shelf life of essential oils, fragrance oils?

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evergreen

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How long do essential oils stay potent and viable for soapmaking if the bottles are unopened? What if they were opened and then tightly resealed?

How about fragrance oils? What's the shelf life for those?

Thanks!
 
evergreen said:
How long do essential oils stay potent and viable for soapmaking if the bottles are unopened? What if they were opened and then tightly resealed?

How about fragrance oils? What's the shelf life for those?

Thanks!

I have some EO's that are YEARS old and still smell pretty potent. They are best kept in amber or cobalt glass bottles and even better kept in the refrigerator.
 
i too have some EO's that i have had for years. they all smell fine but have been stored in the dark in amber bottles.
 
I have some very old ones too but mine are all kept in a dark vented cupboard
 
The answer really depends on the specific EOs in question. Most people I know dump citrus after a year. MDL is right about storage. Amber or violet glass is the best. I don't know that I would refrigerate all EOs as there are some that will crystallize when the temp gets too cold, but a cool, dark place is best.
 
I had lime oil for 10 years, just finished using it up, it was still potent as is my mandarin
 
Depends on the oils. Citrus, especially orange, oils tend to go "off" pretty quickly. Some others actually improve with age (patchouli comes to mind).

If you store your EOs properly - in amber glass in a cool location with constant temperatures - then you can get several years out of most (assuming your supplier hasn't had it for several oils before you get it!).

Regarding crystals - vanilla and a few other things do crystallize out at cooler temps. No harm done, just warm the oil in a water bath and move forward. BUT many temp shifts are not good for your oils, so if you intend to keep a vanilla oil chilled you should portion it off so that you don't need to keep re-warming the same oil.

As a fragrance manufacturer, we keep our EOs at varying temps depending on the oil, but we rarely go down to 40F (refrigerator temp) for most.
 
I keep forgetting that most of the forum members do not live in Africa :)
I have a special fridge for my more delicate soaping ingredients as the temperatures here in Spring, Summer and Autumn can get pretty high. The thermostat is set at it's lowest ( least cold ) setting, but I have no idea what temp that represents.

There are some control bottles of various EO's which I have had for anything upto 10 years and none of them have lost any aroma, including Sweet Orange which is quite surprising. The only EO for which I have had to use a warm water bath is Benzoin which is very viscous even at room temperature here in the hot months.

Finding a cool place anywhere in my house which does not have AC is near to impossible except in the 3 Winter months, so I have no choice but to continue storing the EO's in their fridge ;)
 

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