Sunflower oil goes rancid quickly!

Sunflower oil goes rancid quickly!

by Gail
(South Africa)

Hi - I followed your suggestions (from your list) and used pure organic sunflower oil to make up sea salt scrubs (to which I added pure essential oils) and it went rancid after 1 month. I have had to throw about 10 kgs out. Can you suggest a better carrier oil that wont go rancid?

Thanks

Gail

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Sunflower oil goes rancid quickly!

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Preservatives for Aromatherapy Recipes
by: Kyley

Hi Gail,

I found a link that you might find helpful on how to help improve the shelf life of your products. In addition to the basic information, I'd suggest focusing on the rosemary extract and the grapefruit seed extract as natural preservatives.

http://www.fromnaturewithlove.com/library/preservatives.asp

I haven't used the rosemary, but I can tell you from experience that the grapefruit seed extract will not affect the scent of your blends. Hope this helps!

And thanks also for commenting on our lovely community - our contributors truly are generous and helpful! Please keep coming back and "pay it forward" by offering suggestions or answering questions when you can. We'd love to hear more from you as time goes on.

Best of luck with your business!

Kyley

Sunflower oil goes rancid quickly!
by: Gail, South Africa

Thank you to those kind ladies who responded to my plea! The sunflower oil came from a reputable source and was well within its sell-by date. I have subsequently chatted to some Health shops here and they confirm that sunflower oil is not a good carrier oil to use with salt ( two other people have said they had a similar experience using it - they suggested I try either sweet almond or grapeseed and one said coconut ( but I have heard that can turn rancid quickly too?). This time I wont make large batches until I have tested shelf life first. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated? I want to keep my product pure and natural (I dont want to add any additives or artificial shelf life extenders, but since I am trying to sell this into health stores I definitely need to do more research to find the best carrier oil to use.

I didnt realise there are such generous people out there willing to lend a hand for free! (One always expects to pay for information these days and it is difficult to know where to start looking - it is just so amazing to get free help from people with knowledge and experience. Thanks so much!

Sunflower Oil
by: gill

Hi Gail

On reading your post, I can sympathize with you, it is not cheap making these products, so to make so much and then for it to go off so quickly is dissappointing.

When doing my aromatherapy course, we were told to look for the following information on both the essential oil and base oils bottles.

It should have the name in english and latin, the address of the maker, a batch number,a use by date, and lastly any informatiion that will cause harm to you or your client, ie not going ouut in the sun if citrus oils.

I also know that sunflower oil has a shelf life of one year, so for me I would look at the use by date and if it is not that long I would go back to the supplier and see what you can sort out with them, as it sounds like it was near its shelf life.

I hope this helps.
Gill

Rancid Sunflower Oil
by: Kyley

Hi Gail,

I'm so sorry to hear that your product went bad. What a drag - not to mention a waste! You must have been so disappointed.

I'll definitely add a note to the sunflower oil section regarding its short shelf life. Hopefully it will help prevent others from having the same problem.

I'm also going to add a note on each recipe indicating how long you can expect the product to last and make sure I've stated that it should be stored in a cool, dark place.

I wonder how long the sunflower oil had been sitting on the store's shelf, because it really should have lasted for at least a couple of months under proper storage conditions. Disappointing!

Thanks for sharing your story, Gail, and I'm sure it will help others be aware that it's best to make and use small amounts at a time.

I hope your future efforts meet with better success. Please don't hesitate to share any other questions, concerns or (even better) successes! Good luck!

Kyley

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