If you are referring to grapefruit seed extract, yes it can be used a preservative, but its effectiveness is controversial. In a video you created on a foaming hand soap on YouTube using germ destroyer it said to use optiphen plus and in the above blog you stated it should not be used in foaming hand soap. The alcohol, essential oils and glycerin (if using) to a spray bottle and shake. What can I use to maintain the product is still free from chemicals? Great information! Thank you for this helpful article, which answers s lot of questions I had about preservatives. Thank you for compiling the information and giving descriptions of the preservatives so that we can make an informed decision for ourselves and out families. Happy making! Good question! Do products made with distilled water need preservatives as well? Or the Ethanol (Perfumer Alcohol) used is synthetic? Shannon, if you mix your EOs with a carrier oil and add it to a made-from-scratch lotion, you only need to add a preservative if that lotion you made has water in it. Sometimes its just easier to leave some things to the experts. Included are 3 different air freshener recipes that can easily be adapted for whatever scent you want. Can I use witch hazel or vinegar instead? I am planning to make linen spray and pillow spray which the ingredients are only water and essential oils, I do not wish to use alcohol. Some may consider parabens unsafe, while others are completely fine with them. quick recipes, Thank you for all you do. This helped alot! This means that we may earn a small commission from some of the links in our posts. I hope this helps! I was wanting to learn more about preservatives. Still, would not even dream of creating something as elaborate as a W/O formulation by myself. Preservatives are so important for health and safety, but are incredibly confusing for at home DIY-ers like myself. Make natural room spray thats what! Yes, that should work fine. I was hoping to avoid getting a permit. Cyna created printable room spray labels, which you can download at the end of the post. . Most professional aromatherapist courses do not teach how to formulate products like water sprays and homemade creams. You can tint the mixture with water-soluble food color or soap dye. Happy making! Looks like Ive been doing it wrong all along. So glad a ran across this blog as I had no idea I needed to use a preservative. Learn more. If so, what would be the ratio? A lot to take in, but great! Do I need to use another vodka or stronger essential oils? I have had mine mold, so I make my cleaners as needed. And what brand of essential oils are you using? Would the recipe have a longer shelf life if I add a preservative such as optiphen? That means this preservative would not be ideal, though it has no parabens and sounds like the safest option. Everyone has rubbing alcohol around. While commercial air fresheners smell nice, I recently read a study from the Natural Resources Defense Council about potential health concerns from exposure to commercial air fresheners. You can go down 2 routes: Add a preservative or use only alcohol. If Im making a bug spray with only avocado oil, witch hazel, and Nature Shield EO, do I need a preservative?? Thank PT for my preservatives foundation. Quina, does the aftershave and beard oil recipe you are using include water? Thanks for the info! Hi, what is the ratio alcohol water you use?, I would love to try this recipes. I was searching the comments for this exact statement before I said the same thing! Most of our DIYs contain carrier oils, butters, and lotions, which are not water-based and dont need a preservative. organization + homemaking tips, and crafts. Also, you mention in one of your answers, that in order to sell you suggest adding a solubilizer or emulsifying agent. Euxyl PE 9010 is a broad-spectrum, that is great for water-based products that are particularly hard to preserve, such as scrubs that are very low in glycerin, and facial masks that are high in clay. I had no idea there was so many factors to consider when buying a preservative. Im so glad you like the recipe. Just wondering can you use witch hazel instead of alcohol? WowThis is super confusing. I made my first room sprays today following this recipe. (Leuconostoc/Radish Root Ferment Filtrate). Wow this is great! Here are some ideas: Isopropyl alcohol or rubbing alcohol are not suitable for this essential oil recipe. How Long would it last? I love that Plant Therapy has made consumer safety and education one of their top priorities. Can you please let me know where did i went wrong? ha But Im glad to say I do have some Everclearyea! For a room spray, formulation expert Ginger L. Moore recommends a formula of 25% high-proof alcohol to 75% distilled water. I had been making Pinterest recipes that never mentioned a preservative. I am not the person to ask about Optiphen Plus or Polysorbate 20. With preservatives we do recommend customers do their own research to determine what is best for them and their families. Now that we know the basic ingredients, lets explore different home fragrance recipes. I just want to make a hair spray with water and Get Em Gone, which preservatives would you recommend? This is why one product is paraben free and another is not. I used 96% Ethanol & Distilled Water. Little confused. How much preservative would you need for a 16 oz bottle of hand soap? Can you use ever clear as a preservative in hand foam? Since witch hazel contains only a little alcohol, Im not sure how well itll work. This is an issue were seeing more and more as people are told they can easily create their own aromatherapy sprays at home, simply by mixing water and essential oils in a bottle. And lastly, alcohol helps the scent molecules to disperse in the air. Shouldnt the 120 proof alcohol be closer to 50% of the formula? Vodka shouldnt have a smell and the alcohol should evaporate quickly after spritzing. Product formulation is really a whole separate domain. Thank you for this. Thanks for this succinct summary! Thank you for this post! I am so thankful for this blog post and the Live the other day to talk about preservatives. Excellent info! However, from my understanding, this is a term coined to represent chemicals and other things that release formaldehyde over time. Let me know if thats of interest to you and Im happy to share more info. Hi Silvia! Inevitably, youll get some people who resolutely claim theyve always made aromatherapy sprays with just essential oils and water, and that its never been a problem. Until recently, this was commonly thought to be acceptable. And how much per drops of EO added. This is certainly how I was taught, and youll spot this in one of my earliest YouTube videos. So stay clear of those. This post is so helpful! Design by Carla Izumi Bamford 25% is just a good, easy percentage to work with that falls in between 20-30%, does that make sense? Essential oils arent just for diffusing! We did indeed create them with summer in mind. I used 4 oz / 120 ml spray bottles. Hi Carol, you would need a preservative if adding additional contents into your witch hazel. The amount of each ingredient is on the DIY card below. I bought a bunch of stuff, but havent made anything because I wasnt sure. How much alcohol should I use in my room spray? In other words germall plus Would be the best for all products as a preservative? Love PT. I have been considering making DIY linen spray as gifts for Christmas. Bay House Aromatics offers a product called Solubiliser Clear+, which contains Caprylyl/Capryl Glucoside. Thats because companies are allowed to hide all sort of ingredients under the umbrella term fragrance.. Ive been making it for years without one but now Im gonna look into these options! By subscribing to Plant Therapy, you consent to receive autodialed messages to the number used at opt-in. I hope this helps! Hi Beth, if you use straight rubbing alcohol, it can be used as an emulsifier. To keep measurements easy, simply use the same amount of alcohol as you do water. Please reach out to our aromatherapists at [emailprotected] if you need any more guidance . Thank you for the post. Carrier oils and Aloe Gel do not act as preservatives, so if the ingredients have water, you could refer to this blog to see the recommended % for the preservative that would work best for you. How can I make my room spray last longer? Use the homemade essential oil air freshener with caution if pets area round. Sea Breeze is a great name and sounds so refreshing. Hi Laura! My guess is that one of the essential oils is responsible. This is just another example of why I love Plant Therapy so much! So which one would you use for an aftershave and a beard oil. I have a better understanding now. Bar Soap: Bar soap does not need a preservative because the pH levels are too high to allow the growth of bacteria, effective against bacteria, mold, and yeast, Hard on emulsions so take care when using in lotions and body creams, Accepted by ECOcert as an ingredient in certified organic cosmetic, Not very effective against Yeast and Mold, needs a booster like Potassium sorbate at 0.10%. In fact, quite a few well-known and well-respected aromatherapy sources still recommend room spray recipes that just require water and essential oils. For more crafts, beauty DIYs and recipe, follow us onPinterest,Instagram,andFacebook. I hope this helps and happy making! It is a rarity to find a company that goes above and beyond for their customers the way that this one does! Add the water and oil mixtures into your spray bottle. Katy, as aromatherapists, we are not formally trained in emulsifiers and preservatives so we cannot guarantee any ingredients beyond what is recommended in the recipes we provide will work. For DIYs like foaming hand soap, they can often have a PH of 8+. Even more troublesome is a group of dispersants called phthalates, which are linked to hormonal issues, reproductive harm and developmental disorders, which is a particular risk for babies and young children. We are working hard to ensure all of our recipes are up to par, though many of them have been written years ago before we realized this issue. That would be about 3.2 ounces of alcohol. If the basic formula is 25% pure alcohol, I dont see how the 120 proof alcohol would be 25% pure alcohol of the overall formula. 30 to 45 drops essential oils Is it safe to say that Germall Plus would be an adequate preservative for DIY foaming hand soap? Often they are made up of carrier oils and essential oils, possibly with some vitamin E oil as well. Thanks! However, current knowledge suggeststhis is actually not sufficient to disperse the essential oils in the water. Hi thank you for the great info! Witch Hazel is a water based product, so a preservative would still be recommended. However, we cannot speak for the recipes coming from any other source that do not include preservatives. The alcohol comes in different proofs, and you need it to be a proof of at least 120(60% alcohol) and then you use that at 20-30% of the product to preserve. So two questions: 1. I dont recommend mica because the particles will sink to the bottom of the bottle and may clog the sprayer nozzle. I didnt use neither baking soda nor Glycerin. Older posts reference an old post thats no longer available on preservatives so this is what Ive been looking for, thanks!! This is where individuals will need to research which preservative is best for them and their family while still providing the best range of coverage for their DIY. So, in other words, the alcohol has a percentage all of its own. The links were so helpful too! It is very interesting as are the blog comments! I had no idea I shouldnt use Polysorbate and Germaban together. But, if you want to SELL your room sprays (or other water-based products) you really cannot afford to bury your head in the sand when it comes to preservatives. Wow! Wow. Luckily, you can use a preservative to help any water-based stay safe and ready for use. Thank you! Robert Tisserand has an excellent article, helpful for learning the specifics of using alcohol for aromatic blending. As I explained in this post, its not always straight-forward to replicate commercial products in your own kitchen. Im very new to EOs and just started to make DIYs. Vitamin E is an antioxidant. I would ask the supplier to be certain. You can read our cookie policy here. Its a minefield, isnt it? Ive been watching countless YouTube videos on healthy DIY products and was super confused by whether preservatives are needed and if so, what kind. What we DO know is that bacteria can start to grow very quickly in a water-based spray as soon as 2 or 3 days! The alcohol dissolves the essential oils. Hi Noor! Thats why I stick to simple oil-based recipes like bath melts,lip balmsand body scrubs. If making this recipe to sell can you substitute essential oil for fragrance oil? I made a very small amount of PTs Itch Away with Aloe Jelly for my daughter and now that I read this Im thinking if I made a larger batch I would have to add a preservative since Aloe Jelly is water based? Simply give your spray a good shake before each use and youre good to go. Some ingredients are optional but helpful to make your homemade air freshener even more effective. Republishing posts in their entirety is prohibited. Thanks for all the information! That said, I thought it would be useful to collate some of the best tips and resources in one place. Thank you for sharing such a big help. Hi, could you please recommend a preservative for an oil blend for skin (jojoba, argan, lavender, oregano)? They smell lovely but s couple of things. Here are some examples: These do not need a preservative since they do not contain water. If I want to create a room spray that will last, should I follow the directions for the linen spray? You can learn more about emulsifiers here. Optiphen ND is a water-soluble, paraben, and formaldehyde-free preservative that offers broad-spectrum coverage. My concern would be the drying effect and the concern of it being alcohol. Can you please advice what preservative I can use for my bug repellent. Cheap vodka wont do. .then saw your video regarding preservatives, then also came across one of your recipes for a toner that called for an emulsifier but not a preservativer.Makes my head hurt..I will stick to non- water- based DIYs. Ive been wanting to learn more about which preservatives to use in my DIYs! They impart a very unpleasant smell and can cause headaches and migraine. I know that I want to use the best possible ingredients without using the bad stuff, especially with my oils. Ultimately, what people choose to do at home is up to them. It is a personal preference, but a lot of us like the Optiphen ND. However, it cannot be used in products with a pH higher than 6 and must be added at temperatures no higher than 176 F. I would like to make room sprays for sale. What about Which Hazel as a preservative? This is a wonderfully informative post, and clears up a lot of confusion about preservatives. Hello Milena, You can still use the room spray, just avoid spraying it on white fabrics. But to ensure the best shelf life, fill the essential oil room spray into tinted glass spritz bottles, such as these amber, cobalt blue, ultraviolet spritz bottles. Our knowledge is evolving all the time, and this is why its important that we never stop learning.

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