Guest guest Posted January 11, 2004 Report Share Posted January 11, 2004 Now I have had the abolutely horrible exerience of 3 batches and handcream turning moldy. The last batch was made and delivered in early November, at before Christmas mold had formed. I do use a chemical preservative (a blend of several different parabens) in my water based products and never have had this kind of thing happened in other batches. I have studied my recipes made over time, and of course there can be several different sources to mold in the unfortuante batches. But - I have a tiny amount of the last batch and that one has NOT any mold in it!!! So my conclusion is that it's the jars that are the culprits - all the creams that have turned moldy, where packed in jars from the same supplier. I did whipe them out with rubbing alcohol and used it on all the tools I used when making the cream, but Margaret (wawing) wrote me that it wasn't enough, that rubbing alcohol don't kill all germs. Sighhhhh. Well, I realy love to use herbal infusions in my creams and for the handcream I used a blend of calendula and homegrown plantain leafs and it have worked so well for healing hands. I have used it in both oil and water infusions, to get " double strenght effect " out of it. I'm in doubt that the herbs are the reason for mold building, but what do I know??? But - is there a safe way to infuse, so that any germ or spore will be killed?? I'm so confused on this topic and never want to have any more dissapointed customers, specialy if I'm going to try to build a small business in the future. So - any help and advice you guys can give, will be hugely appreciated. In meantime, I go and work on the graphics for my webpage (revamping the whole thing). Fragrant Blessings, Ylva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 11, 2004 Report Share Posted January 11, 2004 At 01:09 PM 1/11/2004 -0000, you wrote: >Well, I realy love to use herbal infusions in my creams and for the >handcream I used a blend of calendula and homegrown plantain leafs >and it have worked so well for healing hands. I have used it in both >oil and water infusions, to get " double strenght effect " out of it. Ylva, I'm thinking you don't need the water infusion. When you do the oil infusion, you use *dry* herbs, right? No need to infuse the calendula or plantain (or any other herb other than SJW) when fresh. I know several folks make a 'whipped' body cream with shea and infused oils, and it's wonderful. No need for preservatives, and there is never any mold. You might want to try that route. http://member.newsguy.com/~herblady Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 11, 2004 Report Share Posted January 11, 2004 Could you explain about the whipped body cream please? I recently got involved with YL oils and love them so far! I've been making my own soap and adding the oils, but I'd like to find out how to make more natural items - thanks again! Pam Natures Edge - Pure Theraputic Oils http://naturesedge.younglivingworld.com E Web Express - Web Design & Hosting http://www.ewebexpress.com - Anya Sunday, January 11, 2004 10:06 AM Re: Mold in cream & herbal infusions At 01:09 PM 1/11/2004 -0000, you wrote: >Well, I realy love to use herbal infusions in my creams and for the >handcream I used a blend of calendula and homegrown plantain leafs >and it have worked so well for healing hands. I have used it in both >oil and water infusions, to get " double strenght effect " out of it. Ylva, I'm thinking you don't need the water infusion. When you do the oil infusion, you use *dry* herbs, right? No need to infuse the calendula or plantain (or any other herb other than SJW) when fresh. I know several folks make a 'whipped' body cream with shea and infused oils, and it's wonderful. No need for preservatives, and there is never any mold. You might want to try that route. Anya http://member.newsguy.com/~herblady Step By Step Instructions On Making Rose Petal Preserves: http://www.av-at.com/stuff/rosejam.html To adjust your group settings (i.e. go no mail) see the following link: /join Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 11, 2004 Report Share Posted January 11, 2004 Could you explain about the whipped body cream please? I recently got involved with YL oils and love them so far! I've been making my own soap and adding the oils, but I'd like to find out how to make more natural items - thanks again! Pam! Welcome. As a fellow one-time YL dealer, I MUST tell you that Butch at http://www.AV-AT.com has MUCH BETTER and MUCH less expensive oils than YL does. I hope you will check it out. I quit YL because they changed formulas on me on my favorite oil and used a MUCH CHEAPER OIL but did NOT change the price. Email me privately at the-neysa if you wish to further discuss this. Dont want to clog the list with personal things. Hugs Neysa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 Years ago when I used to make massage creams at home, I was always ultra careful about hygiene. I sterilized everything using baby bottle sterilizer, swabbed down all surfaces and sterilized all equipment using either the sterilizing fluid or alcohol. By the way, pure alcohol is not a good sterilizer, it is better at around 80-90% ( not proof). After the pots and lids came out of the solution I then rinsed them out with a boiled and filtered water and alcohol solution. When I used to work for someone who made commercial creams, I recall that we used parabens as well as an antifungal that I can't recall the name of. I think parabens are more effective antibacterials than antifungals. These powerful preservatives are used to avoid sterilizing bottles and jars which may be contaminated at or on route from the maker. The problem is almost certainly the herbal extracts you are using. Herbs harbour many molds and you can't kill the spores with boiling. You can reduce but not eliminate the spores by double filtering the herb solution but it is not the final answer. Even if you extract the herb in another medium such as glycerol there will always be enough water in the cream to trigger mold growth. The only answer is an effective preservative system to stop molds growing and that is best done using the right combination of commercial preservatives. Suggest you ask the *maker* of the parabens as they often will give good advice on this problem. Martin Watt http://www.aromamedical.com ======================================== , " ruby_mama2001 " <ruby_mama2001> wrote: > Now I have had the abolutely horrible exerience of 3 batches and > handcream turning moldy. The last batch was made and delivered in > early November, at before Christmas mold had formed. I do use a > chemical preservative (a blend of several different parabens) in my > water based products and never have had this kind of thing happened > in other batches. I have studied my recipes made over time, and of > course there can be several different sources to mold in the > unfortuante batches. But - I have a tiny amount of the last batch and > that one has NOT any mold in it!!! So my conclusion is that it's the > jars that are the culprits - all the creams that have turned moldy, > where packed in jars from the same supplier. I did whipe them out > with rubbing alcohol and used it on all the tools I used when making > the cream, but Margaret (wawing) wrote me that it wasn't enough, that > rubbing alcohol don't kill all germs. Sighhhhh. > > Well, I realy love to use herbal infusions in my creams and for the > handcream I used a blend of calendula and homegrown plantain leafs > and it have worked so well for healing hands. I have used it in both > oil and water infusions, to get " double strenght effect " out of it. > I'm in doubt that the herbs are the reason for mold building, but > what do I know??? But - is there a safe way to infuse, so that any > germ or spore will be killed?? > > I'm so confused on this topic and never want to have any more > dissapointed customers, specialy if I'm going to try to build a small > business in the future. So - any help and advice you guys can give, > will be hugely appreciated. In meantime, I go and work on the > graphics for my webpage (revamping the whole thing). > > Fragrant Blessings, > Ylva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 Thank you Martin for your input on this. But the strange thing is - there is no mold in the part of the latest batch I still have here with me. Explain that??? I can't. I don't own a babybottle steriliser, don't think very many here in clean Sweden uses them ;-P, even though my kids where bottle fed... I'm going to check up on the paraben blend I have with the supplier, but otherwise and see what they suggest. Fragrant Blessings, Ylva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 At 11:39 AM 1/12/2004 -0000, you wrote: >The problem is almost certainly the herbal extracts you >are using. Herbs harbour many molds and you can't kill the spores >with boiling. You can reduce but not eliminate the spores by double >filtering the herb solution but it is not the final answer. Even if >you extract the herb in another medium such as glycerol there will >always be enough water in the cream to trigger mold growth. The only >answer is an effective preservative system to stop molds growing and >that is best done using the right combination of commercial >preservatives. Suggest you ask the *maker* of the parabens as they >often will give good advice on this problem. Hi Martin and Ylva I just saw something on TV yesterday that is very timely. It was on a food show. The man was making herbal vinegars. Now, when I make an herb vinegar I just plop the clean herb in vinegar and let it steep. He was addressing the microbe problem. He first dunked the fresh herbs in a solution of one teaspoon chlorine bleach and two quarts of water. He said let it sit for just a few seconds. Then he rinsed them in a pot of clear water (distilled?) He then went on to pour 190-degree F white wine vinegar over the herbs. The vinegar making process isn't of interest to me here as much as the use of the bleach solution. It seems to me that the bleach solution could be used to dunk the containers and lids in, and then they could be set on towels or a rack to dry. I'd skip the rinse step. I'd dip the herbs and then do the rinse step. I believe the show that illustrated this method is very well researched, as it was on a major network (Food TV), and the show in question is famous for reseraching every little step of preparing food, whether it be fish frying, vinegar making, or the chemistry of cake rising. http://member.newsguy.com/~herblady Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 The problem is almost certainly the herbal extracts you >are using. Herbs harbour many molds and you can't kill the spores >with boiling. You can reduce but not eliminate the spores by double >filtering the herb solution but it is not the final answer. Even if >you extract the herb in another medium such as glycerol there will >always be enough water in the cream to trigger mold growth. The only >answer is an effective preservative system to stop molds growing and >that is best done using the right combination of commercial >preservatives. Suggest you ask the *maker* of the parabens as they >often will give good advice on this problem. I also had this disappointing experience recently of mold developing (it also separated)making a hand cream for the first time. The formula contained comfrey tea decoction,(distilled water) and so I was wondering if substituting the herbal tincture would work, as the alcohol may have sterilized the herb? The instructions did not mention sterilizing everything, so being a novice, I did not know, although I did wash the jars with hot soap and water and rinsed well. The only caution was to refrigerate, which I did, but it still molded. I had already gifted a jar to someone , but when this happened to mine, I took hers back and disposed of it, even though it did not show anything yet. I would like to continue making these creams, so I would be very interested to learn how to prevent this in the future. I have benzoin tincture, and also benzoin EO that I could have added, also vitamin E oil; it just was not called for, so I didn't use it. Would any of these have been the solution, even with the herbal decoction? TIA, San Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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