Do shave soaps expire?

[DistantSun]

Just wondering if shave soaps, especially animal fat based ones expire or go bad?

I keep all mine with the lids on except for after a shave the tub I used will be left open for as much as 24 hours to let any wetness evaporate off.

I have had a bar of Chiseled Face washing soap show up essentially scentless but otherwise fine so I’m also wondering if parfum/essential oils evaporate off of the soap is left to the open air?

 

[Atlantic59]

It's possible, but many hard milled soaps are able to last for decades. The soft soaps with lots of oils and butters added are generally not going to last as long. Best to store soaps in a sealed container in a cool, dark place.

The culprits are:

Rancidity - extra fats in the soap that did not become saponified can oxidize over time, giving them an unpleasant "off" smell. Unsaturated fats can become rancid more quickly than more saturated fats.

Contamination - bacteria or fungi can colonize your soap. This can usually be avoided by removing a portion of the soap to a separate lather bowl instead of loading your brush directly in the soap container. Also, let the soap dry before putting the cover back on. Keep the soap covered after it has dried.

Mushiness - this happens when water is trapped in the container and degrades the soap into a soft messy blob.

Fragrance oils can degrade and lose their scent over time. It's not really evaporation, more of an oxidation process.

 

[Ad Astra]

Couple of my Stirlings that are a few years old (and infrequently used) have turned darker and lost scent.


AA

 

[MrSpeedy]

What Atlantic59 said. As far as losing scent, I've never had that happen. When I use a soap I leave it uncovered until I get home from work, so about 10 hours. Never had a problem.

 

[lancre]

The only one I've ever had go bad was Cella. The worst that happened with any hard soap was a loss of scent. Since I don't worry too much about scent, that's meaningless.

 

[DistantSun]

It's possible, but many hard milled soaps are able to last for decades. The soft soaps with lots of oils and butters added are generally not going to last as long. Best to store soaps in a sealed container in a cool, dark place.

The culprits are:

Rancidity - extra fats in the soap that did not become saponified can oxidize over time, giving them an unpleasant "off" smell. Unsaturated fats can become rancid more quickly than more saturated fats.

Contamination - bacteria or fungi can colonize your soap. This can usually be avoided by removing a portion of the soap to a separate lather bowl instead of loading your brush directly in the soap container. Also, let the soap dry before putting the cover back on. Keep the soap covered after it has dried.

Mushiness - this happens when water is trapped in the container and degrades the soap into a soft messy blob.

Fragrance oils can degrade and lose their scent over time. It's not really evaporation, more of an oxidation process.

Some of those issues I was aware of, I think we’ve all experienced mushy soap in soap dishes, and some I was not.

I was reading about saponification earlier today…interesting stuff!
So properly made soap should be stable for a good long while.
Scents can/will fade due to oxidation so restricting time left open to the air will help retain them.
Great! If anything, I guess I’ll just shorten up my “air drying” window

 

[Niched_edge]

Great thread! Does anyone know if keeping soap in a freezer extends its life?


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[Jan Sobieski]

Great thread! Does anyone know if keeping soap in a freezer extends its life?


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I'm not some kind of expert on the subject, but everything I know tells me that is probably not a good idea.

 

[ajkel64]

Theses days soaps out here in Australia do have use by dates. I have used older soaps and find that the only loss with these soaps is normally the scent. Performance wise they still work as they should.

 

[Marco]

It's possible, but many hard milled soaps are able to last for decades. The soft soaps with lots of oils and butters added are generally not going to last as long. Best to store soaps in a sealed container in a cool, dark place.

The culprits are:

Rancidity - extra fats in the soap that did not become saponified can oxidize over time, giving them an unpleasant "off" smell. Unsaturated fats can become rancid more quickly than more saturated fats.

Contamination - bacteria or fungi can colonize your soap. This can usually be avoided by removing a portion of the soap to a separate lather bowl instead of loading your brush directly in the soap container. Also, let the soap dry before putting the cover back on. Keep the soap covered after it has dried.

Mushiness - this happens when water is trapped in the container and degrades the soap into a soft messy blob.

Fragrance oils can degrade and lose their scent over time. It's not really evaporation, more of an oxidation process.

The best possible answer.

 

[MilfordNJGuy]

The higher the water level in a shaving soap or shaving cream, the more chance there is of it going rancid. The larger the percentage of "superfatting" of a soap (unsaponified oils or butters) the more chance there is of it going rancid. The fatty acid structure of the soap can also be a part of that but the higher the percentage of the high chain fatty acids (such as Stearic and Palmitic Acid, both of which are solid at room temperature) the less chance there is of having that problem.

Commercially produced shaving soaps are often "triple pressed" meaning that they are pressed and ground three times enabling them to lose the excess water more quickly in them and guarantee that all fats are evening saponified, would be less apt to go rancid. The possible problem might be an artisan shaving soap that is made with a similar percentage of water in them to what handcrafted soaps normally have then are put into a container and left to "cure" for two or three months before they are sold. Those types often have a "textured top" and are not pressed into a fat, hard puck like commercial shaving soaps are made. They may also contain a larger percentage of water in the middle and bottom of the container because that portion has not fully cured yet. There are those "artisan" soaps that are made with a smaller percentage of water, saponify and cure quickly and can be used in 24-48 hours after the process and they are made in logs and cut into flat even pucks during that time which gives them a lesser chance of having any problems involving curing.

Generally, shaving soaps that have limited unsaponfied oils or fatty acids at 5% or under and don't have an excess of water should have no problems because of the pH of the soap but all shaving soaps and shaving creams are made by each company expecting that the customer will buy another one when the first one is complete and the soap is not going to be kept and used occasionally over a long time period.

 

[BigJ]

So long as they don’t smell moldy, shave soaps should be fine.

I have used some vintage OS and would love to find more!!

 

[dabrock]

I'm using artisan soaps that I purchased up to nearly a decade ago and they seem fine except for the loss of scent and discolouration. Not sure if they've lost a bit of performance but they seem to perform well enough. Cella is the only one I've had an issue with, and as noted above, hard soaps last for decades. You can still buy soaps that are decades old on the bay such as Colgate and Old Spice.

 

[Lefonque]

Most soap are pretty stable over a long period.

 

[skibik]

I have had a couple go bad or rancid smelling. Cella was the first one and even though I let it dry for 24 hours it still for some reason got that rancid smell, I think it was less than a year old from the time it was purchased. The other was B&M Latha Lavanda that was the same, opened it up one day it it started smelling rancid. B&M wanted to replace it when they were still making the Latha line but I declined. I had a puck of VDH that had black spots on the bottom of it, the puck was inside the mug you get and it happened to fallout when I had it sitting upside down for drying. I scraped it off and finished using it exclusively. Most of my hard soaps and all my croaps I now scrape and transfer to my lather bowl for lathering and I no longer use them directly from the container. With the exception of Soap Commander Endurance and the VDH Deluxe that I have melted into an Old Spice mug that I scented with English Leather.

 

[Dovo1695]

Great thread! Does anyone know if keeping soap in a freezer extends its life?

I've seen that a lot of people who buy the 1kg package of Cella cut it several pieces, put them in individual storage bags, and store them in a freezer. They take one out at a time, and the balance will keep in the freezer for years this way. I'm not sure whether or not that's still considered a best practice though.

 

[geneaut]

I have a few soaps that are at least 10 years old and still fine.

 

[Big Jim]

Cella is the only one I have had trouble with. It gets a rancid smell when it ages. I have NOS Old Spice that still works well. I doubt that time would make Williams any worse than it already is.

 

[wazabees]

Interesting thread! Last weekend I decided to go through my entire hoard collection and enter it all in to a spreadsheet with purchase date. I have more stuff than I thought, but "only" 15 shaving soaps, some that just turned 5 years old. I have some Haslinger pucks that are still shrink wrapped, so I would assume they're fine.

I also have a tin of Dr. Jon's Hydra from August 2016 that I've neglected, so that'll be next up in my rotation!