An important component of personal care product is its preservation. Every product requires preservatives to protect the formulation from microbial contamination. Formulators use different types of preservative depending upon the need of personal care formulations.
The choice of preservative depends on various factors such as antimicrobial spectrum, regulations, pH, end application etc.
Although the personal care industry strives to meet the demands of consumers for safer preservatives, there has been continued use of controversial preservatives in personal care formulations. This trend is now changing as we observe the introduction of new safer preservatives in the market. Even if these preservatives are not as effective, they are still used as safer alternatives to controversial cosmetic preservatives.
Controversial personal care preservatives include mainly parabens, DMDM hydantoin and urea derivatives, isothiazolinones, IPBC, triclosan and phenoxyethanol. Parabens are implicated in disrupting endocrine system, ultimately linked to breast cancer.1,2,3,4 Formaldehyde is classified as a Category 3 CMR (carcinogenic, mutagenic and reproductive toxic) and hence all formaldehyde releasers are under the cloud. This class includes the work-horse preservatives such as DMDM hydantoin, diazolidinyl urea, imidazolidinyl urea and Quaternary 15.
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