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Preservatives with a formula with a lot of actives
Hi
I have just read this article on preservatives (http://www.makingskincare.com/preservatives/) and I was surprised to read the advice to reduce the amount of actives in a formula. One of the reasons I wanted to make some creams was for the actives, and I want to include as much as solubility will allow. I tried to narrow down my selection, and solubility may well force my hand there, but I was planning on trying to add around 16gm of actives into a 125gm cream. I have a base recipe, that uses glyceryl caprylate and phenethyl alcohol as the preservative, at 1% (I know I will have to adjust the amount to include the proposed added actives as they are not accounted for in the base recipe). But the article in the link suggests against using Optiphen (Phenoxyethanol (and) Caprylyl Glycol) (I presume that is the same as glyceryl caprylate and phenethyl alcohol). It appears this doesn’t work against funghi anyway.
I didn’t really want to use a paraben based formula, but I am wondering now if I should. Any feedback or comments would be appreciated.
thanks
Rebecca -
13 Replies
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Your presumption that Phenoxyethanol (and) Caprylyl Glycol is the same as Glyceryl Caprylate (and) Phenethyl Alcohol is incorrect … they are not the same at all.
Couple of things to consider: What are the actives you are planning to include and do you really, really need 16 grams of actives per 125 grams of cream? It is often a common mistake that “more is better” when you should be following the guideline that “enough is enough” … Simply follow the formulation guidelines of the actives provided by the suppliers. Overdosing actives is not going to necessarily make your formulations any more effective.There are several commercial preservative blends that will work just fine in most formulations.First, what is the final pH of your cream? That will help determine what preservatives would be appropriate to consider as your options become increasingly limited at pH 6.0 or above.You might consider something like Benzyl Alcohol (and) Caprylyl Glycol (and) Benzoic Acid from Dr. Straetmans which will give you good broad spectrum preservation from pH 3.0 to 8.0. -
Thank you Mark
I’ll definitely look at that preservative. I included a lot of actives as I wanted to address a couple of things with the formula - general antiaging plus photoaging in particular. The actives I was going to include are:
copper peptide ghk
Natural Active Peptides 1g
Phytosterols 2gmcoenzyme q10 0.6g
niacinamide B3 3-4gmAloe Vera Powder 1gm
Betulinic Acid 1.5g
Selenomethionine 0.2g
glucosamine 2.5gAlpha Lipoic Acid (R) 0.3g
Hyaluronic Acid 0.5g
coconut endosperm 1.5g
lipochroman-6 0.015gm
quercitin 1gI’m not sure of the ph of the cream as that wasn’t indicated in the recipe and I haven’t made it yet. I will get those ph adjusters so I have them on hand if I need to adjust the ph when its made.
thanks
Rebecca -
If you want the most effective, least problematic preservative then you should use parabens.
The other thing you might consider is figuring out whether those actives actually have an effect when applied from a topical cream. Make a batch with and without the actives. On a blinded basis can you tell a difference? If not, that tells you something about how much or how many of these actives you should include.This post is relevant. - Extracts in cosmetic formulas -
I would suggest you do some research to see if there are any published studies on the effectiveness of the actives you are considering using. The quantities used and application protocol will be detailed as part of the study protocol.
Since cosmetics are part science and part self-delusion with a heavy dose of marketing, I really don’t think that doing a blinded study on yourself is going to tell you very much or provide much guidance. -
“Since cosmetics are part science and part self-delusion with a heavy dose of marketing, I really don’t think that doing a blinded study on yourself is going to tell you very much or provide much guidance.”
@MarkBroussard - I agree with you on that. -
I’ve been gleaning information from scientific studies in the writeups of the products on some of the ingredient suppliers selling them, so I’ve tried to use the amount in the range that the studies did. Next step will be to look for the primary material.
That’s an interesting article Perry. So my extracts might be useless! I will keep researching.
Parabens it might be, as I didn’t hear back from the only Australian supplier of Dr Straetmans preservative.
thanks
Rebecca -
Ingredient suppliers are motivated by product sales so the studies that they show you should not be considered definitive proof. I’m not suggesting they are lying, but they only show you the data that proves the conclusion they want.
This is why you have to be very skeptical of any supplier data. It’s good direction but usually they give you a misleading conclusion. -
Generally speaking, all cosmetic/pharmaceutical formulators try to keep the number of “active” ingredients in each formula to the absolute minimum needed. That’s primarily because it’s impossible to tell if an “active” is working well with another “active”, or fighting against it, without spending an enormous amount of money on efficacy testing. Each “active” you use adds greatly to the cost of that testing.
What that means for you is that there’s a good chance that you will go through all that trouble with all those “actives”, and your cream does absolutely nothing, because the “actives” are fighting each other. There’s also a good chance that your cream will do something entirely unexpected - and that could be good or bad - because all these “actives” have not been tested together all in one cream.There is no way of your knowing whether or not your cream will be harmful. Please be very careful. -
@Wombat:
I would go down the list of your actives, one-by-one, and ask yourself: Is there any independent scientific evidence that this active provides a benefit. If the answer is “no” eliminate that active from your formulation. That will help you whittle down your ingredients to those that have some documented evidence of efficacy. -
@wombat:
This might help you regarding preservation. -
Rebecca,
as a pharmacist I would totally disencourage you to add so many actives in one formulation. Even though is might be “just a cosmetic formula” there are still many possible adverse reactions to be avoided and the main one is dermatitis. Why all-in-one? There is no such thing as the one and perfect product. Even if you take a look at BB, CC or DD creams they are more marketing than actually 10 or more benefits in one single product. There are not 10 or eleven actives.But if you wish to continue with your panacea, please be sure to have studied all benefits and possible interactions among all actives added to your formulation. Specially those acids. -
Weights are a bit meaningless … we normally use percentages.
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Thank you,
I’ll take a deeper look at the actives and try and whittle them down.
That;s a great thread Mark, thank you
Rebecca
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