An aside: Shelf lives of our products (part 2)

I thought we should take a look at a few recipes and see if we can figure out how long the shelf life should be for them. And I do want to point out that my goal is always a product that will last 6 months to a year. I make small batches and use them quite quickly, so for me, 1 year is a really long time. If you can get your product to last a year, you're doing great. But let's see if we can make that time even longer!

POSSIBLE DUPLICATION OF NEUTROGENA'S BODY OIL
33% sesame oil
33% fractionated coconut oil
32% IPM
1% Vitamin E
1% fragrance oil

Sesame oil has a shelf life of about a year. Fractionated coconut oil - about 2 years. IPM - about two years. Vitamin E - about 1 to 2 years, depending upon the oxidation of the product. And fragrance oil -  about a year. So look at the shortest life span ingredient - sesame oil or fragrance oil - and figure that's the life span of this product.

How could we make the life span longer? We could use a different fragrance oil. We could use a different oil (for instance, an ester that would last longer as I did with this recipe, and you could leave out the Vitamin E if you're not using natural carrier oils) or we could use mineral oil.

A note on essential oils: Whereas most fragrance oils have a shelf life of a year, essential oils can have variable shelf lives. Check with your supplier! 

How about this recipe? It's a little harder given that we have some water soluble ingredients in here!


SIX INGREDIENT LOTION WITH SHEA, SOY BEAN, AND SESAME OIL
HEATED WATER PHASE
39.5% water
20% aloe vera
3% glycerin

HEATED OIL PHASE
10% refined shea butter
10% soy bean oil
10% sesame oil
6% BTMS-50

COOL DOWN PHASE
0.5% liquid Germall Plus
1% fragrance oil (Clementine Cupcake)

Water is okay - no real shelf life there. Aloe vera - about 2 years. Glycerin - about 2 years. Shea butter - about 2 years. Soy bean oil - 6 months to a year. Sesame oil - 6 months to a year. BTMS-50 - 2 years. Liquid Germall Plus - about 2 years. Fragrance oil - about a year. (I didn't include Vitamin E in this recipe as it was a 6 ingredient recipe!) So we can guess that we're going to get 6 months to a year out of this lotion. (As a note, all my ingredients were opened on the day I made it, so I'd think that a year is a reasonable length of time, although it's such a small bottle, I'd be offended if my husband kept it that long!)

Let's look at another recipe, this 6 ingredient hand lotion with esters.

HAND LOTION WITH CETEARYL ETHYLHEXANOATE & COCOA BUTTER
HEATED WATER PHASE
39% water
20% lavender hydrosol

HEATED OIL PHASE
20% cetearyl ethylhexanoate
6% cocoa butter
3% cetyl alcohol
7.5% Polawax

COOL DOWN PHASE
3% honeyquat
0.5% liquid Germall Plus
1% fragrance oil - Clementine Cupcake from Brambleberry

Look at all the ingredients and figure out the shelf life of each one. (Honeyquat is 1 year from the date of manufacture.) Now combine them all to see if you can get an accurate shelf life date. I'll be back in a minute after I make my lovely cup of marzipan rooibos tea.

Okay, so what do you think is the shelf life of this lotion and why? Which ingredients could we substitute to make this a longer lived lotion? If you answered the honeyquat and fragrance oil, you're right! The rest of the ingredients have at least a two year shelf life, so these are the two that will cause problems.

So what could we use instead? We could use glycerin or another humectant in place of the honeyquat or perhaps another polyquat? Polyquat 7 - 1 year. Polyquat 44 - 1 year. Polyquat 4 - 1 year. Polyquat 10 - 1 year. Nope, can't use another polyquat, so it looks like glycerin, sodium lactate, sodium PCA, or another humectant with a shelf life of over a year is our best choice.

How can we get longer shelf lives? Add an anti-oxidant to the mix. Use a chelating ingredient. Use ingredients with longer shelf lives, especially oils. Make sure you keep your ingredients in a cool, dark place in your workshop. Put dates on your bottles when you open them, and if you aren't going to use an ingredient for a while, get it into the fridge or freezer (most ingredients can handle freezing. In fact, I can't think of one that doesn't...) Buy small quantities of ingredients you don't use a lot. Yeah, I know, you save money by buying larger amounts, but if you're throwing them away, you're not saving much. And put "best before" labels on the things you make!

As a note, I always keep my products in a visible place in my bathroom and bedroom because there's always that lotion that ends up in the back of the bathroom cupboard that I don't remember and they don't smell all that great when I open them again! 

As I mentioned above, 1 year is a great shelf life and we shouldn't compromise our products to get longer shelf lives. If you make an amazing facial serum with grapeseed oil, get some anti-oxidants in there, put a "use within 3 months of being given this great product" label on it, and enjoy it. If you make a fantastic hair conditioner with unrefined hempseed oil, get some anti-oxidants in it, make the label, and enjoy the feeling of having great hair. We don't have to strive for really long shelf lives, but it's nice to know you can if you wish!

Join me tomorrow for fun duplicating Soothing Touch's massage cream!