Thread: soap samples gone bad?

I've been slowly working my way through all the soap samples I've accumulated over the years. Recently, a couple of samples didn't perform as expected, so I'm curious to have SRP's opinion on what could be happening.

The last two soaps I tried were A&E Asian Plum and Declaration Grooming Yuzu/Rose/Patchouli. People on this forum as well as others rave about the lather for both these soaps - unfortunately I had the opposite experience.

When trying a new soap, I like to bowl lather so that I can better control the water to soap ratio. I take my time, adding a few drops of water when necessary. However, I was unable to build a stable lather with either of these soaps. Even after loading the brush for well over a minute, and barely adding any water, the lather was a thin, watery mess that dissipated almost immediately.

I had slightly better results by face lathering. I was able to build enough lather to shave, but I still needed to load the brush and build lather again between passes.

The A&E Asian Plum gave me pretty bad irritation. The DG actually had an excellent post-shave feel - despite the thin lather, my skin felt very soft and hydrated afterwards.

These shaves were about a week apart, and I hadn't shaved in between. Since this lather problem happened two shaves in a row, I thought maybe something was wrong with my brush (which has happened to me in the past). So after the DG shave I loaded up the brush with MdC Rose and built a lather in the bowl. But within just a few seconds the bowl was overflowing with rich, dense lather, so it definitely wasn't the brush that was the problem. I have enough experience lathering different soaps, including tallow soaps (aside from MdC, most of my favourite soaps are tallow) that I'm pretty certain that my lathering technique is good.

Both soaps are tallow based. Could the samples have gone bad? I only had each sample for maybe a year before trying them. The A&E sample maybe a little longer, but less than two years. But I wouldn't think this is long enough for them to go rancid. Maybe I'm wrong. Any other ideas?

Thanks for your input.

If they have gone bad, you can probably tell by a good sniff. If it smells rancid likely gone bad.

Bob

I should have mentioned, they smell fine. Neither scent was one that I would buy, but that’s just my preference. Neither smelled obviously rancid.

Now you know

Aloha!

Seeing your post, OP, made me again confirm my resolution to not buy any new soaps or creames until I have gone through at least half of my stock. And like most of the members here, that resolution will no doubt take me the rest of my life. Realistically, the rest of my life if the soaps never went bad. I need to absolutely halt all soap and cream buying. I'll push soap storage to the very limit and beyond and hope for the best. Soaps are too easy to collect. They are inexpensive, and I always want to try something new, even though I have 50 containers waiting for me in my shave den that I have barely touched.

The other thing to note is they can dry out. As they dry, they get harder, and harder to lather.

If you are at all worried about soaps containing tallow going bad, you can freeze them or store in a cool dry dark place. I don't think I'd try freezing creams though as their water content may be high enough to cause crystallisation and break down when thawed.

Bob

I threw away a whole slew of soaps recently. Some I've had for probably five years or more (maybe way more). Some had lost their scent in whole or in part and some had a funny smell.

Some soaps just age better than others but they all have limits. All the ones I have left are within 3 years old. Of course some of the really cheap ones do seem to last forever.

I don't know about new sealed soaps. I suspect they would last a very long time.

Thanks everyone for your input.

Tonight I shaved with another sample that I received at the same time as the A&E sample, so between 1 and 2 years ago. I don't know how old the original pucks were, but this one couldn't have been very old because it was a 2019 limited edition soap from Tallow & Steel (Sasq'ets).

I had the same problem, super thin, dissipating lather. This time, I soaked my brush and added some water to the sample so it could bloom (I do this with every soap). After a few minutes I shook out all the excess water from the brush until it was almost dry, loaded it for about a minute and a half, and then bowl lathered. Without even adding any water, the lather was super thin and runny, I couldn't get anything going. So I loaded the brush some more and face lathered, again with no water. I got enough to shave with, but it didn't give me much protection. By the end of each pass the lather was dried out, and I needed to load the brush again in between passes.

This had a light, more floral scent, and it definitely didn't smell rancid.

Because it was the same brush as last time, and it had just lathered up a mountain of MdC in its last use, I know the brush was not the problem.

Three samples in a row of exactly the same sub-par results with three soaps that are highly regarded just can't be a coincidence. My theory is that maybe samples age quicker than a puck, and these have just dried out or aged too much.

The difference with this soap is that I liked the scent enough that I'm willing to try lathering it up again. Perhaps after using it tonight, it will rehydrate a bit and be easier to lather next time.

It sounds as though you didn't get enough soap onto your brush before attempting bowl and facelathering. Given that these were samples, this may have prevented you from getting enough soap onto your brush, which is a common situation with samples, compared to a full puck.
Why don't you try rubbing the samples on your face to get more of the soap, or putting the samples at the bottom of your lathering bowl to see what happens?
A&E and DG soaps are quite excellent and if you had a full puck, you would probably not be experiencing this problem.
Good luck.