PERRY ROMANOWSKI 
Element 44 Inc, Chicago, USA

Preservatives are not an ingredient formulator want to include in products. While they make products safer and last longer, they don’t deliver a functional benefit. They also can cause allergic reactions, can be sensitizing, and consumers have been thoroughly frightened by them thanks to chemical scaremongering. It’s little wonder that some marketers prominently feature the claim of “preservative free” on product whenever possible.  With all the negatives associated with preservatives, it does make one wonder why there aren’t more preservative free cosmetics.

In fact, cosmetic chemists, cosmetic manufacturers and certainly cosmetic marketers would be happy to get rid of preservatives. Unfortunately, the disease-causing microbes would like that too. There are some companies that offer preservative free products but not many and for good reason. Here are the top reasons why more companies aren’t making preservative-free cosmetics.

THE NUMBER OF POSSIBLE PRESERVATIVE FREE FORMULAS IS LIMITED

Perhaps the biggest issue is that the number and type of products ...