Natural Preservatives In Skincare

Heartworks Skincare uses no artificial preservatives in its skincare.  In fact, all our skincare products from our natural skincare range have next to no preservatives, even of the natural kind, in them as they are oil-based and have a much longer shelf life than water-based skincare.  We do use essential oils which can offer some sort of preservative but, for us, the point of these oils is to give the product a nice evocative scent.  But there are some natural preservatives that go well in natural skincare and these are as follows:-

• Grapefruit seed extract is taken from the seed and pulp of the grapefruit.  This is sometimes mixed with glycerin at a ratio of 2/1.  This can be put into your cream at about 0.5% to 1% of the total.
• Essential oils, as previously stated, can offer some preservative.  Some examples of essential oils to use for this purpose would be rosemary, sage, sandalwood, thyme, lavender, lemon, rose, eucalyptus, clove and cinnamon.  It is best to keep these at about 0.5% to 1% of the total volume of cream
• Sorbic acid, which is a salt, (E200) or potassium sorbate (E202) and calcium sorbate (E203) are known to be anti-microbial and therefore inhibit the growth of fungi, yeast, or mold in your cosmetics.  The concentration here would be 0,15% to 0.3%
• Vitamin E (tocopherol) is a natural antioxidant and can extend the shelf life of you skincare products using at a concentration of 0.04% of the total volume of your cream
• Rosemary Oil Extract, which imparts its own strong aroma and used at a concentration of 0.15% to 0.5% also acts as an antioxidant

As I stated up above, because we, at Heartworks Skincare, make oil-based skincare, we do not use any preservatives in our natural skincare.  But, for other reasons, we use some of the essential oils used above and get that natural preservative benefit from them.  So not only do you get the divine smell from essential oils but also their preservative value in our natural skincare