I checked the dates on all my oils and none have expired, but will probably stop using rice bran oil. Almost all of my soaps have turned out fine except for these 2 batches.
When I was talking about dates, I checked a bottle of Avocado Oil that I bought a couple of weeks ago at the local grocery store to experiment with. According to the label it's 'good' until 02/25/21, so I double checked the shelf life for AO and it said 1 year so I went back to the label and it says 100% Cold Pressed Avocado Oil so 'what the heck karen'?!? Maybe someone with a whole lot more experience can help me out here.
I wouldn't be tossing out the RBO, I know several soapers who use it with no issue and as you noted, all your batches turned out fine except for two. So let's do some process of elimination:
1. Since the two bad batches were color/scented and uncolor/unscented, we can first eliminate the FO and oxide that you used.
2. Since you used the same recipe for all your soaps, let's look at your ingredients. Did you use the same ingredient lots for all your soaps or did you run out of something and had to open a new container? I had that happen with Castor Oil and Cocoa Butter on Friday; I didn't have enough of either to make a 2lb batch, so I set it aside and opened new containers. The other will either go into a 1lb batch or will go into 'house' soap. Once you open a container, it is subject to contamination even if it's just air...and the lower the amount, the more air. And unless your ingredients are stored in a controlled environment, they are subject to temperature and humidity variances. It could be that your bad soaps contained an older, contaminated ingredient.
3. If you used all the same material lots, next item is equipment. Most of the time I run my equipment through the dishwasher, but sometimes I don't. I can always tell if I don't get the container for my lye solution perfectly clean I get 'floaties' (usually soap residue since I don't have a dedicated container). And I try to make sure all my equipment is only used for soap making and everything is properly stored in drawers and cabinets after washing (I have a rolling kitchen island), but sometimes I fail in that. I'll leaving something in the drainboard for a few days or my daughter just sets my stuff on my 'island' when she empties the dishwasher. And because I hate wasting paper towels, I use dish towels and now have a set that I only use for soap making to wipe surfaces, equipment and my hands.
The bad thing is that it didn't turn for 5 or 6 months and were already on store shelves by that time. So I feel horrible that people bought a bad product from us. I am running around the 60 mile radius to all 7 stores that carry our soaps and pulling them all.
That is probably best.
