The other day I decided to show my handmade cream to a few of my colleagues at work. They were all quite impressed, giving me kudos and high fives for my efforts, commenting on how great it smelled and how soft it made their hands feel. I was so proud. Well one of my co-workers asked me to make her a small bottle of cream, which I was happy to do (for free of course). She loved it, showed everyone this beautiful cream I had made for her allowing people to sample and try it out themselves, which if you ever plan to sell your products is the best form of (low key) advertisement. Anyway, everyone raved about my cream as I beamed with pride given my newest accomplishment.
A week later.....My co-worker is in my office and were talking about general things and she whips out the cream and say "I have something to ask you about the cream...what's this" I looked in the jar and was horrified by what I saw. On the surface of my lovely cream was a thin layer of mold! Ugh. I was very embarrassed, and taken back because this had not been happening to any of my creams, which I have had for months. I asked her if she had allowed people to sample her cream (which I already knew the answer to) and she said "yes"...Now I know homemade products have a shorter shelf life than commercially made products simply because of the ingredients used, however I was surprise that bacteria had developed in the cream I had made for her since I didn't have that problem with my jar (which I happen to have on my desk at the time), and showed her as such. Then it occurred to me that one reason I was seeing this problem with her jar of cream and not mine was because I am a huge germophobe, so I am constantly washing my hands and then applying my cream, which minimizes contamination. Unfortunately, she was not following the same routine and since the cream did not have any harsh parbens to inhibit bacteria growth, her jar had been contaminated by dirty fingers.
Well, as you can imagine I felt bad, because no one wants to give a gift that goes bad, or could even harm someone. I explained the situation and apologized and told her to throw away the jar. I then did my homework and made her another (smaller) batch, which is holding up much better because it does not contain any water (I now use aloe vera juice/gel instead) and it also has additional products that are said to help preserve the cream a bit better. This experience has taught me a good lesson and I am grateful I learned this lesson now with such an understanding participant as it could have been a lot worse. Always test, wait and test your products before giving them to others. Better yet, use a lotion dispenser instead of a jar to minimize contamination. If you can't use a lotion dispenser because they are not available, explain that your product is all natural (which I did, however I did not explain that she needed to ensure her hands were clean because it just never occurred to me to do so) and there are some limitations that come with natural products. Lesson learned.
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