Point of View on the Selection of Ingredients to Reduce Preservatives in Emulsions

Recently, gentleness to the skin is expected for cosmetics products. Then, sufficient consideration on microbiology should be made during the development of new cosmetic formula. Although, preservatives are incorporated in cosmetics for ensuring the quality of products, it is desirable to decrease the amount of them as small as possible. Here we reconsidered the constitution of cosmetics emulsion formula. Accordingly, it was suggested to develop the emulsion type cosmetics which contain small quantity of preservatives by the following ways. Namely, (1) selection of non-assimilative ingredients (2) the utilization of fatty group compounds and essential oils which have antimicrobial activity, and the development of new functional materials, and (3) the application of the partition theory of preservative in oil-aqueous phase.