Natural Skin Care and Preservatives

What you should know about natural preservatives, creams and lotions

Hydrating facial creams are made with water.  Anytime a product is made with water as one of the ingredients, a broad spectrum preservative is needed to protect the build up of molds, bacteria and fungus.  While not always visible to the naked eye, water base creams that are not effectively preserved can contain numerous contaminates. 

At this time, Botanical Earth has not found a broad spectrum, natural preservative that will hold up over a one year test for preservative stability.  We participate in Aerobic and Challenge Testing on our water based private label creams held at a medical testing facility.  None of the natural preservatives we have used in our formulas have held up to clinical testing.  Synthetic preservatives are the only type of broad spectrum preservative we have found to work over a variety of conditions.  It is Botanical Earth's policy not to use parabens or other synthetic preservative in our products.  We would be the first to make creams and lotions if we could see laboratory proof that a truly natural preservative could show 1 year shelf life results.  Until then, we will not handcraft water based creams or lotions under the Botanical Earth label.

We realize many other companies advertise "natural preservatives".  There are natural preservatives to avoid oils from turning rancid like rosemary extract, vitamin E or some use grapefruit seed extract.  These ingredients do not protect against mold, bacteria or fungus.  Various forms of grapefruit seed extract are also found to have synthetics that are the actual ingredient to preserve the product from mold and bacteria.

What about synthetic preservatives?

Much has been written about the use of synthetic parabens in leave-on body care products.  In most cases, a broad spectrum preservative is used at roughly 1% or less of the total weight of a recipe.  Very little preservative is needed to prevent eye infections and a variety of illnesses. 

When creating creams and lotions with binders like beeswax and other ingredients, just as in soap making the combination of ingredients create new and different final by-products.  Certain non-paraben synthetic preservatives form formaldehyde when blended with waxes.  This is not listed on your ingredient label, but it could very well be in your finished product.

While quality essential oils can be combined to form an effective anti-bacterial and anti-viral preservatives, none of the natural preservatives we have tested have been able to sustain over 9 months.  Our testing included exposing the lotion or cream to temperature fluctuations (have you ever left a tube of hand lotion in your car on a hot summer day?), to airborne exposure (ever leave a lid off?), and to common strands of bacteria and mold found around the home (do you wash your hands every time prior to using your cream or lotion?).  Over repeated abuse, no natural preservative that we are aware of has been able to withstand standard testing.  Our herbal oils on the other hand have a shelf life of 2 years due to the freshness of our oils and the lack of water.

Most consumers have no idea the level or true wide spread use of parabens in their life.  From being used in blood transfusions and medication to a fragrant lotions and foods.  We will give you some links and articles for both for and against the use of parbens, and you can decide for yourself regarding their use.

Organic Consumers Association "Beware of Paraben Preservatives"

NCBI - National Resource for Molecular Biology Information  "Safety assessment of propyl paraben"

FDA Consumer Comments - http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/cos-safe.html