Hello, I make and sell bath salts/teas, in some of my recipes I use oils with shorter shelf lives like grape seed and sweet almond oil but after being made the products only keep for at most 2 months before I can smell that the oils went rancid. Do i need to just eliminate the use of these oils or is there a safe preservative i can use to slow the oxidation?
Rancidity and Bath Salts
- Thread starter MamaZ
- Start date
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You can add some ROE to the oils to slow the oxidation, but grape seed oxidizes quite quickly. I don’t use grape seed oil at all. I use sweet almond oil in my scrubs but I use ROe when I open the bottle. A preservative won’t stop the oils from going rancid.
Just trying to trouble shoot, do you leave the salts out to dry for about a week before packing? I've had some look weird in the jar and that solved the problem. Agree grape seed and sweet almond goes rouge pretty quick, Rice Bran is used in place of almond oil but has a longer self life if that's an option.
ROE will help as an antioxidant, but it's not going to turn a short-lived oil into something that's good for the ages.
You might consider oils with longer shelf lives. My go-to for things like this is meadowfoam oil. It's light on the skin and has a very long shelf life. Another alternative would be liquid coconut oil (the kind of coconut oil that's a clear liquid at room temperature). Jojoba is nice, but it's really expensive and can be a little heavy on the skin.
You might consider oils with longer shelf lives. My go-to for things like this is meadowfoam oil. It's light on the skin and has a very long shelf life. Another alternative would be liquid coconut oil (the kind of coconut oil that's a clear liquid at room temperature). Jojoba is nice, but it's really expensive and can be a little heavy on the skin.
shinnycow
Member
^The coconut oil referred to here is usually sold as "fractionated coconut oil." I can vouch that what DeeAnna said is good advice, except I haven't tried meadowfoam oil.
"...The coconut oil referred to here is usually sold as "fractionated coconut oil. ..."
Yes, that's sometimes true, but not always.
If you look in a grocery store, it's usually labeled liquid coconut oil, believe it or not. I imagine that's a "more natural" name for the product "fractionated" might scare some people away. For example: Organic Liquid Coconut Oil If a person just wants to buy a small quantity to play with, the grocery store is a handy place to find it.
Other non-food suppliers may call it MCT oil, short for medium chain triglycerides. Example: MCT Oil (Medium Chain Triglycerides)
It has a lot of names.
Yes, that's sometimes true, but not always.
If you look in a grocery store, it's usually labeled liquid coconut oil, believe it or not. I imagine that's a "more natural" name for the product "fractionated" might scare some people away. For example: Organic Liquid Coconut Oil If a person just wants to buy a small quantity to play with, the grocery store is a handy place to find it.
Other non-food suppliers may call it MCT oil, short for medium chain triglycerides. Example: MCT Oil (Medium Chain Triglycerides)
It has a lot of names.
shinnycow
Member
That's good to know--they don't have it at my grocery store, so I'm used to buying it from Bulkapothecary and the like.
My grocery stores have it as liquid coconut oil. Drug stores carry it as MCT.
