| I hear and see people refuse to use a preservative regularly. They have various reasons. If the maker omitting is also the person using it then I really don’t have a problem with it. If they are giving it to friends or family, or even plan on selling their lotions and other products, I begin to worry. 🙁 The job of a preservative is to prevent yeast, bacteria and other microbes from growing in personal care products. The last thing I want to do is rub my hands with a lotion growing all of those things and then sit down to eat lunch. Yummy. :shock:I know that some readers will not agree with me and rather than getting on my soap box and talking for pages and pages, I am going to show you a picture of a lotion I made that did not include a preservative. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. Those containers of lotion are pretty disgusting right? Do you want to rub that all over your body? I know I don’t!
I ask that as you introduce and teach others the joy of this hobby, you also teach the importance of safety. The last thing you want to have occur is have loved ones, friends or customers in the hospital because of the awful microbes that decided to grow in your lotion. How awful that the hobby you so enjoy caused so much grief and worry. Let’s give the hobby of toiletries making a good name and the users safe and enjoyable products. Let’s look at how I made this lotion. Collect Needed Items:
Recipe:
Weigh all ingredients into a microwave safe container. Heat gently until the contents are fluid. Using the immersion blender, mix well. Allow the contents to cool and pour the lotion into a bag. Seal and allow to sit for several days, while monitoring the microbial growth inside of the bag. When experiment has concluded, dispose of the bag and the contents. 😉
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 Lotion growing in a jar  Lotion growing in Ziplock Bag |
awesome post! I love the pics 🙂 I hope now that people will understand that a preservative in a lotion/cream is better than fungi and other germs. 🙂
Taylor, can you give us some details on your moldy examples? The date you made each lotion (jar and ziplock). I know every house temps and humidity levels play a part in all this (and other things like dirty hand and more). but it would be nice to know some more details. thanks, Emily
I’m with SincerelyEmily here: how many days before noticing the first signs of goo?
I am sorry to say I have misplaced my notes! ACK! *Off to slay desk monster*
I do remember that the visible growth of bag took several weeks while the jar was visibly growing within three days. From my experience this would have more to do with the rate of air exchange. Don’t misunderstand. Temperature and humidity do play important roles but in the closed environments of the containers, these tend to be a little more regular.
Does this help at all?
Taylor , I’m with you, I actually forced myself to note everything in one place, it did wonders :)))
Thanks for letting us know about the mold development. I guess that the jar was left with the lid on, correct?
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