Preservatives in Cosmetics
The Bad Guys
Preservatives in cosmetics are a little despised by consumers. They are known to be a source of irritation for some people and subsequently have gained a bit of a bad rap.
So I thought I’d have a chat about them and share a few facts.
Why Products Need Preservatives
Microbes luuuuurve your skin care products.
Those amazing ingredients that bring their wonders to your skin - are also an incredible food source for microbes and opportunistic organisms.
Most personal care is:
Hydrocarbon rich e.g. lipids, surfactants, emulsifiers
Nutrient rich e.g. extra vitamins, humectants, actives, botanical extracts
Stored in room condition temperatures and possiblly humid environments
High in water content
At ideal pH growth conditions
We all know how many billions of bacteria live on our hands, even our clean hands. Did you know that every time you dip your hands in your beautiful skincare product you are introducing bacteria? Left unchecked that bacteria will have a party like none other.
Some of the common bacteria that can be present are staphylococcus aureus, pseudomonas aeruginosa, candida albicans and Esherichia coli.
Without preservatives, our skin care products have the potential to harm and even kill us.
So this is why cosmetics may contain preservatives as one of their ingredients.
Having said that, the use of preservatives should be limited to only what is necessary to preserve a product under ideal conditions, because they do represent that source of potential irritation mentioned above.
I will also say that adding extra preservative is no way to address short comings of Good Manufacturing Practice and staff and facility hygiene! Even if you are making products at home.
It is possible to formulate a more hostile or just less ideal environment to microbial growth. Here’s some ideas of the type of conditions I mean:
pH <3 or >10
High ethanol content
Products like salt or sugar scrubs - these tend to be self preserving
So far as personal care products are concerned, apart from salt and sugar scrubs, these type of products and environments aren’t conducive to our skin either!
Challenge Testing
Before you bring a cosmetic product to market, there are some tests it needs to pass to ensure you have a properly preserved, stable product you can safely assume will have a two year shelf life.
Microbial
The first challenge is microbial testing.
Your product should be sent to an independent laboratory for this test. Here, they innoculate your product with the strains of bacteria commonly found and that your product is likely to encounter along it’s journey.
Samples are taken at seven days, 14 days, 21 days and 28 days. Microbial counts are checked against standards to ensure that these pesky organisms are not growing or are not present at all. Which means your preservative is working - yay!
Stability
The other challenge is stability.
Your product needs to not split, separate, flocculate, change colour or change aroma. It needs to withstand temperature changes - hot and cold.
Have you ever bought a lip balm that was too soft in the summer and too hard in the winter ?
That’s a formulating consideration right there.
So, how do you test for stability ?
Put your cream or lotion in an oven for three months !
Yep. They do.
At temperature ranges from 30C to, sometimes, 50C.
Phew ! This is sounding like a marathon!
And The Winner Is…
Yes, Tall Tui did the marathon and passed !
Regulation
The cosmetic industry is highly regulated. It states which ingredients are banned and has strict allowances on ingredients that are permitted, including preservatives. Whether natural or synthetic, all preservatives used in today's cosmetics are safe if used within the tight controls of the cosmetic regulations.
Yes, even parabens and phenoxyethanols.
They represent such a small percentage of your product - often less than 1% - yet do such a huge job.
Tall Tui Age Embrace
You. Redefined.
Further Information
For more information about preservatives in cosmetics and their limits, check out the following links:
Institute of Personal Care Science:
https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/cosing/
Enter the name of the ingredient you are researching. There are annexes for certain ingredients, such as preservatives, detailing their restrictions.
http://www.tga.gov.au/ and type in SUSMP (Standard for the Uniform Scheduling of Medicines and Poison)
http://www.fda.gov/cosmetics - type ”restricted” in the search bar.