Glass for natural skincare products
One of the factors affecting my decision to buy a botanical or organic skin care product is the packaging. I’m not talking about pretty or classy packaging. Rather, I’m referring to how the product is stored which determines if the integrity of natural ingredients are better preserved.
Some years ago a beauty therapist told me that glass bottles, jars and vials are better in protecting the ingredients of natural skincare products. Apparently, glass is good as it increases the shelf life, prevents light degradation and engergizes organic or botanical ingredients. In addition, glass containers ensure no biochemical integration.
A look around does show that many of the natural and organic skin care products are indeed sold in glass bottles, jars and vials.
According to this article about packaging for bath and body products, Brenda Brock of Farmaesthetics, who chose glass for the majority of their products said glass provides practical benefits. Farmaesthetics products don’t contain synthetic preservatives, so Brock relies on packaging to help with natural preservation.
“Glass has the ability to really preserve the integrity of our formulations. The potency of my formulations would diminish much more quickly if stored in plastic, because plastic is porous.â€
In fact, many of the containers used in natural or organic skin care products are rather dark in color and I read that these are better to protect the contents from heat, light, oxidation and moisture. This is especially suitable for products that contain real essential oils which are particularly volatile and by containing them in glass, they won’t pick up any plastic residues. And you may like to know that clear glasses are not ideal as light can easily penetrate through and degrade the quality of all natural ingredients.
So the next time you buy a product that comes with natural or botanical ingredients, take a look at the packaging. If the product is expensive, then I would expect that it be stored in a glass bottle, or an aluminum container with non-corrosive lining. Plus, glass is definitely more environmentally friendly than plastic.
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We use both glass and plastic for our range of beauty products, and I am still researching which is the better option for the environment.
You say glass is better, but many of the studies done say glass has a much greater environmental cost due to the energy required to produce it, and transport it. Also, I have read some plastics don’t leach.
I would be very interested to hear of any other research you do in this field.
thank you
Theme: I’m not an expert in this area and you’re probably better informed than me. But the way I see it, glass containers can be re-used many more times than plastic which could become brittle with recycling. Of course modern technology could render more eco-friendly plastic containers but still, as far as I understand, glass is better in preserving the properties of natural ingredients which is the main focus of my entry.
Thank you for posting this. I’m the Founder of Cosmo tech expo India & We organize Beauty Packaging Tradeshows in India which includes Perfumes, Personal care, cosmetics Etc. Cosmotech