WHICH ARE THE NATURAL PRESERVATIVES THAT CAN BE USED IN DIY SKINCARE PRODUCTS?

Is Preservatives used in cosmetics harmful? Which are natural preservatives?

Today’s skincare market is a platform for infinite number of brands where they compete each other in the name of quality  labels. There are plenty of brands which are labeled as “cruelty free”, “SLS free”, “Paraben free” and so on. But I think that sometimes these labels are bit confusing or misleading to wrong concepts. Here I’m trying to give some insights on “Preservative Free” labels on skincare products. 

Let it be a skincare, haircare, personal care, or even food stuffs. We can notice it’s written as “Preservative free” on the packaging. This will always make a scary concept about preservatives among the consumers. As a result whenever they purchase the next product they will be searching for these preservative free products. In this phase three things need a clarification:

1. What is preservatives? Are they actually harmful?
2. Is it possible to produce skin care products without preservatives?
3. What are the facts about natural preservatives?

Let’s start on Preservatives. Preservatives are certain substance/chemicals that are added during the formulation of skincare products for extending their shelf life. That means preservatives play an important role in keeping your favorite skincare item last longer. Apart from some chemicals like formaldehyde, preservatives are not at all proved hazardous.

In any process industry, there will be a stoichiometry of raw materials to form the final product. The same is in case of cosmetics formulation. A minimal amount of preservatives are not going to kill you. Only at higher doses these can act as toxic. All you need to make sure is there is no hazardous preservatives such as formaldehyde, Urea , Phthalates etc is present in the ingredients list.

Now, you may have got the answer for the next question that is, 

Is it possible to produce skincare products without preservatives? 

The answer is a big No. Then why several brands market their products by claiming that the are free from preservatives? Well, it might be some sort of marketing strategies, whatever!

Any product you chooses the expiry mentioned on the packaging might be 1,2 or even 3 years.So it’s clear that these products are going to last for a long period of time. Now, if you checked the ingredients list you would be able to find Aqua/water in any of them. Is a product having water in it going to last that long? Where there is presence of water there is a chance of mold and bacterial growth. And also whenever the product comes in contact with a humid atmosphere. So, preservatives are in fact a necessary ingredients in cosmetics.

Then why not natural preservatives?Which are natural preservatives?

Definitely there are several natural preservatives like Radish root ferment filtrate, Honeysuckle, Aspen bark extract, Gluconolactate etc.

But these natural preservatives can assure only a maximum 6 months of shelf life. And also they need to be used in large quantities like 30-35% which is not cost effective. Otherwise these are good options especially for homemade cosmetics. 

Here, I should make a clarity on preservatives used in DIYs. Many bloggers in YouTube and online are guiding the viewers to use Vitamin E oil, glycerin and grape seed extracts as preservatives. Vitamin E can act as an anti oxidant if used by a higher percentage. That may help to prevent facial oils or oil based DIYs from oxidizing to some extent. Otherwise Vitamin E is not a preservative. Grape seed extract is again not a preservative. Glycerin has the ability to inhibit the growth of bacteria if used properly. A volume of 50% or more is needed to serve the purpose of preservative. And that might not be practical in DIY skincare. If you are using a small percentage of glycerin for the purpose of moisture lock, it would work great.