how old.. is too old for oils?

[Spacemom]

so, a friend was clearing out her store, she was making soap and decided to no longer do it and cleared out ALL her oils and such on me. so. how old is too old, only some of the jugs are labeled. they were kept in a fairly even temp room for the last 2 years. some say best before 2018 lots have no date on them, so.. help? i can post pictures as i wipe down the jugs and sniffer test them for rancid oils. most so far have smelled okay.

but how old is too old? We used them to make soaps for ourselves about 4 months ago and it turned out okay.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Do you want to make soap with the oils? Which other uses come into question? (Cooking, biodiesel, SVO fuel, lamp oil, candles, feed, oil paintings/wood treatment, insecticide, glycerol sequestration, energetic use)

Are these wholesale soapmaking oils? ROE added?

I'm not particularly qualified to judge. But one could give refined hard oils (coconut, palm, cocoa, shea) and high-oleic (sunflower, safflower) a chance for soapmaking (ramping up antioxidants/chelators).
Everything unrefined/“virgin” or with the iodine value of olive oil and above, is most probably not worth wasting NaOH, IMHO. Similarly, animal fats (lard in particular), they are reportedly troublesome wrt rancidity.
Doubtful cases could be converted into boring technical soap (liquid soap for cleaning, gardening, garage) for private use.

The nose (or the tongue, if edible) has the last word, though.

 

[lenarenee]

Oh I really can’t say because I’ve made batches of soap from some pretty old oils, some opened, and some still sealed…and all were soft oils. 3 months ago I finished off some 4 year old opened olive oil, and some 6 year old unopened extra virgin oo. They smelled fine, stored in the dark where temps don’t reach over 80ish. I did the paper test…pour oil in glass container, set on white paper, look down through the glass of oil toward the paper and see if you notice black spots. If you do…throw it out because it’s particles that have come out of solution and can be the first step in oxidation. Don’t know if it’s true for other soft oils, but possibly.

 

[Spacemom]

these are all oils from voyageur specifically for soaping. some castor, some argon, primrose oil, and more that i haven't had a chance to look at specifically. almost all soft oils.

some Shea butter, Mango butter, tangerine butter, cocoa butter as well.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Primrose is among the highest PUFA/IV oils out there, I seriously doubt it's still good for anything at all (except maybe oil paint). Castor is probably fine.
Be cautious with the butters, though they're low-IV. I had one batch of shea butter about a year beyond use-by date, it didn't smell terrible, but it made a soap that was very questionable to the nose. The oil itself also tasted bad. This was my first unambiguous reminder of taking rancid oils seriously. DOS is only one of several ways how old oils can ruin soap.

 

[lsg]

If you are worried, why not make a small batch of soap using some of the oils/butters? If that turns out OK, then you are set to go.

 

[earlene]

I wouldn't worry about the true butters (mango & cocoa butter), as long as the original storage area temperature had no extreme fluctuations, which it sounds like it did not. I have no idea how Voyageur's tangerine butter was made, but I suspect it includes some other hydrogenated oil as a mix, so would look that up before using. A couple of different places sell tangerine butter made with either Soy or Almond oil, so choosing a sap value for that 'butter' could be a challenge unless your friend has documentation to go along with the oils she gave you.

I wouldn't worry about the still tightly sealed bottles either (I mean never opened yet). I would add ROE upon opening, of course, and use the ones with the shorter shelf life soonest.

Check for what shelf life is on each oil online. Some oils, like Grapeseed oil go rancid faster than others.

Primrose oil isn't a good candidate for soap, IMO, but the Voyageur site gives it a 3 year shelf life.

Did she share any of her recipes with you? If not, maybe you could ask her how she used some of the specialty oils in soap. Like the Primrose oil or the Argan Oil. I would rather use those in leave-on products, rather than is wash-off soap products.

I have added links (purple) to some of the products still listed on the Voyageur site so you can look up the shelf life, etc. for those given oils.

 

[cmzaha]

I have actually used some un-opened Cherry and Apricot Kernel Oil in soap that had to be at least 8 yrs old with no problems. I will mention I use a combination of EDTA and Sodium Gluconate in every batch at the rate of 0.5% each so maybe that helped ward off DOS, but I would keep bars, many times 1-2 yrs some even longer if they did not sell well or were slow sellers.

 

[Spacemom]

thanks everyone. pretty sure i am the only one who cracked open some of these butters like the cocoa butter. it smells fine.

although checking these, not all is oils, some are BSB surfactant and amphosol, and bioterge 40. and i cant find any info ANYWHERE on if these go bad. which are not lye based soap stuff i have now figured out. and silk amino acids,.

what a chore to go through these! the orange oil smelled so bad when i cracked that one.

the tangerine oil smells so delicious.

Again, thank you everyone for all your Advice, i super appreciate it.

 

[Misschief]

some are BSB surfactant and amphosol, and bioterge 40. and i cant find any info ANYWHERE on if these go bad. which are not lye based soap stuff i have now figured out. and silk amino acids,

I've had bottles of BSB, Amphosol, and Bioterge in my closet for quite a few years and am just now using them up. They're fine.