You don't need to preserve oils, you only need an antioxidant.
Body oils, face oils, or anything made with ONLY oil soluble ingredients like natural oils, emollient esters, butters, even oil soluble extracts, do not need a preservative.
Preservatives are used in our cosmetics, to prevent mold, yeast, & bacteria from growing. This can only happen, when water is present in the formula.
Where there is water, there is life. This means there needs to be water present in order for there to be a chance for growing mold, yeast, or bacteria.
But......Natural Oils and products made with oil based ingredients do go RANCID. This means the oil has lost it's potency. The vitamins in it have degraded and it will have this off smell. Yes, it can still make your skin feel soft and moisturized, but all that goodness in the oils have degraded, so you won't be getting those vitamins from that oil anymore.
The perfect way to extend the shelf life of your body oils, face oils, or any other anhydrous formula is to add in tocopherols, aka Vitamin E.
Do not go running to your nearest grocery store and picking up the vitamin E there. That isn't pure tocopherols, it's extremely diluted. What you want is either mixed Tocopherol T-50 or mixed Tocopherols 95%.
Tocopherol T-50 "is a 50% active concentration of natural mixed tocopherols concentrated to contain naturally occurring d-alpha, d-beta, d-gamma and d-delta tocopherols" - purchase on naturalbulksupplies.com
Tocopherols 95% "is a 95% active blend of natural mixed tocopherols isolated from the distillation of soybean oil and concentrated to contain naturally occurring d-alpha, d-beta, d-gamma and d-delta tocopherols." - purchase on lotioncrafter.com
I've heard of people immediately adding in tocopherols to their natural oils to start protecting them from going rancid as soon as possible, but I've never tried that method.
Do you add tocopherols to your natural oils before using them in formulas? What does that routine look like for you?
But what about Vitamin E Acetate? Vitamin E Acetate is a derivative of Vitamin E. It's a highly stable version of vitamin E that will last much longer in your cosmetics, but it does not help with preventing your natural oils from going rancid. But will add great antioxidant benefits to the skin and is not light sensitive and will be stable for much longer in your cosmetics.
TLDR Vitamin E Acetate - is used in cosmetics where there is no natural oils presents. (only emollient esters like Caprylic capric triglyceride, coco caprylate, and squalane for example) It adds antioxidant protection to your skin and is much more stable.
Tocopherol T-50 & Tocopherols 95% - can be used to prevent your natural oils from going rancid. Adds antioxidant protection to your formulation and will add antioxidant protection to skin, but degrades faster in formula.
TaraLee
You don't need to preserve oils, you only need an antioxidant.
Body oils, face oils, or anything made with ONLY oil soluble ingredients like natural oils, emollient esters, butters, even oil soluble extracts, do not need a preservative.
Preservatives are used in our cosmetics, to prevent mold, yeast, & bacteria from growing. This can only happen, when water is present in the formula.
Where there is water, there is life. This means there needs to be water present in order for there to be a chance for growing mold, yeast, or bacteria.
But......Natural Oils and products made with oil based ingredients do go RANCID. This means the oil has lost it's potency. The vitamins in it have degraded and it will have this off smell. Yes, it can still make your skin feel soft and moisturized, but all that goodness in the oils have degraded, so you won't be getting those vitamins from that oil anymore.
The perfect way to extend the shelf life of your body oils, face oils, or any other anhydrous formula is to add in tocopherols, aka Vitamin E.
Do not go running to your nearest grocery store and picking up the vitamin E there. That isn't pure tocopherols, it's extremely diluted. What you want is either mixed Tocopherol T-50 or mixed Tocopherols 95%.
Tocopherol T-50 "is a 50% active concentration of natural mixed tocopherols concentrated to contain naturally occurring d-alpha, d-beta, d-gamma and d-delta tocopherols" - purchase on naturalbulksupplies.com
Tocopherols 95% "is a 95% active blend of natural mixed tocopherols isolated from the distillation of soybean oil and concentrated to contain naturally occurring d-alpha, d-beta, d-gamma and d-delta tocopherols." - purchase on lotioncrafter.com
I've heard of people immediately adding in tocopherols to their natural oils to start protecting them from going rancid as soon as possible, but I've never tried that method.
Do you add tocopherols to your natural oils before using them in formulas? What does that routine look like for you?
But what about Vitamin E Acetate?
Vitamin E Acetate is a derivative of Vitamin E. It's a highly stable version of vitamin E that will last much longer in your cosmetics, but it does not help with preventing your natural oils from going rancid. But will add great antioxidant benefits to the skin and is not light sensitive and will be stable for much longer in your cosmetics.
TLDR
Vitamin E Acetate - is used in cosmetics where there is no natural oils presents. (only emollient esters like Caprylic capric triglyceride, coco caprylate, and squalane for example) It adds antioxidant protection to your skin and is much more stable.
Tocopherol T-50 & Tocopherols 95% - can be used to prevent your natural oils from going rancid. Adds antioxidant protection to your formulation and will add antioxidant protection to skin, but degrades faster in formula.
1 week ago | [YT] | 167