General Body Cream Base Question

[Carol M]

I've been looking around at different body butter/cream bases on sites. Jody's site says you can add up to 8 oz/gallon of distilled water if the base is too thick for your taste; more water than that, and you need to add additional preservative. WSP says distilled water can be added to their base, if you want a thinner product. Neither site gives any "particulars" about this, however. Is there any such thing as one preservative "clashing" with another? Could I conceivably add a preservative to the water that would diminish the effect of the preservative already in the cream base? I have a multitude of different preservatives on hand, but which one would you use to only preserve the water you added to an existing product? I'm surprised that there isn't more info given on the sites about this; why even plant the idea in a customer's head that they can add more water to your base, without telling them how to do it safely?:rolleyes2

[Noodle]

I am not much help to your questions, but is it possible that there is enough preservative in the base already to accomodate the addition of the distilled water? I did not think the preservatives clashed either.

[Carol M]

Jody's site says if you add more than 8 oz, you will need add'l preservative; WSP says only that you can add water if it's too thick, with no specific amounts given. I emailed Jody and asked for clarification, but haven't heard back from her yet. I have ordered a sample of the NG MultiBase; if this one is good, I may just go with it. They give clear, concise guidelines of how much water to add, and also that the preservative in it is Germaben II, just in case you did go over and needed to add more. I just feel safer with a supplier who is more forthcoming with their product information; if it were a candle, it would be different, but this could be a health hazard and I don't want to take chances.