Cosmetic preservation has become one of the key challenges in the industry today, triggering a great interest for alternative preservation systems that are widely antimicrobial, dermatologically and toxicologically safe and that have ‘consumer friendly’ INCI names, such as botanical names. Very few of these multifunctional ingredients tick all of these boxes; however, one that does is the honeysuckle extract from the Lonicera japonica and Lonicera caprifolium flowers. In this article I shall review this botanical extract combination, looking at its origin, chemistry, applications, antimicrobial performance, safety data, sustainability, parabens and formaldehyde content (or lack of).
