Preserving milk in a lotion

[LeahMcK3]

Trying to figure out a good preservative for my homemade organic oatmeal coconut milk & honey lotion. Gentle enough for babies skin, yet strong enough to be safe to sell online & at craft fairs!
Pharaben free of course!
Been looking into Potassium Sorbate & sodium benzoate. Anyone know about those & would u recommend using for my product?
Thanks!

 

[Genny]

Potassium Sorbate isn't effective against bacteria. It's effective against yeast & mold though. Also, it has been known to be a skin irritant, so I wouldn't use it in a product for a baby.

Sodium Benzoate unfortunately isn't an effective preservative against bacteria either.

Optiphen Plus is a paraben free, non formeldehyde releasing preservative.
But it can stink in lotion. Plus do you actually have oatmeal in your lotion? Optiphen Plus has been known to be inactivated by cellulose.

 

[LeahMcK3]

Yeah I make a oat tea by soaking ground oats in hot water overnight, then strain & use that in the lotion. Have any other ideas? Thank you for your help! I'm new to this! Started making my own stuff about a month ago because I can't find anything to work on my 4 month old sons eczema...

 

[LeahMcK3]

http://www.theherbarie.com/PB-MicroCide ... r-228.html

Anyone know about this preservative?

 

[MychelleC]

I would recommend at least a year of trials, stability testing, and APC/Challenge testing by a professional lab before you consider selling anything. One month isn't nearly enough time to see how a product will perform. I don't even sell 13 years into crafting bath and body because of the liability issues! Record batch numbers and test your products for at least a year before you put them out there. If you get off to a bad start with your customers they might never come back. HTH!

 

[carebear]

Despite popular mythology, parabens have in fact NOT been shown to be linked with squat besides interfering with the growth of microbes. but whatever...

Anyway, for info on preservatives I suggest you visit Swift's blog. Start here: http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/2 ... tives.html

 

[birdcharm]

Hi,

I'm not completely sold on the fact that this is purely mythology ... I agree that it requires more study, but I don't discount it completely.

Kathy

~~~~~~~
Article first published online: 16 MAY 2008

This toxicology update reviews research over the past four years since publication in 2004 of the first measurement of intact esters of p-hydroxybenzoic acid (parabens) in human breast cancer tissues, and the suggestion that their presence in the human body might originate from topical application of bodycare cosmetics. The presence of intact paraben esters in human body tissues has now been confirmed by independent measurements in human urine, and the ability of parabens to penetrate human skin intact without breakdown by esterases and to be absorbed systemically has been demonstrated through studies not only in vitro but also in vivo using healthy human subjects. Using a wide variety of assay systems in vitro and in vivo, the oestrogen agonist properties of parabens together with their common metabolite (p-hydroxybenzoic acid) have been extensively documented, and, in addition, the parabens have now also been shown to possess androgen antagonist activity, to act as inhibitors of sulfotransferase enzymes and to possess genotoxic activity.
Article first published online: 16 MAY 2008

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... 8/abstract