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Preservative making product smell
Hi Chemists and formulators:
We made a serum and it is scentless. When we added potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate, it created a pungent odor. It also became irritating on the skin. We then swapped the preservative for Geogard ECT, and while the scent changed, it was less pungent and non-irritating. But it still has a scent versus the unpreserved product.
Does anyone know why the scent would be changing with the addition of the preservative, and how this can be mitigated. It hasn’t been an issue with other formulations.
Also, if anyone has any advice on how to mask the scent without the addition of fragrance that would be really helpful!
Thank you!
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4 Replies
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Sorbic acid is common to both of these poor preservastive systems and has stability issues. Experienced some “petroleum” odor - tho’ not with immediate issues on addition. Try something withoiut the stuff.
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Hello. I am not 100% sure but it has been my understanding that commercial products that claim to be unscented actually contain many ingredients to create that illusion.
Products that are completely fragrance free I believe are different.
But if you want a product that has what appears to be no scent, it takes certain ingredients to achieve this. I may be wrong and I hope someone corrects me if I am. This was something I had read and I cannot remember the source.
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I use 0.2% or so of sodium citrate to neutralize odour of my lotions and creams. Not sure how it works but it’s noticeably less aromatic. Good luck 🙂
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The crappy odor is not something to mask - it indicates a stability issue you need to address
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