Shelf Life

[scrubzz]

Asked this over in the general soaping section and want to ask here also - what is the shelf life  of your M&P soap? I was told by SFIC that their bases have an unlimited shelf life in and of themselves - but of course scent and colorants fade - on average how long would you say that your soap would last stored properly before it would no longer be sellable nor would you wish to gift it? Thanks

[Shari]

Same answer, only you will know if something is still high quality to sell.  Just like other soap it depends on the fragrance, how it's stored, exposure to light etc.....MP can get dry and may shrink up.  I don't do a lot of MP but do have imbeds that I made 2-3 years ago and they are fine.  I didn't scent them. 

[Jcandleattic]

I'm kind of like Shari, the only thing I use M&P for is embeds - and they are all still fine years later, however, I also don't scent them, just color them. Sometimes the color will leach out if I put it on top of a CP soap (which is what I do) and the color is not pH stable. That's rare as I usually always test the stability of my colorants by putting some drops of my master batch lye in one of those steel restaurant cups, with a bit of colorant. If it changes, I know it's not pH stable. 

[Jcandleattic]

I should have added though, how long an actual bar of M&P lasts is also going to depend on the variables in which it is made - humid, not humid, wrapped, not wrapped, just the same type of variables it would be for CP. 

 

Once you test, you will know how long M&P soap will last for you. 

[scrubzz]

Thank you both again for your replies - I played with M&P in the past but never kept them unused for very long - what I myself didn't use were quickly used by others so I have no clue what the general shelve life might be lol