The home of SwiftCraftyMonkey Formulating Inc.! Join Susan as she obsesses about cosmetic chemistry and other things (some possibly related to monkeys). Often strange, occasionally useful, and always worth a stop as a point of interest on your journey through the Intertron.
I mentioned in the parabens post that some preservatives – mostly the parabens – can be inactivated by non-ionic ingredients, including some of the fatty alcohols (like cetearyl alcohol), fatty acids, esters, and polysorbates, when they’re used as emulsifiers (using the HLB system). The paraben based preservatives include Phenonip, Liquipar, and Germaben II, and the...
Cosmocil CQ is a really novel preservative, relying upon polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB) as the preservative, which is neither a formaldehyde releaser nor a paraben based product. The INCI is polyaminopropyl biguanide. It’s both a bacteriostatic and bactericidal preservative that should be combined with a fungicide like one of the parabens, potassium sorbate, or sodium benzoate (one...
When this series on preservatives ends on November 4th, I’m planning a week of much maligned ingredients week, including propylene glycol and mineral oil, and some of those on the Suzuki Foundation’s list. Since I tend to be out of the loop about what’s bad this week, I’m looking to you – my amazing readers...
I’ve seen this term thrown around when it comes to preservatives, but what exactly is hurdle technology? It’s basically the concept of using “different bacteria inhibiting or bacteria killing factors to achieve a safe product with an optimal shelf life”. In other words, it’s about combining different preservatives at lower levels to achieve good preservation...
Suttocide A is a unique preservative with its main ingredient being sodium hydroxymethylglycinate (50% in aqueous solution). It’s a broad spectrum preservative with good anti-bacterial properties, and its fungi, mould, and yeast killing properties increase with the quantity used. So if you have something you really want to preserve, you’re better off using up to...