last question (I hope)

[rebeccajo99]

As mentioned in another post, I've been doing a lot of reading of books and on here while I wait for my lye to come. Every book I have read said to use some sort of "preservative" to extend the shelf life of your soap. (Grapefruit seed extract, vitamin E, and/or carrot root oil)

Reading on here, it sounds like you actually don't use those things.

Am I missing something and you do actually use them?

Thanks for helping me out.

[katshe]

Hi rebecca,

I don't use them in my cphp but i believe it is to prevent rancidity of the oils... not a preservative against bacteria if thats what you were thinking....some oils go rancid faster than others. I am not sure how effective those ones u listed are though against that.

If u use oils with long shelf life you should be fine.

I have had some issues with dos in a recipe with too high a percentage of a short shelf life oil...can't remember if it was sunflower or canola but i don't use either now.

[rebeccajo99]

the books I have been reading says its to prevent oils from going rancid. I was reading it as getting smelly, bad soaps not the bacteria. Is there a way to find out how long of a shelf life my oils have? The recipe that I'm trying first uses Olive oil (i baught pomice), coconut oil (i baught 76 degree), palm oil and castor oil.

Thanks:)

[Barbara AL]

I try to keep my oils in a cool dark place or if you have an extra refrigerator in the garage you can store them there. I freeze my Tallow, Palm, and butters in the freezer.

Barbara AL

[rebeccajo99]

ok, I have them currently stored in the box they came in, placed in my workroom closet. Dark, coolish (77 degrees- temp where air is set). I don't have an extra fridge, but I do have a deep freezer.

If I put them in the freezer or fridge, won't they solidfy and it would be worse for them to be warming and cooling all the time when I want to make my soaps?

[katshe]

Those oils you mentioned i use almost exactly and never refridgerate

olive, palm, castor, coconut, i also ad a bit of cocoabutter to my recipe ...you want to keep palm so that you can stir it before use case stearic seems to settle to the bottom and needs stirred before every use.

[Rob K]

If you are just soaping for yourself and close friends, I wouldn't bother with any of the "preservatives" you mentioned. Just keep your finished soap in a cool, dry dark location until you are ready to use them and they will be fine.

"Preservatives" come into play when you are considering selling your soaps. At that point you need to accommodate storage in less than ideal conditions, which can promote rancidity (DOS). Needless to say, soaps covered with orange spots don't sell well, and so some method of delaying the onset of rancidity is desired. Depending on how "natural" you want your product to be, this may be rosemary extract, tocopherol, BHT, etc. Some methods are more effective than others, so you will want to test with your soap blend to determine the optimum solution when you reach this point.

Good luck!

[chuck_35550]

I love pomace for soaping but use local olive which is much cheaper (Walmart and other stores have really good prices on large amounts) if you look on the bottom shelves. My lab is in the basement where it is cool but sometimes damp. I keep my palm in a presto pot with a spigot and heat it and stir to make sure that the stearic is mixed. Soap & Other Obsessions by Zonella Gould, Sally Trew and Diane White and Scientific Soapmaking by Kevin M. Dunn are really good books.