# Lavender Oil Natural Preservative



## cmzaha (Jul 30, 2016)

Please tell me when I missed this information. I stopped at a booth in our market last night to see what a vendor had. His sign read Lavender & Crystals, I think it was crystals, maybe something else. 

Anyway he had a lotion per the label, he called it an oil and tried to put it on my arm. I noticed the label was very short on ingredients but happened to catch the H2O on the label. The label was Lavender Oil and H2O. To regress here a bit, I have been trying so hard the last couple of years and just ignoring what people claim and sell, but this time I could not keep my mouth shut. I asked what it was preserved with, I did not let him put it on me, and the answer was Lavender. Of course my mad got the best of me. He ended up telling me I did not know what I am talking about when I mentioned you cannot just mix oil and water without preserving or even emulsifying it. I did inform him we have been making and selling lotion for 7 yrs, although I only started playing with lotions last year, my daughter made out lotion and I did know how to make it. The bottle was opaque so I could not see if it was emulsified and ingredients were missing on the label. I did mention if there were more ingredients in it they needed to be on the label. 

I ended up asking our market manager and the owner to please restrict him from selling the lotion if he is in our new market in a couple of weeks. As much as I love the owner and help him out he has no backbone when it comes to telling vendors what they can and cannot do. 

Maybe I am missing something and lavender has been declared a preservative... :think:


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## The Efficacious Gentleman (Jul 30, 2016)

And an emulsifier! There's some moments when one can't just keep quiet


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## snappyllama (Jul 30, 2016)

Lavender - the miracle EO! Who knew?


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## KristaY (Jul 31, 2016)

O. M. G. What a scary product! I can only hope that vendor went home and did proper research on lotion safety. Ugh....


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## CTAnton (Jul 31, 2016)

probably has lavender confused with rosemary..just thinking of ROE...


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## HowieRoll (Jul 31, 2016)

I'm still trying to sort out how someone can throw together an EO and some water and call it... lotion?  Was the water added for good measure to make it more, um, hydrating?


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## doriettefarm (Jul 31, 2016)

Yikes Carolyn, I would have a hard time keeping quiet about this too!  Though I probably wouldn't have been so direct . . . I would have a little fun with him by tapping into my inner passive-aggressive bee-otch.  It would go a little something like this:

me:  Wow I had no idea you could make lotion with just oil & water!  All these years I've been under the impression that a proper emulsifier and preservatives were mandatory.  Who would have thought I could just sprinkle a little lavender EO in water and magically lotion would form?  

dude:  (((hopefully is speechless and too embarrassed to respond)))


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## TeresaT (Jul 31, 2016)

Nope.  I just double checked with all of my "antimicrobial" essential oils and Lavender is not on that list.    However, I found this interesting piece of data. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19249919)  So the next time anyone has MSSA or MRSA, get out the lavender oil.   I also remember reading an article in which 14 EOs were used in gaseous state for respiratory disease and lavender was one of them.  I don't remember the outcome of that specifically.  But at the end of the day, it is still not a preservative.   And oil and water still don't mix.


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## cmzaha (Jul 31, 2016)

doriettefarm said:


> Yikes Carolyn, I would have a hard time keeping quiet about this too!  Though I probably wouldn't have been so direct . . . I would have a little fun with him by tapping into my inner passive-aggressive bee-otch.  It would go a little something like this:
> 
> me:  Wow I had no idea you could make lotion with just oil & water!  All these years I've been under the impression that a proper emulsifier and preservatives were mandatory.  Who would have thought I could just sprinkle a little lavender EO in water and magically lotion would form?
> 
> dude:  (((hopefully is speechless and too embarrassed to respond)))


You are so much nicer than me... I do not really have a passive side although I have become a little milder with age. Plus it was over a hundred and I was feeling very testy. We have another person that advertises on her banner that no product contains preservatives. At least so far she only has oils and not lotions. But does sell scrubs which I know do no technically do not need preserving but it is a good to preserve since we cannot control what leaves our booth so I preserve


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## reflection (Aug 1, 2016)

reading about this and all the warnings around here gives me pause to buy any soap or body products if i go to a fair/festival. i would be more likely to buy them now too because i've gotten so into making them. i don't really want to have to grill sellers on their practices though. 

the guy probably heard that essential oils have antimicrobial properties but has no idea that the quantities he'd need to use would be much higher than what would be appropriate for his recipes and cause irritation or other problems at those levels. not to mention one essential oil isn't a broad spectrum preservatives against all the possible bacteria & fungi. 



CTAnton said:


> probably has lavender confused with rosemary..just thinking of ROE...


i'm pretty sure ROE isn't a preservative, but those around here who know way more than i can speak to this. i believe it is only an antioxidant which helps prevent oils from going rancid. preservatives are for water-containing products.


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## cmzaha (Aug 1, 2016)

reflection said:


> reading about this and all the warnings around here gives me pause to buy any soap or body products if i go to a fair/festival. i would be more likely to buy them now too because i've gotten so into making them. i don't really want to have to grill sellers on their practices though.
> 
> the guy probably heard that essential oils have antimicrobial properties but has no idea that the quantities he'd need to use would be much higher than what would be appropriate for his recipes and cause irritation or other problems at those levels. not to mention one essential oil isn't a broad spectrum preservatives against all the possible bacteria & fungi.
> 
> ...


ROE is not a preservative.


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## Spice (Mar 4, 2017)

cmzaha said:


> Please tell me when I missed this information. I stopped at a booth in our market last night to see what a vendor had. His sign read Lavender & Crystals, I think it was crystals, maybe something else.
> 
> Anyway he had a lotion per the label, he called it an oil and tried to put it on my arm. I noticed the label was very short on ingredients but happened to catch the H2O on the label. The label was Lavender Oil and H2O. To regress here a bit, I have been trying so hard the last couple of years and just ignoring what people claim and sell, but this time I could not keep my mouth shut. I asked what it was preserved with, I did not let him put it on me, and the answer was Lavender. Of course my mad got the best of me. He ended up telling me I did not know what I am talking about when I mentioned you cannot just mix oil and water without preserving or even emulsifying it. I did inform him we have been making and selling lotion for 7 yrs, although I only started playing with lotions last year, my daughter made out lotion and I did know how to make it. The bottle was opaque so I could not see if it was emulsified and ingredients were missing on the label. I did mention if there were more ingredients in it they needed to be on the label.
> 
> ...


I would have liked to have seen what he had. It's these kind of people that can ruin the market.


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## Seawolfe (Mar 5, 2017)

I saw the same thing at a market near me with (as far as I could tell) orange EO and water! My BFF was going to let her spray it on her, I went off about photosensitivity and preservatives and wouldn't let her...

Here is his logic Carolyn: " Lavender is a camphorous herb, camphor is in Vics Vapo-Rub, Vics Vapo-Rub scientifically cures colds, therefore it must be anti-microbial!!" Oh and shaking is good enough to mix water and oil, everyone knows that!


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## Zany_in_CO (Mar 11, 2017)

cmzaha said:


> I have been trying so hard the last couple of years and just ignoring what people claim and sell, but this time I could not keep my mouth shut. I asked what it was preserved with, I did not let him put it on me, and the answer was Lavender. Of course my mad got the best of me.


KUDOS to you for trying! Sometimes my mad gets the best of me too! Sigh. In any case, the poor guy wasn't up to being informative, for whatever reason. Perhaps he's a seller? Not the manufacturer? The reason I think this is because I make linen spray with H2O + Lavender EO + 20% alcohol as a preservative. Maybe if you'd gotten a closer look at the label?  Of course, even if that's the case, he's an idiot for calling it "lotion". tsk tsk.


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