Silk Naturals

Hi! I have a ton of SN Lip Products (all different varieties), that are at least 2 years old, some are probably almost 3 or 4. Is it time to toss?

When they taste and smell bad, sort of like Crayons they are ready to be tossed because the oils have become rancid. But untill they taste icky and gross and are becomming sticky/gooey on the lips, they are fine to be used in my personal opinion.

How fast they go can depend on the color and what minerals are used. I once had bad luck in the spring/summertime a coupple of years ago, where I had 2 consecutive <<Sweet Nothing>> kisser slickers + one wery dark brown one (DC`d -I don`t remember name) that went rancid on me in just 2-3 months (was in daily use) so in my personal experience is that the browner the color, the faster it goes "bad" (perhaps because of the darker oxides)

I have Foreplay and Mirabelle that I bought in the very beginning of 2010 and they are just as fresh as the day I got them. I just cut off a coupple of milimeters of the top just to get a fresh surface. I had forgot about them and just found them a coupple of months ago in a box in my bathroom where they had been sitting for almost two years... No bad smell, no stickyness and no aftertaste. I still use them but it isn`t much left of them now.

!ETA!
Never had problems with Sweet Nothing since. Karen told me when I asked her, that it perhaps happened because of the oxides could sometimes act a bit funny in natural products. I remember she replaced my bad Sweet Nothing without hesitation btw, so no need to be hesitant about purchasing anything, she is awesome and has the best Customer Service!!

When I have too many of a similar or the same color I refrigerate them.The same way you refrigerate oil.

so far, my experiences with the sn lip products are:

- kisser slickers, amplifying lip glazes, black label, kissable creams: none of them turned funny (i.e. rancid smell and taste, tacky texture etc) on me.
these formulas seem to have the longest shelf life!!

- liquid glosses (old version with doefoot applicator): the oily smell of my original gwp icing (from december 2010) became a bit too prominent for my liking lately, so i tossed it. i think it's castor oil that - even when fresh - has a slightly rancid smell to it. all the others (purchased between july 2010 and january 2013) are still okay to use, albeit some of them aren't the freshest anymore, but i cannot bring myself to toss them yet, as the colours are mostly discontinued now.
liquid products, that constantly get "contaminated" by the applicator, don't seem to be as stable as solid products!

- lip stains: gigi and chloe are goners they smelled and tasted ok still, but didn't stain my lips any longer. all the other colours i have (trixie, dixie and roxie) are still in perfect condition and much loved!!
pink pigments seem to be the least stable in the stain formula!

- buttercreams: out of the 5 that i owned, the one i purchased first (wistaria, december 2010) and the one i purchased last (menage, march 2012) turned yucky, so i tossed them. the other ones (dame, mango, heirloom) are still good. sadly, all of them got discontinued though.
i cannot see a trend here...

- vegan kisser slickers: out of the 12 i have acquired between april 2010 and september 2012 only one (bobbi, september 2011) developed a rancid smell. texture was still ok, but i cannot live with the smell.
i cannot see a trend here either...

- vegan lipsticks: oooh my, these seem to be the least stable lip products sn has to offer. i recently had to get rid of 8 out of 12 (purchased between april 2010 and june 2013), and out of these 8, 7 were rather dark colours (bombshell, sultry etc).
darker pigments seem to make the lipstick base go rancid faster than lighter colours.

- lipbalms: i am a lipbalm hoarder, so naturally i had quite a few go rancid on me before i even tried them out. but one of my recently purchased matte caffeinated lipbalms turned faster than i would have expected, within less than 6 months. also the pumpkin salve has a slightly shorter shelf life due to - i think - the pumpkin seed oil.
a little tip for rancid lipbalms: rancidity is only the reaction of oil with oxygen and as such not harmfull, so they can still be used as an overnight foot balm. my feet are far enough from my nose, so the funky smell doesn't really bother me there

overall, the majority of my sn lip products have survived for quite a while already. out of the 150 items i have bought over the years, i only had to toss 16 due to rancidity. some lipbalms, as mentioned above, got a second chance on my feet.

all of my lip products are stored at room temperature, out of direct sunlight, at relatively low humidity (i.e. not in the bathroom).