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Preservative For Edible Lip Scrub?
My cosmetic company is formulating a sugar-based lip scrub.
It’s a REALLY simple formula consisting of sugar, a variety of oils, and flavor.
The only hiccup we have is that we want it to be edible. Not for eating purposes, but because it’s far too easy to ingest the sugar or lick it off since it tastes so good. We’ve also done our market research and people just feel more comfortable with lip scrubs when they are safe if ingested.
Anyways, the scrubs, depending on flavor, range form a pH of 4-7. We add citric acid to our more “sour” flavors to give them a bite, and that lowers the pH…. We were looking at using a combination of Sodium Benzoate and Potassium Sorbate, but those preservatives are not very effective at the top of our pH range which is where our sweeter flavors lie.
We would prefer to use the same preservative in every flavor, but we are open to whatever we need to do.
What would you all recommend using and at what percentage?
Thank you!
(Also, yes we are doing our own research, but thought we would drop a post and see what your suggestions were as well).
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4 Replies
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I don’t see why you’d need a preservative if it’s an oil-based product?
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@Agate sugar is hygroscopic, and bug food; it’s better to be safe than sorry@kelseaventures if there’s no water in it, how can it have a pH? -
@Bill_Toge I suppose when I say “pH” I’m referring to the reading we get when we test it with a damp pH strip…. but you’re right it technically doesn’t have a pH because it is oil based. However, I know when we do lipsticks we still measure a “pH” with a damp pH strip to see how the lipstick might affect the skin. We were following the same procedure with the scrubs…. I’m not sure what else to call the reading other than pH. But now that you brought that up, is it possible that Sodium Benzoate and Potassium Sorbate would actually do the job since it is an oil based formula?
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@kelseaventures I’m curious did you ever find the right preservative for your lip scrubs? I’m in the same boat - I’m looking for a lip safe preservative to add to different lip products.
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