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Preservative for rosewater?
Is there any way to extend the shelf life of naturally made rosewater to about 3 months? Without refrigeration being nessacary?
Can someone point me in the right direction on what to research more on?
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12 Replies
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can you get some (glydant +) or phenoxyethanol? Store it in copper? Do you need a natural preservative?
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Methylparaben, DMDM Hydantoin, Kathon
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@perry parabens are safe to use, despite what has been written. Do you concur?
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Thank you so much for the help! I’m going to look into those additives.
I’d definetly prefer the preservative be natural If it could be.
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@chickenskin - yes, parabens are perfectly safe for use in cosmetic products. Since they’ve been used for so many years and have decades of safety data behind them, I would say they are more safe than most of the “natural” alternatives.
@spicykimchi - your choice depends on what you consider to be “natural.” Some people consider parabens to be natural since they naturally occur in plants.
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So why do people always advertise paraben free as some badge of wholeness? If parabans are not bad for you why do they have a bad rep?
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@SpicyKimchi a good deal of it is down to the media parroting bad science as gospel (most notably, a deeply flawed British academic study that claimed parabens cause breast cancer)
where other, more reliable studies are concerned, the media, as always, has shown a tendency to read the results across into an inappropriate context or not understand the studies at all
political pressure groups like the EWG do the same thing; despite their general lack of scientific credibility, they do have a talent for convincing influential people and certain legislators (e.g. in California) that they’re in the right
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What @Bill_Toge said.
Plus, fear sells. If you can convince people that your product is more safe than your better funded, bigger competitors, you can sell some product. Fear marketing is lying in my view but not everyone sees it that way.
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If you were worried about trying to keep it as natural as possible you could use aspen bark extract, which has been shown in testing to work. The challenge testing has shown it to be extremely effective with mold, yeast, E.Coli, S.Aureus, B.Subtillis, and P.aerunginosa. It also has a broad PH range of 3.0-9.0, and is added to the water phase of your formulation. It is recommended to use at 1.5 to 3.5% of your formulation.
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Traditionally, rosewater comprised the condensate water remaining after the steam distillation of rose oil (otto). The term “triple rosewater” meant that the same water was used for the distillation of three lots of roses and was supposed to be three times as strong as single rosewater.
Traditional rosewater is a solution of the water soluble components of rose oil, mainly phenethyl alcohol together with citronellol, geraniol, linalool, nerol and numerous trace compounds.
The relatively high level of phenethyl alcohol makes the rosewater self-preserving.
You can easily add phenethyl alcohol if you are making your product by a different method it lacks this important ingredient.
Phenethyl alcohol has a strong odour of roses and may well round off your rosewater’s bouquet.
Phenethyl alcohol is widely available and is very low cost. Natural phenethyl alcohol is more expensive and available from Dr Straetmans and other suppliers.
You must, of course, test the effectiveness of your preservation system.
Phenethyl alcohol has a big advantage in a product like this as it is a natural component of the rose aroma.
About 1 - 1.5% should be suitable.
Note: it dissolves very slowly.
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@Jgy908 - How do you conduct a certificate of analysis on something like Aspen Bark Extract? What tests would be run to ensure that you are getting the ingredient you are buying? For example, how would you be able to distinguish between an Aspen Bark Extract and something like Aloe Extract?
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This information is wonderful! I appreciate all the responses. I’m also curious on how you can identify the bark between other powders. It’s been difficult for me to find suppliers that even have more than a stock photo of some of the ingredients I’ve been looking for.
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