Preservatives

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...

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...

Geogard Ultra is an interesting broad spectrum preservative in that it contains no parabens or formaldehyde releasers, and it depends upon sodium benzoate – an organic acid – as the main preservative. It comes in a white powder format and the INCI is D-Glucono-1,5-lactone (aka gluconolactone, 70% to 80%) and sodium benzoate (22% to 28%)....

Liquipar Optima is a liquid, broad spectrum preservative that look at a lot like Liqupar PE at first glance, but when we take a look at the INCI, we can see there’s an difference in the percentages and the inclusion of methylparaben! The INCI is phenoxyethanol (66% to 74%), methylparaben (14% to 16%), isopropylparaben (5% to...