would be a reasonable try.

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