Is this shea butter still good?

[Feelin' Soapy]

Today I was given about a pound of refined shea butter that is about 6 years old. It's from Bulk Apothecary and is in a jar. (I've not ever seen shea in a jar before, only chunks in bags!)
The shea is all white, no spots, and smells fine. Do you think it's still good to use in soap?
I'd hate ruin a batch of soap with it, but I also don't like waste and would hate to toss it if it's still good.

 

[AliensrReal]

Today I was given about a pound of refined shea butter that is about 6 years old. It's from Bulk Apothecary and is in a jar. (I've not ever seen shea in a jar before, only chunks in bags!)
The shea is all white, no spots, and smells fine. Do you think it's still good to use in soap?
I'd hate ruin a batch of soap with it, but I also don't like waste and would hate to toss it if it's still good.

Honestly, I wouldn’t use it just due to the age.

 

[Savage Daughter]

Today I was given about a pound of refined shea butter that is about 6 years old. It's from Bulk Apothecary and is in a jar. (I've not ever seen shea in a jar before, only chunks in bags!)
The shea is all white, no spots, and smells fine. Do you think it's still good to use in soap?
I'd hate ruin a batch of soap with it, but I also don't like waste and would hate to toss it if it's still good.

If I was making the soap for myself, I would give it a shot. Maybe make a couple of 1 pound batches & see how it fares. Not much wasted then if it's rubbish.

If for soaps I'm selling, I absolutely wouldn't use it unless it had been in a fridge or frozen all of that time.

I have some shea which is fairly old & has been in the fridge for a long time, has followed me through a couple residence changes & so on, but it has never been stored at room temperature. I still use it & it's fine for my own personal-use soap. That said, I would not use it in salves or creams, not even for myself, due to the fact that it's probably older than your shea

It's ultimately your call

 

[Feelin' Soapy]

Thank you, @AliensrReal and @QuasiQuadrant !
I completely agree with your thinking on this. I have such a major dislike of wasting anything it was hard to tell myself to just toss this stuff without someone else telling me it's okay.
After all, I still have to finish everything on my plate so no one on the planet will go to bed hungry.

 

[paradisi]

Thank you, @AliensrReal and @QuasiQuadrant !
I completely agree with your thinking on this. I have such a major dislike of wasting anything it was hard to tell myself to just toss this stuff without someone else telling me it's okay.
After all, I still have to finish everything on my plate so no one on the planet will go to bed hungry.

There's other things you can use it for; many years ago I used old illipe butter to re-waterproof my hiking boots. Worked great.

 

[Nona'sFarm]

Thank you, @AliensrReal and @QuasiQuadrant !
I completely agree with your thinking on this. I have such a major dislike of wasting anything it was hard to tell myself to just toss this stuff without someone else telling me it's okay.
After all, I still have to finish everything on my plate so no one on the planet will go to bed hungry.

@Feelin' Soapy , we must have been raised similarly, at least on this point.

 

[Saponificarian]

I would use it with a very low superfat and use the soaps.

 

[lsg]

I think that I would give it a try in one pound batches of soap to see if it worked OK.

 

[Feelin' Soapy]

There's other things you can use it for; many years ago I used old illipe butter to re-waterproof my hiking boots. Worked great.

I love this idea! I'm hesitate to waste time and ingredients making potentially bad soap, but I can make good use of some waterproofing butter for my boots!

 

[AliOop]

If it doesn't smell bad, I'd quickly make a high shea soap with all of it. There are some good recipes here on SMF that are high shea, but the soap could be as simple as 70% shea, 20% coconut oil, and 10% castor oil. It will need a long cure but will probably be lovely in about six months. I'd also use a chelator and some form of sugar, and would avoid using other oils with a short shelf life, i.e., those with high linolenic or linoleic FAs.

 

[Feelin' Soapy]

If it doesn't smell bad, I'd quickly make a high shea soap with all of it. There are some good recipes here on SMF that are high shea, but the soap could be as simple as 70% shea, 20% coconut oil, and 10% castor oil. It will need a long cure but will probably be lovely in about six months. I'd also use a chelator and some form of sugar, and would avoid using other oils with a short shelf life, i.e., those with high linolenic or linoleic FAs.

Thank you, @AliOop . I considered something like this too. The shea looks and smells fine which is why it's so hard to just toss it. I think I'll try your suggestions.

Do you think I need a chelator if I don't have hard water? I usually go with a 5% superfat. Would you suggest a little higher for this?

 

[AliOop]

Thank you, @AliOop . I considered something like this too. The shea looks and smells fine which is why it's so hard to just toss it. I think I'll try your suggestions.

Do you think I need a chelator if I don't have hard water? I usually go with a 5% superfat. Would you suggest a little higher for this?

I'd use 2% SF max. Unsaponified oils can more easily go rancid. Plus, this will be a high-conditioning, low cleansing soap, so you don't need a high SF like you would if you were using a recipe with a higher cleansing number.

In addition to helping soap to lather more easily in hard water, a chelator will guard against rancidity.

Bottom line, my recommendations for low SF and a chelator are offered to address concerns related to the age of the shea butter, and the possibility of the soap becoming rancid as a result.

Just be ready for a very fast-moving batter. Shea moves fast even when it is fresh, and all soaping oils/fats move faster and faster as they age due to their increased amounts of free FAs over time.

 

[Feelin' Soapy]

Thanks again, @AliOop ! That makes total sense about less SF = less oil to possibly go rancid. And that's interesting about older oils moving faster. You're a wealth of information!

 

[AliOop]

Learned both of those tidbits right here on SMF, a wonderful repository of soapy knowledge!

 

[ScentimentallyYours]

Have you considered “washing” the Shea butter? It is basically the exact exact same process as rendering tallow, and probably how the Shea butter was originally cleaned and processed. I have done this with other older solid oils and had great results.

The process would basically require that you start with salt water and melt chunks of Shea into it. When the Shea is completely liquid, I use a stick blender to get it as fully mixed as possible before the Shea floats again to the top. The salt water will separate impurities such as bacteria from the oil, washing the oil clean. Put the pan in the refrigerator or outside for the Shea to harden again, then remove it from the pan and dry the salt water off. You may need to scrape the bottom of the Shea where it was in contact with the water as well.

The Shea butter you end up with will still have more free fatty acids than fresh Shea butter will, so it will accelerate trace somewhat when you use it in cold process soap.

 

[cmzaha]

I totally agree with Alioop, make a high shea soap with low superfat. I have used Shea older than that. If it smells fine it smells okay it will be okay to use. There would be no reason to go through trying to wash it unless it smells rancid.

 

[Feelin' Soapy]

Since I've only got less than a pound of the shea, it's just not worth the time or effort to wash it. It smells fine, so I'm going to go ahead and make a batch with the recipe @AliOop suggested above.

It will be 4 bars just for my own use, and since it will accelerate anyway I'm going to use a delicious Jasmine FO I don't normally use in soap because it accelerates so much. Simple soap, simple design, and hopefully a lovely special soap I would not have tried otherwise.

 

[AliOop]

Sounds amazing! A luxury, pampering soap you can justify keeping just for yourself, because, old shea. Don't want to endanger anyone, right??

Consider going down to 1% or even 0% SF. I use 0% SF with ZNSB all the time, with no issues. The less SF, the better it will lather - something important to keep in mind with high butter soaps.

Most lye isn't as strong as the calculator assumes, so there is wiggle room there already. But even without that, the long cure means that any slight lye excess that could possibly occur will be long gone by the time you use it.

 

[Feelin' Soapy]

Adventures in Soaping!
So I just finished the Super Shea batch. I added a touch of NS Cyber Grape for a lovely soft lavender to complement the sweet jasmine scent.

Yes, @AliOop , you warned me it would be fast, but wow, was it ever! And the lovely lavender turned baby poop tan the minute it hit the batter. Had to mix the batter with a spatula because it was too thick for my SB to spin, and then I stuffed it into the mold with my gloved hand.

It began to gel almost immediately, spouting a mini-volcano out one corner. (You're not a real soaper until you've had a soap volcano, right?) The fragrance did NOT remind me of jasmine... Well I stuffed and stuffed, and kept smoothing the erupting lava over the top, and set it aside to saponify.

Not sure if it will be more than an interesting experiment or if the bars will actually be usable some day, but either way it made for fun and novel soaping adventure!

 

[Nona'sFarm]

Not sure if it will be more than an interesting experiment or if the bars will actually be usable some day, but either way it made for fun and novel soaping adventure!

and an interesting story to tell.