Please help me preserve this new product

[freyacat]

Ok, a bit of back story as this is a bit different.

My face is v. sensitive to cleansers and the only thing I'm happy with is water and occasionally an oats wash, literally smearing my face with oats. As you can imagine, this is rather messy, so I started putting the oats in empty paper tea bags as a single use face wash. The teabag goes in a cup with a little boiling water whilst I'm cleaning my teeth. I then add some cold water and wash my face with the tea bag. This is awesome.

Over time I've added some other ingredients including various dried herbs/petals etc and a smidge of oils and mild surfactants.

My friends/family/customers eventually found out and asked to try out my Tea Face. I've handed out samples to some people. They love it too.....but.....no matter how much I told them that it was a single use product as it has no preservatives, I get comments like "It felt like a waste to only use it once, so I kept it in the fridge and reused it" ARGGH! Luckily for me, the bag disintegrates after a couple uses, but I can't help but think that someone will use it, leave it out for a few days and then use it again.

So, how to add a preservative to this product?
I'd be worried about proper dispersal with a powder. I've also thought about using an oil based preservative and adding it to the small amount of oil I add
to the product.

What are your collective thoughts my lovely people?

 

[pamielynn]

I can't imagine that you could preserve an item like that. People are cheap, so even if you told them "one time use only" - they'd still keep using it. Say you even packaged 7 in a box, most people would say "This is a week's worth, but I'm going to stretch it out". I know I would I'm not sure how far your liability extends, if it's marketed to be used once and people deviate from the instructions.

Got good insurance?

 

[jcatblum]

Label label label. Disposable, Single use only. Then say did you read the label? I soak oats for my chickens. In 2 days they are fully fermented. IMO preserving oats after moistened would be a challenge.


Sent from my iPhone using Soap Making

 

[dagmar88]

Maybe you could sell the tea and bags separately, so the customer can decide what a single use is to them.

 

[freyacat]

Thanks for the help. I might do some testing with the ideas I have. I'll talk to my friendly local microbiologist who helps me with such things.

I'm tempted to go down the LOUD LABEL option as this product is popular with people who want all 'natural' products.

 

[zieyara]

yup, i think u cant preserve something like this too.take tea for example, i dont think ppl put preservative in it and ur suppose to use for 1 time only. but on the other hand, i do agree with these ppl u've given ur sample to.it's such a waste if u cud only use it once, so as for me i might use a lot of boiling water if and then refregerate the remaining tea-water to use in 2-3 days time (but not sure bout this since didnt try ur product).

whatever it is, u cant force everyone follows ur instruction manual on this. so yes, like jcatblum wrote, labelling is ur friend in this kind of situation.