Castor oil smells bad

[CMonkey]

I'm pretty sure the answer is no, but should castor oil smell similar to rotten eggs?

Was making soap earlier today and emptied my last 16 oz bottle of castor. Opened up the new 7 lb bottle and the smell that came out was terrible. Checked the empty bottle and it smelled similar but not nearly as strong. There was a little bit of sediment on the bottom of the new bottle, similar to what rice bran oil has.

Did some googling and got mixed information about if there's supposed to be a bad scent or no scent at all.

WSP, who it was ordered from, claims it is odorless on their website. I received it on March 28th, but there is not an expiration sticker on this bottle like everything else they send.

If it's not supposed to smell bad, the next step I guess is to see what they say.

 

[toxikon]

Nope... my castor oil has no scent. I'd email WSP about it, hopefully they will give you a refund or send out a new bottle.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Nope... my castor oil has no scent. I'd email WSP about it, hopefully they will give you a refund or send out a new bottle.

Ditto ^^^ I've had very good response from WSP when I've had issues with one of their products. They'd probably be grateful to know they're selling 'skunky' castor.

 

[IrishLass]

Like olive oil, castor oil definitely has a very recognizable scent to my nose. I've gotten it from several sources and it smells the same to me no matter which brand or where it came from. If I had 10 bottles of different oils set before me, I would be able to distinguish it from all the others in a heartbeat, but for what it's worth- it's not an unpleasant smell by any means- especially not anything like rotten eggs, that's for sure (not even close). It's hard for me to describe, but it's just a light, clean, oily smell, but individually distinctive enough to distinguish it from other oils.


IrishLass

 

[Saranac]

I'm with IrishLass on this one. It definitely shouldn't smell like rotten eggs, but castor oil (to me) has a distinctive smell--in fact I can't stand it and can smell it from a mile away. I grabbed the wrong bottle of oil once and ended up with a castor lotion. . . . right in the garbage it went.

 

[IrishLass]

There was a little bit of sediment on the bottom of the new bottle, similar to what rice bran oil has.

I also wanted say something about the sediment. I sometimes get sediment at the bottom of my castor, too, no matter where I get it from. Sometimes even in the form a wispy, grayish-black cloud. It freaked me out the first time I saw the sediment as a grayish-black cloud- I thought for sure it must be mold, but I happily found out from Taylor over at MMS that they are just stearines that settle to the bottom, and the greyish-black color is due to charcoal left over from the filtration process (read here): http://blog.thesage.com/2012/04/24/have-you-ever-seen-this/


IrishLass

 

[Susie]

I can smell castor oil, also. It is not skunky or like rotten eggs.

Canola oil is the one I can't stand the smell or taste of.

 

[CMonkey]

Was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to smell like that. Tons of people were complaining of the smell when I googled, but could find a description of what the smell was supposed to be.
Going to call Monday...wish me luck, been having a bad run of it with suppliers and makers this past month.

Good to know about the sediment, had never seen it before in the smaller bottles of castor I've had.

 

[Arimara]

I'm chiming in- I've never had castor oil smell like rotten eggs. Either there was some cross contamination in there or that was a bad batch. Either way, contact the company asap and explain that to them.

For me, I cannot describe the smell of castor oil but rotten is NOT it.

 

[CMonkey]

Just an update in case someone finds this thread on a search...

I hadn't got around to posting right away but, WholesaleSuppliesPlus is a super standup company.
They took care of the problem even faster than they said they would and handled it with professionalism and amazing customer service!

The new bottle came and smells nothing like rotten eggs lol...so, Woot!, I can make soap again!!!

 

[Susie]

I have always found WSP to be a great company when things go wrong.

 

[Arimara]

Good to know. Thank you for the update.