Pentylene Glycol: Natural Multifunctional Ingredient for Cosmetic Preservation

Pentylene glycol is a really interesting and useful multifunctional ingredient.

Why learn to formulate with pentylene glycol?

• It is naturally derived from sugar cane (not lab-made like many natural preservatives).
• It is a great sustainable choice as it can be made from waste products from the food industry.
• It is multifunctional and therefore a really useful ingredient to include in your formulations!

Pentylene glycol has several benefits in a formula which you’ll learn about in this guide:

• It is a humectant and therefore great for skin moisturizing.
• It is a penetration enhancer which can allow actives to penetrate further.
• It has antimicrobial properties which makes it useful as a preservative booster or even as the main preservative in a formula.
• It is not listed as a preservative by cosmetic regulations and thus can be used for 'preservative-free' claims.

In this guide, we focus primarily on pentylene glycol’s preservative function. We created a formula using pentylyne glycol as the preservative and sent it for preservative efficacy testing (PET) to assess its antimicrobial activity.

In this guide, you’ll receive:

• The PET results from our experiment which help answer the question: How effective is pentylene glycol as a preservative?
• Guidance on how to interpret PET results.
• Usage instructions for pentylene glycol.
• More information on the functions of pentylene glycol.
• A beautiful PDF to download and keep.

Not a member of the Club? Join now and use your first month's credits to access the Pentylene Glycol: Natural Multifunctional Ingredient for Cosmetic Preservation class, plus another 25-credit class of your choice.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT PLAN FOR YOU

Find out more about the Club