Of all the ingredients in skin care formulations preservatives are the most important, especially in store bought skin care products. The reason is because they keep that product fresh (bacteria free) for 2 to 3 years. Preservatives have become the most controversial and debatable topic in the skin care industry.
I myself pondered sleeplessly over the topic when developing YASOU natural skin care. I knew I wanted high quality, Greek-inspired natural and organic ingredients in YASOU’s products. That part was exciting, fun and came easily when working with my formulator. The difficulty came with the preservative system, so I asked myself these questions:
1) What is the role of preservatives? Preservatives are synthetic chemicals that kill bacteria, fungi and mold. Only products that contain water (which are most products) need a preservative. Oil-based skin care products and anhydrous (water-free) skin care products do NOT need preservatives.
2) Are there effective natural preservatives? Well, I found some folks that argue yes and others that argue no. The people that argue yes use natural ingredients as preservatives, which only gives the product a 3 to 6 month (safe) shelf life span. And the folks that say no argue that natural substances are not active against the most threatening microbes, and pseudomonads (bacteria). Other ingredients used as natural preservatives such as essential oils require very high concentrations to be effective. Some of these oils also have offensive odors and coloring that are just NOT acceptable and most of them become inactivated by manufacturing procedures and other factors.
In addition these natural preservatives can change the density and experience of the product. For example, YASOU cellular day cream does not have much glide during application which is due to the extra natural preservative called Biovert that we added in it.
The only natural products that are really all natural are the ones handcrafted by you in your home, which can be used immediately and stored for a short time in the refrigerator. These are the only natural products that are not in need of any kind of preservative.
Store bought products need to be designed to remain fresh during the long span between the time of manufacture and the time the customer finishes using it. Without some type of preservative, store bought products would expose consumers to mold, bacteria, adverse skin reactions that can lead to serious skin infections and even blindness with products used around the eye area.
As you can see, there was a lot to consider when it came to YASOU’s preservative system. I am not pro synthetic preservatives because most of today’s commercial products are typically loaded with these synthetic and potentially carcinogenic (cancerous) preservatives.
YASOU’s foremost priority is the safety of our customer’s. Our products are luxuriously rich and we knew as a start up company we would need at least a two-year (safe) shelf life span. With that in mind we proceeded in developing the most natural /organic products using top quality ingredients as well as natural ingredients and natural preservatives and began testing. It was at that time we discovered we needed to add a little more protection into our products so we carefully decided on Phenoxyethanol.
Phenoxyethanol offered a universal, highly effective broad-spectrum protection for gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, mold, yeast and fungi. It is NOT formaldehyde releasing agent and probably the most paraben free and propylene glycol free preservative on the market. It works extremely well in small amounts with natural preservatives.
Phenoxyethanol is created by treating phenol with ethylene oxide in an alkaline medium. Each ingredient individually could cause harm, but when they react together they chemically create a safe and effective preservative.
YASOU natural skin care products contain less than .06% phenoxyethanol. We let you know that upfront because our priority is you and your safety!