Sundhara welcome, i didnt want to say anything earlier because i thought the thread would be split into your introduction and the question and i didnt want to miss out on the welcome bit but all the same welcome, all i could possibly have said has been said and better than i would have said it. but i wanted to say that :

is not possible, as  EJ mentioned the more you post, the more you would see and come to agree that  Chemical free is more a myth than reality. i used to believe this too, in fact that was what got me started and interested in the first place. now i try to make safe to use stuff as opposed to chemical free etc.

I must say that I was taken aback from everybody's warm welcome to this forum. And I'm very honored to be the 500th member!

Thank you to all of you for your postings, which are very helpful. I'd gathered that the need to use a preservative was imperative, it's just a matter of which and where. 

But I'll keep researching and I'm sure I'll get it right.

You will 

Sorry for coming back to this topic... I've been researching around and I have a few more questions about preservatives:  :ideaw:

Looking at some ingredients in lotions I found out that many use flower water or aloe vera juice, without a preservative. Can you get away using these instead of water and avoid preservatives?
Also, does the use of a vacuum pump bottle preserve the product as it's not in contact with air?
Can a small amount of alcohol also act as a preservative?

This is not because I want to avoid chemicals at all costs, but I want to know what is safe and allowed.
I'm trying to find the right solution to make safe creams and lotions, but I'm still confused about what product to use as there are many with different names, all doing the same job. Most of them are a combination of  phenoxyethanol, ethylhexylglycerin, caprylyl glycol, iodopropynyl butylcarbamate, but which one is more suitable for what? 
Can anyone help? Thank you

A vacuum pump style does not preserve a product, but it does prevent contamination by user. The floral waters and aloe vera may already have preservative in them before being added to lotion, but without knowing what and how much, it cannot be reliably be used as a means of preserving a final product. The % of preservative is designed to preserve only the floral water/aloe vera, not a finished product.

Eire

I have PMed you in response to yours but wanted to agree with Eire.

Forgot to mention airless dispensers but these will help prevent nasties from entering the product from hands, air, etc. You'd still need a preservative in your end product even if you use airless dispensers.

Phenoxyethanol combined with ethylhexyl glycerin and or caprylyl glycol is (in my opinion) a really effective allrounder - not so good with high levels of surfactants, but perfect for creams and lotions. Good tolerance to pH and temperature - the phenoxyethanol component is the active ingredient - the others are there to increase the potency so you get a much better preservation than with just phenox alone. Caprylyl glycol can also give a slight improvement to the skin feel of the product (apparently!)

For anyone who doesn't know - Scott has qualifications to back up this statement (doesn't mean that he would not back other preservatives though)

I don't think I'm the only one who is confused about all the paraben/bad hype, am I? I do truly wish that it was possible to make fresh creams/lotions for quick use, and not put preservatives in them. 

The preservative I use has caprylyl glycol in it and it does improve the feel of my cream when I compare it to the other preservatives I've tried.

That's good to know Corrie - thanks.

It is possible to do this Lujos, providing they are for your own use only - kept in the fridge I'm sure most emulsions would last quite a while - one of the commercial issues with preservation, is that the product can't be expected to be kept refridgerated.

Just checked my mayonaise bottle - no preservatives and they advise to keep refridgerated and use within 28 days - allowing for a safety factor of 50% I reckon about 6 weeks for home made emulsions stored in the same way - providing the ingredients were sterilised by the initial heating process.

Scott, why is it ok for mayo to be sold w/out preservative, but not creams and lotions? That makes no kind of sense to me at all, as you'd expect something edible to have MORE rules and regs?

Those are the rules - if you stated that your cosmetic should be kept refrigerated and used within a certain time then it could potentially be possible to do this - what about during transport though?  mayo is hemetically / vacuum sealed and once opened I suppose is used quickly.

This may sound daft but is some of this because you don't keep dipping your fingers in and out of the mayonaise like you do, say, with a face cream?