Teach Soap

I am planning on making a small batch of lotion bars using equal parts mango butter, sweet almond oil and beeswax. I have read that you take the shortest shelf life of your ingredients, and use this as the bars shelf life. Is there a way to store them that will extend the shelf life? And, what happens if they go bad and you use it? Any adverse reactions? Thanks!

You can add rosemary extract to help the oils "survive" for a while longer. I used a soap with dos once (oils that have gone bad), I got an extremely bad rash that burned like crazy for 3 days. It really sucked! I'd never use anything with rancid/oxidized oils again!

_________________
~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Keeping your oils in a cool dark place or refrigerated will help extend the shelf life of oils as well.
Rancid oils smell pretty bad, so I don't think you would want to use that in a product that sits on your skin, like a lotion bar

_________________
Genny

The only way to know the shelf life is to test and see because a lot of things impact that shelf life date. Even changing the beeswax content may change the shelf life, since a certain amount makes a nice hard bar, while another amount may soften the bar. Also, how your oils were stored (even before you received them) impacts their life, not to mention that you usually don't know how old they are when you get them. If you are just wondering about an approximate shelf life, using the least from your recipe is an okay guess.

Keep in mind that using an antioxidant (vitamin E or ROE) is only efficient to extend shelf life if you use it right away when you open the oils. Once oxidation begins you cannot stop it, only delay it, so get in the habit of adding it immediately. And if you are selling your products then you need to do the testing to determine your recipe's shelf life and its best preservative method (if a preservative is required in the product type).

If a bar of anything is rancid, you will smell it and will likely not choose to use it because of that smell. DOS is really mostly an aesthetic problem - although the soap won't look (and perhaps smell) as nice as other bars, it is perfectly safe to use. Nobody really knows what causes DOS, although rancid oils, high superfats, or certain oils are generally blamed. Still, if the soap is rancid you will smell it. If you don't smell rancidity, I would guess that the reason for a reaction is something other than dos.

_________________
Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

Thank you everyone for your answers!