Does Soap Expire?

Every once in a while someone finds a bar of soap in the back of a closet, under the bathroom sink, or buried in that basket of random bathroom crap we all apparently have....and wonders whether the thing is still safe to use.

Especially when they realize they bought it three years ago.

So....does soap expire?

Sort of. But probably not in the way you're thinking.

A properly made bar of soap doesn't suddenly hit its second birthday, turn into a pumpkin and become unusable. In fact, handmade soap can hang around for quite a while when it's stored properly....and because it continues losing water as it ages, an older bar can be REALLY hard and last a ridiculously long time in the shower.

What usually changes first is the stuff that makes the soap pretty and smell good.

Fragrance can fade over time. Essential oils can fade, too....sometimes considerably. Colors can change. The beautiful bar you bought because it smelled amazing might eventually smell like....well....soap.

That's not necessarily a bad bar. It's just an old one.

There is, however, a difference between old soap and soap that's actually gone rancid.

Soap is made with oils and fats, and those can oxidize over time. Soapmakers sometimes call the resulting spots DOS, which stands for “dreaded orange spots”....a name I did not invent, although I appreciate the drama.

They can show up as yellow or orange spots on the bar, and rancid soap can develop a distinctly unpleasant smell. Trust your nose here. There's a pretty significant difference between “huh, I can't really smell the lavender anymore” and “what the FUCK happened to this?”

How you store your soap matters, too.

If you're saving bars for later, don't seal them up somewhere hot and damp. Handmade soap likes a cool, dry place with some air circulation. A linen closet, dresser drawer or open basket is generally much happier than a humid bathroom cabinet....and as an added bonus, your towels may smell fantastic for a while.

Once you're actually using the bar, the same basic rule applies. Let it dry out between showers. A soap dish with good drainage will do more for the life of your bar than just about anything else you can buy.

So if you've just unearthed a forgotten Hemlock Springs bar from 2023....don't panic.

Look at it. Smell it. If it looks normal, smells normal (even if the scent isn't nearly as strong as it used to be) and hasn't developed any obvious signs of rancidity, you've probably just found yourself a very well-cured bar of soap.

And considering how hard that sucker probably is by now....

You may be using it until 2028.

Don't have any forgotten soap hiding in a closet? We can fix that. Browse the goat milk soap collection.