Shelf Life
Technically speaking, soap does not need any kind of preservative. That is good news because there is really no such thing as a natural preservative in this industry. I am very thankful that I do not have to use them. I am a purist and I stress like mad over ever ingredient that I put into my product. So I know that I just couldn’t live with myself if I wasn’t offering you the best and most simply pure, and natural soaps that I can!
Yet, experience has shown me that some soaps over time, can indeed loose their sparkle. For one thing, there are what some soapers refer to as DOS – the Dreaded Orange Spots!!! These are little orange spots of rancid oil that appear on your soap. Sometimes there can even be a sort of over all darkening or yellowing of a once pristine white soap.
Not good.
Strange thing is only SOME of my soaps are susceptible to this type of degradation.
I have noticed, for example, that the soaps with vanilla EO and the ones with powdered seaweed or turmeric in their recipes are seemingly immune to these disasters, even after sitting around my house for a long long time.
Hmmmmmmm.
So I started looking into this subject and found that the answer is in the antioxidents. They slow down the oxidization of the oils and keep the soap fresher for longer. That explains it. So for those few types of soaps I make that do not already have a source of antioxidents in their recipes, those that are the most likely to wither much too soon, I found Rosemary Oleoresin Extract. ROE is a solvent extraction of rosemary. ROE is oil soluble and does not react with sodium hydroxide (lye). It will not prevent oils from going rancid but it extends their shelf life significantly.
Like the Vanilla essential oil that I use it is debatable weather or not ROE can be considered a natural product. While most essential oils are obtained simply by physical means such as steam distillation or cold pressing, vanilla essential oil and rosemary oleoresin extract are obtained through solvent extraction. That means at some point it was soaked in a solvent like ethyl alcohol and then the solvent was evaporated away leaving the concentrated essence of the material behind. While the resulting substance in question is naturally occurring, it was somewhat un-naturally obtained. So there in lies the debate. Frankly, I am not sure which side of the fence I am leaning towards. All I know is that Vanilla EO smells wonderful and adds so much to the soaps that I use it in. And so far ROE is proving itself to be a worthy asset in the fight against the Dreaded Orange Spots. I guess that this is one slight compromise I am willing to make for the sake of fabulous soap! Especially when you consider that the alternative is buying a product entirely comprised of synthetic petro-chemical detergents laced with toxic petro-chemical preservatives, and hazardous petro-chemical fragrances.
Which reminds me….if you haven’t seen this video yet, give it a moment of your time. It was made by the wonderful Annie Leonard who brought you The Story Of Stuff.
The Story Of Cosmetics
BTW- Annie Leonard came to Nantucket and SOMEHOW I missed it!!! I had no clue she was even here until a customer asked if I saw her speak at the library. Here is a clip of her visiting our dump aka America’s first green landfill! Yes we are so proud.
http://www.plumtv.com/videos/annie-leonard-author-of-the-story-of-stuff
