Preservative added to body butter months later

[tinytreats]

So I have a body butter I made for myself that only contains soy butter and avocado oil. I never added a preservative because it doesn't contain water and it's for myself. So to my understanding, you don't need to add a preservative because it doesn't contain any water. But on a molecular level, I assume bacteria can still grow in there even if there's no water, right?

What if I were to heat my body butter and add a preservative? I probably made it about 6 months ago. Has anyone ever tried that? I feel like trying anyway, but I'm wondering if someone has in fact done this, and that the outcome was.

 

[AustinStraight]

You can add a preservative if you're worried about water getting into it, but no, bacteria can't thrive in an anhydrous product. I'm not sure how well it would work now that it'd been 6 months, either. I haven't made anything that needs to be preserved yet, so I can't speak from experience.

 

[pamielynn]

An all oil/butter product like body butter really doesn't need a preservative because of the anhydrous environment and it's typically not used or stored in the shower, where water could get mixed into it. I add preservative to products like sugar scrub, even though it's anhydrous simply because water can get into it there and in my mind could generate an environment for bacteria. But not for body butter.