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Skin Care Secrets Revealed: Using Tinctures as Preservatives
By Kolbjorn Borseth
 Many bigger natural cosmetics companies in Europe, and
especially Germany, are using tinctures as preservatives in their products. This
has been a real secret and the companies don’t need to declare any
preservatives on the label but instead can market it as preservative-free. If
you want to use a tincture as the only preservative in your product, then the
tincture has to make up at least 15% of that product.
There are, however, different conditions that must be met if you want to go
down this route, namely:
- You need to have very high hygienic production and packing
standards.
- You need to boil water for 10-15 minutes before using them
in your product, or use distilled water.
- You need to package your products in containers that
nobody can get their fingers into, as this is the easiest way to
contaminate your products. Packaging you products in containers that have
a pump cap or a plastic tube dispenser is the best solution for this
purpose. Click here for our Containers.
- Lastly, the tincture you are using has to have an alcohol
percentage of at least 96%. Vodka with a 46-50% alcohol content is just
not enough. To acquire 96% alcohol, you could apply to HMRC (Her Majesty’s
Revenue and Customs) so that you can buy the alcohol yourself. I have a
got a qualified producer, who makes a strong 96% Calendula Tincture that is based on organic calendula and organic grain
alcohol.
Precautions about using tinctures as preservatives:
- Using herbal infusions or
decoctions in your products would be too big a challenge with this
preservative method.
- When thinking about using this
method for face creams/lotions consider that alcohol dries out the skin;
so if you’re making a cream/lotions for dry/sensitive skin then compensate
for the extra alcohol by adding extra fats and oils.
- When using this method for any
sensitive skin, be aware that this skin type does not tolerate too much
alcohol on the skin.
- However, this method works well
for products treating oily/combination skin as this skin type needs drying
out (which the alcohol does).
- Be aware that alcohol destroys
the ‘emulsifier bonds’ and cam make creams much thinner. Add more
emulsifiers if using high quantities of alcohol in your formulas.
- Using this method will make
gels thinner. Add more thickening agent e.g. xanthan gum.
- Shampoos and liquid soaps would
be quite easy to preserve with this method as long as you don’t use herbal
infusions or decoctions as well. Detergent-based products such as shampoos
and liquid soaps (that contain no infusions or decoctions) can keep 3-6
months without any added preservatives anyway. The detergents in shampoos
will be thinned if you use 15% alcohol (tincture) instead of 15% water;
add more sea salt or guar gum to compensate.
- You’ll need to package your
products in tamper-proof containers that don’t let air in too much or
allow for touching the product, such as pump-capped bottles, squeeze
bottles with flip-top lids or spray-capped bottles.
- You must take personal
responsibility for using this natural preservative method. Before
selling products commercially using this method be prudent, make small
test batches first and have them challenge-tested in a laboratory before
making bigger quantities and selling them to clients or to the public. Aromantic
cannot take responsibility for this method. Using our calendula tincture,
which is based on 96% alcohol gives you a better chance though.
- Click here to download our Useful Contacts PDF document.
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