At SoapQueen, quality and freshness are essential. That is why we offer a freshness guarantee of a minimum 12-month shelf life after delivery on all our ingredients and raw materials. This allows you to confidently create cosmetics, soap, candles, and other handmade products without worrying about the quality of your ingredients.

Our customers consciously choose fresh, high-quality ingredients. Through strict inventory management and careful storage conditions, we can guarantee that the products you receive will have at least one year of shelf life remaining from the date of delivery.

What Happens to Ingredients with a Shorter Shelf Life?

Sustainability is one of SoapQueen’s core values. Ingredients with an administrative shelf life of less than 12 months are never simply discarded. Instead, we offer these products in our Bargain Corner, with attractive discounts ranging from 50% to 70%.

This approach helps prevent unnecessary waste of perfectly usable ingredients while giving our customers access to high-quality products at exceptionally low prices. Everyone benefits: the environmental impact is reduced, and you can save significantly on your purchases.

Expiration Date or Re-Test Date?

For many ingredients used in cosmetics, personal care products, and soap making, manufacturers do not work with a fixed expiration date but rather with a re-test date. This is an important distinction that is often misunderstood.

A raw material is a natural or chemical product whose quality depends on various conditions. For this reason, it is often impossible to determine years in advance exactly when an ingredient will no longer be suitable for use.

The quality of an ingredient can be influenced by factors such as:

• Exposure to sunlight

• Storage temperature

• Humidity levels

• Type of packaging

• Exposure to oxygen

• Potential contamination during storage or use

Because these factors vary from one user to another, many manufacturers use a re-test date instead of a definitive expiration date.

What Happens When the Re-Test Date Approaches?

When a re-test date is approaching, the ingredient can be analyzed and tested again. If the quality assessment confirms that the product still meets all specifications, its shelf life can be extended.

In practice, a re-test date can often be extended two or three times by six months each, provided the ingredient has been stored correctly and the test results remain satisfactory. This means that many ingredients remain perfectly usable for considerably longer than the original administrative date may suggest.

Batch Number or Lot Number

All products and raw materials we sell are provided with a batch number. This number refers to a specific production or filling batch and makes the origin and history of the product traceable.

The batch number is usually shown on a small separate white sticker near the product label and consists of 6 digits. Example: 1234.56

• Repacked by SoapQueen: the product receives its own filling number, which is linked in our records to the producer’s original lot number.

• In the original packaging: the product carries a batch number that is directly linked to the manufacturer’s production lot.

Through this registration, we can determine who the producer is, what the original lot number and production date are, and which re-test date applies. For products that we repack ourselves, we also record when, by whom and under which conditions this was done.

This traceability helps us investigate quality-related questions carefully and, where necessary, identify a specific batch. The batch number is an identification code and does not replace the expiry date or re-test date.

Would you like to request the corresponding Certificate of Analysis (CoA)? Please provide the product name and the batch or filling number so that we can locate the correct certificate.

For finished cosmetic products, a batch number or identifying reference is legally required under Article 19 of the European Cosmetics Regulation.

Do you use our raw materials in your own products? If so, make sure to record these numbers in your own production records as well.

Why Choose SoapQueen’s Freshness Guarantee?

With SoapQueen’s freshness guarantee, you benefit from:

✓ Minimum 12-month shelf life after delivery
✓ Fresh ingredients for cosmetics, soap making, and personal care products
✓ Strict inventory management and quality control
✓ A sustainable approach to reducing waste
✓ Bargain Corner discounts of up to 70%
✓ Transparent information about shelf life and re-test dates

With SoapQueen, you can be confident that you are receiving fresh, high-quality ingredients, allowing you to focus entirely on creating exceptional cosmetic and soap making products.