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hmlove1218

hmlove1218

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Yesterday I was watching a video in which the girl was making sugar scrubs. She stated that she was using Germall Plus Liquid to preserve her scrubs, and explained that this was possible because it was an emulsified scrub. Is this correct?
 
The reason you would use germall plus in an oil based (emulsified or not) scrub is to account for any water that may enter it during use. Anhydrous products do not need preservative on their own - it is the accidental contamination with water that can create potential problems. An oil based preservative will not migrate over the the water so you need a water based preservative to account for that.
 
Faith: That's very interesting and I haven't heard that before. I've always included phenonip in my scrubs because it is for oil based formulations. Do you recommend using a water soluble preservative instead? Would you recommend the same for an anhydrous body butter?

Shunt: That's what I thought too, that it was for liquid based formulas, but this had me questioning whether it could be incorporated into an emulsified formula. I'll check out that link.
 
This is the statement from the link you posted which is basically the same as what I posted

Liquid Germall Plus – this effective and easy to use preservative is a favourite amongst DIYers including swiftcraftymonkey – INCI: Propylene Glycol (and) Diazolidinyl Urea (and) Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate. Use 0.5% cool down phase – good for emulsions e.g. lotions and aqueous mixtures but can’t be used in all oil creations. pH range: 3-8 however an expert microbiologist advises it can be used at a higher pH. In the US, do not use in aerosols/sprays and in the EU do not use in body creams/lotions.

It also only states that anything containing water or coming in contact with water should be preserved. I'm not reading anything that states differently...
 
You need to read all of it:

"PRESERVING ANHYDROUS EG SCRUBS

If water may be introduced to the product or the product used in a humid bathroom then a preservative is advisable. An expert microbiologist advises that if trying to preserve an anhydrous product (including all oil+sugar/salt scrub) the oil soluble preservative will get locked in the oils so will not reach any water, if water was introduced into the product. So if you added an oil soluble preservative then that preservative will stay in the oils and not move over to where the water is located to protect that water against bacteria and mould so would be useless. So contrary to what you may have read, we should really use a water soluble preservative in an anhydrous product which means we’d need to add an emulsifier to get that preservative mixed in properly with the oils."
 
I used to use optiphen thinking - anhydrous product oil soluble preservative, now I have had to reevaluate my choice of preservative too based in this and it makes perfect sense too. Oils don't need the preservative but the water that may enter it does.
 

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