Most of us tend to over-buy creams and soaps and don't use them up or even open them soon enough.
I've adopted the practice of storing unopened creams, soaps, (even after-shave/cologne), in the refrigerator (NOT freezer), until needed. After opening, they're kept in the lavatory and used in short rotation until gone...less than one year typically.
Scents can be fragile and are often the first thing to go. Heat is the main culprit, but air also degrades and dissipates scents. The scent in an old soap puck can sometimes be "revived" by washing off a layer of the exterior of the soap.
Creams, by which I include "croaps," have a more complex chemistry to create their creamy texture. Chemical emulsifiers suspend the ingredients in a thick solution that is inherently unstable. These have a much shorter shelf-life than hard soaps, albeit one that can generally be extended by refrigeration...but not indefinitely.
As reported by others, there are as many methods of rehabilitating dried-out, hardened, broken-down products as human ingenuity can conceive, but is that really the position you want to be in?
I consider the scent to be an important component of the product I purchase, and if it dissipates from lack of use, I've lost part of the value of it. It might still work, but it's no longer worth what I paid for it.
In general, hard soaps hold up much longer than creams, so if you've too many of both, I'd use up the creams first.
Finally, hard shaving soap pucks can always be converted to body bar use, so you don't have to throw them out.
I've adopted the practice of storing unopened creams, soaps, (even after-shave/cologne), in the refrigerator (NOT freezer), until needed. After opening, they're kept in the lavatory and used in short rotation until gone...less than one year typically.
Scents can be fragile and are often the first thing to go. Heat is the main culprit, but air also degrades and dissipates scents. The scent in an old soap puck can sometimes be "revived" by washing off a layer of the exterior of the soap.
Creams, by which I include "croaps," have a more complex chemistry to create their creamy texture. Chemical emulsifiers suspend the ingredients in a thick solution that is inherently unstable. These have a much shorter shelf-life than hard soaps, albeit one that can generally be extended by refrigeration...but not indefinitely.
As reported by others, there are as many methods of rehabilitating dried-out, hardened, broken-down products as human ingenuity can conceive, but is that really the position you want to be in?
I consider the scent to be an important component of the product I purchase, and if it dissipates from lack of use, I've lost part of the value of it. It might still work, but it's no longer worth what I paid for it.
In general, hard soaps hold up much longer than creams, so if you've too many of both, I'd use up the creams first.
Finally, hard shaving soap pucks can always be converted to body bar use, so you don't have to throw them out.
