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.
In this post, Sarah asks: One thing I’d like to know is the specifics as to why we preserve anhydrous sugar and salt scrubs – I’ve had so many discussions with regards this (I say we should, to be safe) and would like it clarified if poss.! I know you’ve touched on it before but could...
So now that I’ve sold you on the need for preservatives, how exactly do they work? Preservatives inactivate the microorganisms in our products in a few different ways, but the primary way is to cause them cause some kind of chemical disruption that leads to death. They leak their internal fluids, they can’t maintain pH,...
Grapefruit seed extract (GSE) is derived from the seed and pulp of grapefruits, and it may contain many lovely things – anti-oxidants, flavonoids, Vitamin C, citric acid, phytosterols, and tocopherols – but it is NOT a preservative. It may behave as an anti-oxidant in our products, but it will not keep the beasties out of...
We use our preservatives to prevent little beasties from growing in our lotions…but what kinds of beasties want to live in our products? Gram positive bacteria: These are bacteria that turn dark blue or purple when Gram stained in the lab. They lack the outer membrane of the gram negative bacteria. This family includes staphylococcus,...
Since writing this post, I have developed an entire section of the blog devoted to the individual preservatives, along with comparison charts and information on why we might like to use them. As much as I like this post, I think the preservatives section of the blog offers much more information. And I think you’ll...