Susan Barclay-Nichols

Optiphen is a liquid preservative appropriate for fighting bacteria and yeast in our products (I can’t find any information on its efficacy against mould). Its INCI is Phenoxyethanol (and) Caprylyl Glycol. We know phenoxyethanol is a very effective against bacteria and yeast, but what about caprylyl glycol? It is paraben free and is not a formaldehyde...

Phenonip is a liquid, broad spectrum preservative with an INCI of INCI: Phenoxyethanol (and) Methylparaben (and) Ethylparaben (and) Butylparaben (and) Propylparaben (and) Isobutylparaben (click here for links on parabens). It can be used at 0.25% to 1.0% in all your creations, including anhydrous ones because some of these parabens are oil soluble! With all these parabens,...

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you’ll know that my preservative of choice is liquid Germall Plus. It contains propylene glycol (60%), diazolidinyl urea (39.6%), and iodopropynyl butylcarbamate (0.6%). It’s a broad spectrum liquid preservative that should be used at 0.1% to 0.5% in the cool down phase of your products....

Some of you are so eager to learn more about various preservatives, that you’re jumping ahead and asking questions about posts that haven’t been written yet! I like to establish the components of the various ingredients – in this case, what we find in our preservatives and how they work – then go into the...