Preservative Challenge Testing

Cosmetics and personal care products usually undergo a variety of different tests before entering the market, including testing the effectiveness of preservatives added to the cosmetics. These preservatives help prevent the growth of microbial contaminants and prevent product deterioration and reduce its expected effect. Therefore, the preservative challenge testing is very important to ensure the safety of the products. The effect of adding a preservative or a combination of preservatives depends on its interaction with the ingredients of the products. This is why it is difficult to select appropriate preservatives based on the list of cosmetic ingredients, and the actual effect of the preservatives can only be determined by testing the complete formula and product packaging of the cosmetic. During the preservative challenge test, bacteria and fungi are added to the cosmetic samples, and their contamination levels are regularly evaluated during the test period. For products whose test results show insufficient anti-corrosion efficacy, the anti-corrosion performance will be achieved by adjusting the product formula. This test enables cosmetic manufacturers and formulators to have a clearer understanding of how their products resist the inevitable microbial attack during consumer use, which is necessary to ensure product stability and safety.

The significance of the preservative challenge testing:

• It can help determine whether the selected antiseptic system can effectively control microbial contamination in cosmetics within the expected shelf life.
• The effectiveness of the antiseptic system on the pollutants that may be introduced during or after manufacturing can be determined.
• Provide a guarantee for consumers' safety when cosmetics are in harsh conditions.

Our Services

Creative BioMart provides professional preservative challenge testing. It first assesses whether there are contaminated with bacteria in the cosmetic sample, and then inoculates each sample with different microorganisms to evaluate whether the sample has the antibacterial ability on the target bacteria. Therefore, the test cycle of the preservative challenge test is generally longer. We focus on industry standard challenge test methods, and can customize solutions based on these standards according to customer needs, and meet all customers' preservative challenge testing needs.      

Preservative challenge test standards: United States Pharmacopoeia (USP), European Pharmacopoeia (EP), Japanese Pharmacopoeia (JP), Chinese Pharmacopoeia (CP)

Preservative challenge test microorganisms: Staphylococcus aureus (bacteria), Escherichia coli (bacteria), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (bacteria), Candida albicans (yeast), Aspergillus niger (mold)

Creative BioMart is an advanced and professional cosmetic analysis company with nearly 20 years of successful experience in the cosmetics industry. We provide high quality preservative challenge testing services and provide reliable support for manufacturers in brand building, product development, raw material certification, product safety, etc. We will provide the best service to help customers solve the challenging problems encountered in the product development process.

Welcome to contact us for project quotations and more detailed information.

For R&D and Further Manufacturing ONLY.