Shelf life

[John Harris]

Hi! I am returning to soap making after a 16 year lapse. I used to make lots of soap! One year I had 1200 bars on hand. People walking by my house would say they could smell the scents out in the street. One year I made $5000 selling soap and I never advertised a bit ... it was all word of mouth!

Anyway, tonight I got out my storage bins of soap supplies. I was amazed at how much stuff I had. It was incredible. Sadly, I had large amounts of things that no doubt had a shelf life ... bags and bags of botanicals, many bottles of essential oils and fragrances, a BIG bag of bees wax ... the list goes on and on. I must have spent a lot of money back then when I bought all this stuff.

So my question is ... Do I have to throw all that stuff away? I think I know the answer, but I wanted to hear it from learned soap makers. The experience of going through all that stuff left a sinking feeling in my stomach.

Oh! And I have a container of lye from back then. How does one dispose of that?

Thanks for reading
John

 

[Relle]

Welcome John

I would say after 16 years you would have to get rid of most of those things and start afresh, just for your own peace of mind. As for the lye, the council here in Oz where I am has certain days we can take things like lye, flammable items etc and the council disposes of it, so not sure on your end where you can take it. Others might know.

You can keep the lye and use if you have a blocked drain in the kitchen or bathroom.

 

[Saponomancer]

I don't think beeswax can go bad! and I would do some tiny sample batches and test out the fragrances and EOs and see how they are- the botanicals definitely toss. Any base oils would be rancid by now and should be tossed too..

 

[Lin19687]

I have used 10 y/s old and it was perfectly good, you just need to test it.
FO's depend on the smell and who you got it from. I have some that are over 10 yrs and work, smell fine, not rancid... you will smell that.

 

[Obsidian]

I mix old lye into a big bucket of cold water and pour it down the drain.