SoapDiva Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 I've recently had some issues with my EO soap, specifically star anise and lavender. They have been going bad, fast, which is weird. I've been using the same EO's from the same suppliers, with the same recipes for years with no problems. I recently had two batches turn. One made in the winter (Feb) and another made in June. After I re-made the lavender and Star anise, the lavender went rank within a few weeks of making it! The star anise so far seems to be fine. We had a major heat wave, and I had to purchase a dehumidifier for the basement.I've also installed an exhaust fan, and have two fans running to circulate the air around the soaps on my rack. Do you think that my EO's went bad? Base oils? Was it the heat/humidity? My base oils are canola, olive oil, coconut and palm oil. Ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topofmurrayhill Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 (edited) It doesn't seem plausible to me that a well formulated recipe could go bad within a few weeks just because of heat and humidity. Even if you're using too much canola oil I don't think it would happen that fast. Besides, you've tested the recipe over time and you know it doesn't do that.If it has something to do with the essential oil, my wild speculation is that some metal ions could have got dissolved in it during the manufacturing process, which could plausibly trigger a fast case of DOS. You could test that by making test batches with and without sodium EDTA and see if it makes a difference.By the way, your dehumidifier will have no effect if you run an exhaust fan at the same time. In fact, you'd want to close off the opening for the fan when running the dehumidifier. Edited September 3, 2009 by topofmurrayhill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndulgentCreations Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 I've had some wonky batches this year too with no rhyme or reason why. Made patchouli early on it was fine, 2nd batch (same recipe) got DOS within a couple months and the 3rd batch was fine. No clue what caused it, nothing changed but the weather. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platypus Moon Posted September 6, 2009 Share Posted September 6, 2009 I wonder if the 2 EO's are at the end of their shelf life? especially if it's only the 2 you are having trouble with, maybe you could try making a few test batches with only 1 EO and 1 of the base oils at a time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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