Question about Expiration time (date)

[Moonday]

Hi
Thank you for your respond!
I decided to use CP for my soaps (before I work on HP but I couldn't mold it correctly!) and understand that we have a more than one mount sleep time in CP. Now I think for example a batch with 5% superfat. But when this soap will expired ? It's similar to Exp of super fat oil or when uncolored soap color change to die or else?
Exp in oils is a tonality of temperature , Sun light , contacting with weather , contacting with microorganisms , moisture and some other parameters. but in a packaged soap for example by vacuum plastics and a showering in an alcohol tub for example Isopropyl before packaging , Options are different. So how I can correctly find what is my Exp date?

 

[shunt2011]

Soap really doesn't have an expiration date in most cases.

But, fragrances and colors will/may change over time. Fragrance may become a lot weaker and colors may fade. It also depends on how they are stored.

If you really want to put an expiration date on your soap I would put 6 months to a year. A
s long as you have tested your soaps before selling and know your formulas can hang in there for the long run and they are well cured you will be fine.

I have soaps almost 6 years old that the scent has faded but they are still great soaps.

That's why so many of us strongly suggest people wait a year or more before selling. You need to know your recipe(s) aren't prone to DOS and will be quality for your customers.

 

[not_ally]

Agree w/Shunt on all - a well made CP soap will last for a really long time (years), but the scent and color will fade, and other stuff ("Dreaded Orange Spots"/DOS, speculated to be caused by a number of factors and especially discussed in connection with some oils that have a short shelf life, may develop after some time. DOS is generally regarded as a cosmetic factor, although sometimes it can smell bad, and if I was selling I certainly wouldn't want to sell any with it.

I've only been making soap for 4 mos and have yet to get DOS - maybe mostly, I think, b/c my none of my oils are much older than that and I switched early on to using mostly oils w/a longer shelf life - lard/tallow/olive/coconut/castor. I probably would be more careful about storing animal fats like lard and tallow. I recently bought a huge (for me, at least) 50 lb box of lard and cut it into smaller portions and am keeping most of them in the freezer until I am ready to use. (At some point I am probably going to have to post here saying "guys, is it ok to defrost frozen lard, or will potential water crystals create a problem ?) My tallow comes in smaller amts, I just keep it in the fridge in a gallon bucket and scoop it out as needed.

When I get my oils I make sure the containers are marked with a date (I do it myself in big bold black marker, sometimes they are hard to find otherwise without my reading glasses There are lots of charts out there with the shelf life of oils, here's one: http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-b...s-guide-to-soapmaking-common-soapmaking-oils/

Anyway, once made - with oils that are good, and putting aside other problem factors - like Shunt said, the soaps will last for a long time. But the scent and colors, which are the reasons which many buyers like them, will fade, so if you want a good resale market you will need to know how long they last for that reason. The only way to tell, really, is by labeling them carefully by batch date/ingredients/fragrance/colorants so that you can check as they go along and then make a decision based on that what the expiration date is for your market. Also, that will help you know what you might want to change.

I hope this makes sense, I am still working on my first cup of coffee. Also, as previously stated, I am newbie, a lot/most of this is taken from the very good advice I have received from really experienced and helpful soapmakers.

Also, I found a good learning experience when posting - after reading all the posts on the thread - is to go to the bottom of the page and look at the "similar threads" link. I don't think that will help in this case, but often they are very helpful. Sometimes old though, so if so, don't expect a reply because the OP's either have an answer, have given up, or are long gone. Still lots of good info, though, and sometimes they help you focus your thinking on your own question.

 

[MorpheusPA]

I've found that even older oils are perfectly good as long as you're still inside their shelf life. In a few cases, I've used ones that were...well, perhaps a little older than they should be, let's just say.

Turning oil to soap more or less stops the clock. It won't turn a bad oil back into good soap, but as long as the oil was in good shape, the soap will also be in good shape.

 

[not_ally]

Turning oil to soap more or less stops the clock. It won't turn a bad oil back into good soap, but as long as the oil was in good shape, the soap will also be in good shape.[/QUOTE]

That's what I meant to say, Morpheus! It got lost among all the blah, blah