# Preservatives in Liquid Soap



## Carl (Jan 13, 2019)

I was doing some late night reading last night and I came across an article about liquid soaps and how you should use preservatives since it is a high percentage H2O and bacteria could start to grow.

I'm starting to get my liquid soap to the point where I really like it.


I first make a liquid soap paste and then dilute it as described in most of the threads on this site.

I've been using that as the base for hand soap, body wash, and household cleaner.

Should there be any type of preservatives in the base?  If so what?

The hand soap I make gets diluted a little further with H2O.  What kind of preservative should I use in this? 

I don't want these items to be sitting around the house for a few months and then they grow stuff if you know what I mean.

The articles I read last night did not go into detail about the types of preservatives.  It just said you should use them.


I've actually just read about 
*Phenonip* on the Brambleberry site.  Seems about .5-1% is the way to go. Do you add this at the paste stage or after dilution?


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## IrishLass (Jan 13, 2019)

The decision to add or not add preservatives in liquid soap is one of those things that differs from person to person. I personally do not add any to mine and I know of several others who do not add any to theirs either. Having said that, though, I also know of several others that _do_ add a preservative to theirs.

I should mention that I do not sell. I only make my LS for me and certain family members. I researched before deciding to forego adding a preservative, and the tipping point/deciding factor for me to forego was a scientific discussion about it over at the Dish forum. There was a member there named SilverDoctor, a retired doctor who cited studies on the subject and helped to explain a lot about it:

*http://www.thedishforum.com/forum/i...7-glycerin-method-liquid-soap/page-40?hl=edta* (start at post #997). You'll need to become a member there before you are able to see the thread, but in a very brief nutshell, in cases where contamination (of liquid soap) was reported, they found that the bacteria/molds, etc.. were not found in the actual body of the liquid soap itself, but along the sides and surface of the soap.....basically wherever it came in contact with air or outside water, such as dispenser parts/spouts.

To cut down on such contamination, he recommended for the home soaper to practice good quality control measures such as cleaning/disinfecting our spouts well whenever re-filling our dispenser bottles, as well as disinfecting the bottles themselves, and to not dilute more soap than we are able to use up in in a reasonable amount of time. For me, this is easy since I don't sell and am not making gallons of diluted soap at a time. I dilute only enough paste at a time to fill my household dispenser bottles as needed, and I disinfect my dispenser bottles and spouts before re-filling them. He also made mention of EDTA....it's not a preservative in the sense of directly of killing bacteria/fungi, but it does help by sequestering the essential nutrients that microorganisms need for food, in effect starving/weakening them. I add tetrasodium EDTA to every batch of my soap, whether liquid or bar....mainly because of my very hard water, but I like that it's dual purpose.

If I sold, I would definitely add a preservative, because #1, I'd be making and storing large amounts of diluted soap, and #2- you just never know how a customer is going to treat your liquid soap once they get it home. I also should mention that if I was further diluting my already diluted liquid soap in order to use it in a foamer bottle, I would definitely use a preservative then, too, because there's just too little soap in it compared to the water amount. As it happens, though, I don't use foamer bottles (I hate those things).

Phenonip is an awesome preservative- I use it in my lotions- but it's only effective in a pH range of 3 to 8, and soap is oftentimes higher than 8. Many folks seem to like using Germaben for their liquid soaps.

When adding a preservative to liquid soaps, always add it add dilution. 


IrishLass


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## Zany_in_CO (Jan 13, 2019)

Hiya Carl,

I've been making liquid soap since 2004 and I've never used a preservative and never had a soap go south on me. I typically dilute at a rate of 40:60 soap to dilution water for most batches; 15:85 or 20:80 for 100% olive oil castile.

I further dilute the LS at a rate of 1:3 soap to water for foamers that I keep at all the sinks in the house.

That being said, I have no way of knowing what all is in your LS or how you process it, so take heed of Irish Lass's advice. Well said.


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## Carl (Jan 13, 2019)

Wow!!

Thanks for some great advice!

The soap I make is not just for me.  Whether I eventually sell it or just give it away to friends, I am not making just for me.

Sometimes I feel like I need to keep those who get my stuff safe!


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