If you own essential oils, you likely wonder about how and where to store your essential oils.
Keeping your essential oils in an ideal environment will help you get the most out of your oils. This article is to help you understand what factors play a role in essential oils storage. I’ve summarized it in 5 quick & easy tips!
Also, I’ll show you the 10 best essential oils storage boxes and cases. Consider adding a fancy wooden box or handy fabric case to your aromatherapy organizing system.
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3 Quick Tips for Storing Your Essential Oils
It doesn’t matter what room of the house you keep your essential oils in. Personally, I like the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. Yet, some people also like storing essential oils in their kitchen cupboard, pantry, or drawer in your bedside table.
Pick a spot where you have quick and easy access whenever you’re in need of an oil.
So, why would you bother with special storage for your oils? The important thing is that you store your oils in a dry, dark and cool place. DO NOT keep them on a sunny window sill as a way to store your oils.
1. Avoid Heat and Light
Essential oils are flammable. The sun’s rays can make the temperature of your essential oil rise. An increase in temperature may destroy the oils’ therapeutic properties.
Avoid storing your essential oils on top of a hot surface such as a wood stove or a gas range.
Do not leave your essential oil near the window or any place where sunlight can make contact.
2. Do Not Change Temperature
Essential oils don’t react well to sudden or frequent temperature changes. The same goes for carrier oils (base oils).
Extreme changes in temperature can cause the therapeutic properties of your oils to diminish. This is not something you want, considering that some of these oils aren’t exactly cheap.
Keep your oils safely tucked away in a proper storage unit. This will ensure consistent temperatures in the bottles and their contents.
3. Limit Oxygen
Every time you expose your essential oil to fresh air, oxidation happens.
A consistent contact with oxygen will deteriorate the oils’ properties and increase evaporation.
When opening the oil container, make sure not to let it stay open for a very long time. Limit how long you leave the oil open, and close the bottle again tightly after use.
Essential Oil Storage Boxes
Essential Oils Box – Fits a Variety of Types and Sizes of Bottles.
Buy It Here
Wooden boxes especially made for essential oils storage are a great option to maintain the best possible quality of your oils. These boxes are cheap to buy and can be a great place to keep your essential oil bottles. Mine is like my “medicine cabinet” – no matter which oil I need, I pull out the essential oils box and select my choice.
The boxes come in many different styles and sizes to suit everyone’s taste. One thing to look out for when shopping is to make sure that your essential oils bottle size(s) will fit into the storage container.
PRO TIP: Check the essential oil bottles you already own to see what size they are. If you have “larger bottles”, they’re likely somewhere around the 10-15 ml in size. But some also come in 5 ml, 25 ml or 50 ml sizes. Check your essential oil bottle size! Then pick the storage solution that will work for your aromatherapy library.
Top 5 Wooden Essential Oils Storage Boxes
Fabric Essential Oil Storage Cases
This fabric storage case holds 30 oil bottles.
Get It Here
Multiple cute and functional essential oil storage cases are available for you to choose from, also fitting bottles of various sizes – 5ml, 10ml, 15ml and roll-on bottles.
I like fabric essential oil cases because it feels like the oils are softly wrapped and securely stored. The zipper also feels somewhat more secure than a lock on a wooden box, which I like especially for smaller cases (12 bottles or so) that tend to move around the house a bit. One such soft case is for my essential oils first aid kit, another one for the essential oils I like to to travel with.
I like this fabric case especially, because it is purple and girly, and stands out from other bathroom organizational items. It’s also less than $20, so well worth the investment to stay organized and uncluttered!
Top 5 Essential Oils Fabric Storage Cases
Final Thoughts
Avoiding heat and light is the primary reason you need a good storage unit for your essential oils collection. Next, find a cool and dry place for your storage box.
The cupboards in your kitchen and bathrooms are some of the best places to store your essential oils. They are mostly dark places, and consistent in temperature.
If you want your essential oils to last and maintain their best properties, follow the guidelines above for essential oils storage. Pick a cute box or fabric case to hold your treasures, and the aroma and properties of your oils will always remain at their best!
This is the container I use (Amazon link). I love this container. Will actually be buying my second because I have blends from recipes I have found. It is so much easier than scuttling around in a cupboard for them.
Hi Emma
Thank you for writing this article. Much appreciated. I have got one of those 70+ essential oils wooden storage units and put them away from heat and sunlight. However, the essential oils still have gone bad. :( Why is that?
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Best regards,
Connie
Essential oils are mostly prone to oxidation, therefore, make sure to avoid storing it in refrigerator. You can also store oils in aromatherapy box, which will keep the oils safe from extreme temperatures. You can use products such as Cobalt Blue Boston round glass bottle and dark colored glass dropper vials to store oil.
I love this website, thank you so much! There is tons of unbiased and terrific information here and I love how you have links to answer any question I could have. I am just starting to research essential oils and I grow most of my own nutrition and medicine. I also backpack, hike, and camp a lot though and want to know more herbology so I can condense my food and medicinal travel packs with me. I think essential oils are a terrific way to do that because of their varied uses. Thank you so much for helping me with research!
Can you use a bottle with a rubber dropper if the oils are already mixed with a carrier oil?
First of all – thank you for your insights and reviews and know-how! I am just getting started. (and already have an assortment!) Your site is way helpful! Anyway – not so sure you should keep the oils in a bathroom that gets warm, humid, and at times, steamed up… too warm and too humid. i keep mine in my little ‘craft corner’ in another room, or, keep them in a hallway linen closet?
I am going to be moving soon, and my wife is super worried about something happening to her essential oils. So she decided to put them in our storage unit. This being said, I really appreciate you talked about this Emma, and giving me some great tips on how to store these oils properly. I’ll make sure I talk to my wife about this right away.