note: all [lotion] formulas should be tested before offering them for sale to the public ...preferably challenge tested*. by theory, all of the preservatives listed below should work, however, some preservatives work best against bacteria, while others specialize in fungus and mold. most work only in narrowly defined ph ranges. some special cases may require a combination of preservatives. there is no way to know for sure without testing.

challenge testing is prohibitively expensive and not at all practical for the home crafter. there are, however, other alternatives. •  "dr. cindy jones" from "the sagescript institute" provides testing designed for the home crafter ...at very reasonable rates. This is not the "challenge" test, but she does offer an apc tests (for bacteria) and a fungal/yeast test (for fungus and yeasts). •  another alternative is the home testing kit available from "snowdrift farms". again, this is not a "challenge" test, but provides a way to determine if your working process is in some way introducing [unsafe levels of] contaminants into your product.

for more safety information, lotioncrafter's "technical page" provides a msds for [most of] the preservatives listed above. you can also check out "international specialty products" (isp), where you have access to even more indepth technical and usage data (including the msds) for the various preservatives, which include [most of] the ones listed above ...they don't have any data for cosmocil or phenonip. they do, however, offer information on liquagard, and optiphen, (not listed above).