Preservatives: Inactivation of preservatives by non-ionic ingredients

I mentioned in the parabens post that some preservatives – mostly the parabens – can be inactivated by non-ionic ingredients, including some of the fatty alcohols (like cetearyl alcohol), fatty acids, esters, and polysorbates, when they’re used as emulsifiers (using the HLB system). The paraben based preservatives include Phenonip, Liquipar, and Germaben II, and the…