Self (Care)-Preservation: Preservatives in Perspective

We often say that Spam and Velveeta shouldn't set the standard for the shelf life of meat and cheese. While we don’t want our lotions and potions to become science experiments, we might want to question what allows a product to sit on a shelf for years.

Products made with simpler, more biodegradable ingredients may have a shorter shelf life, not because they're inferior, but because they're designed to work in harmony with our bodies and the ecosystems they eventually return to.

Mass produced personal care products need to survive manufacturing, multiple warehouses, shipping routes, store shelves, bathroom counters, and the bottoms of forgotten drawers. 

There is a huge range of preservatives in personal care these days, from parabens to synthetic glycol ether, from silver compounds to formaldehyde releasers. These preservatives have degrees of antimicrobial effect, endocrine affinity, skin irritation, and biodegradability. 

USE IT OR LOSE IT

For FM, we love our organic acids for our preservation strategy (shout out to potassium sorbate, sodium levulinate you see in our ingredients). Organic acids are borrowed from the wisdom of plants doing their own antimicrobial lifting.

Their slightly higher acidity also works with the pH of our skin and scalp. They are safe for our bods, are readily biodegradable in the environment and don’t F with the endocrine systems of us or our downstream friends.

We are about structure as well as function: preservatives are important, but even more so is product freshness, appropriate sizing, and potion potency. We make our potions in regular, monthly cycles (not once a year) and size them according to their best use well within the time frame of their shelf life. 

We think of our potions like food, friends.

Bon appetit.