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Preservative issue
Hi every one .. really your advice here will be much appreciated..I make my own cleansers and toners .. I add a bunch of glycerites to both of them which are extracred through water and glycerin and already preserved from the supplier.. Since Iam buisy these days and gathering and weighing the extracts each time I make my toner and cleansers is time consuming I decided to make two mixtures , one containing the glycerites I add to the toner in a base of propanediol .. and another containing the glycerites I add to the cleansers in a base of propanediol and surfactants.. .. so each time I make my stuff I have my exteacts ready .. just incorporate water and preservative and adjust the ph.My question is .. do I have to add a preservative to the pre prepared mixtures which only contain the propanediol , glycerites and surfactans or is it ok to keep them the way they are since there is no water in them ?? -
4 Replies
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To be safe, I would add additional preservative. Your surfactants probably have water in them unless they are powders.
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Hi and thank you so much for responding, but further explaination would be much appreciated here .m the surfactant part is clear here but what about the glycerites.. they contain water and glycerin and preserved from the supplier in their sollow form . I just mix already preserved glycerites in propanediol, is that unsafe too.. thanks in advance and sorry if I am asking too much
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The only way to really answer your question is to test the sample as to whether you get microbial growth (challenge test). Any advice I give is just a reasonable guess but individual circumstances will vary.
If your glycerites have a low level of water activity then you probably don’t need additional preservative. That’s why something like Honey which is high in sugar doesn’t typically need preservation. There is not enough available water for microbes to grow. Since your not adding additional water but just adding to the propanediol, you probably don’t need additional preservation. But only testing can tell you for sure.
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Thank you so much
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