Is Lush Fair Trade Honey shampoo really preservative free?

Rachel says…After reading your articles about the importance of preservatives in cosmetics I’m always worried about the so-called “preservative-free” products. I’d love to try Lush’s honey shampoo but it’s expensive and I’m worried that it won’t keep very long without preservatives. Can you shed any light on this?  The Beauty Brains respond:  The Lush website explains that 50% of this shampoo formula consists of honey. Honey is self-preserving because it has a very low water-activity (0.6). Essentially this means that there’s not enough water in the product for microbes to grow. In addition, the product contains a few natural essential oils (like geranium oil) which have natural antibacterial properties. Therefore it’s not too much of a stretch to believe that this product could be safe without relying on synthetic preservatives. According to the Lush representative that we spoke with, the product has a shelf life of 14 months. This is considerably shorter than a shampoo with conventional preservatives which should be good for at least 3 years. In addition, the low water activity could be jeopardized by exposure to high humidity in the shower. So if you do decide to spend $30 of your hard earned money on 500 mls of shampoo, keep a close eye on it to make sure it doesn’t spoil before you’ve used it all up. Interesting side note If you visit the Lush website you’ll see that they color code the...
Source: thebeautybrains.com - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Questions Source Type: blogs