If you own essential oils, perhaps you’ve wondered about how and where you should best store your essential oils.
Providing your essential oils with an ideal storage environment will help you get the most out of your oils, and this article is to help you understand what factors play a role in essential oils storage.
Also, I’ll show you the top 5 essential oils storage boxes and cases that you might like to consider adding to your aromatherapy organizing system.
This post contains affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Read my full disclosure policy here.
But first off, why would you bother with a special storage system for your oils?
What Factors Affect My Essential Oils?
- Heat and Light – Essential oils are flammable. The sun’s rays can easily make the temperature of your essential oil increase, which may destroy the oils’ properties. Avoid storing your essential oils on top of a hot surface such as a wood stove or a gas range. Make sure to also avoid leaving your essential oil near the window or any place where sunlight can make contact.
- Temperature Changes – Essential oils (and vegetable oils, too, actually) don’t react too well to sudden temperature changes. Extreme changes in temperature can cause the therapeutic properties of your oils to be diminished, which is not something you want, considering that some of these oils aren’t exactly cheap. Keeping your oils safely tucked away in a proper storage unit will ensure more consistent temperatures in the bottles and their contents.
- Moisture and Oxygen – Oxidation can occur if the essential oil is exposed to oxygen (fresh air). A consistent contact with the air 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. Also make sure to avoid letting water make contact with the oil because it could let it become cloudy or worse, the water will leak to the bottom of the oil and dilute its properties.
Storage Tips for Your Essential Oils
Avoiding heat and light is the primary reason why a good storage unit for your essential oils collection is needed. You need to find a cool and dry place. The cupboards in your kitchen and bathrooms are some of the best places that to store your essential oils as they are mostly dark and consistent in temperature.
Where Should Essential Oils Be Stored?
It doesn’t really matter what room of the house you keep your essential oils in. Personally, I like the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. However, some people also like a kitchen cupboard, pantry, or drawer in your bedside table for quick and easy access whenever you’re in need of an oil.
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.
Essential Oil Storage Boxes
You can buy wooden boxes especially made for essential oils storage to maintain the best possible quality of your oils. These boxes are economical 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 storage 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. However, some also come in 5ml, 25ml or 50ml. Check your essential oil bottle size and be sure the storage solution you’re thinking about will work for your aromatherapy library.
Top 5 Wooden Essential Oils Storage Boxes
Fabric Essential Oil Storage Cases
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
If you want your essential oils to last and maintain their best properties, follow the guidelines above for essential oils storage. Pick a cute wooden box or fabric case to hold your treasures, and the aroma and properties of your oils will always remain at their best!
To your well-being,
Emma 💖
Milley
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.
Anonymous
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!
Teri B
Can you use a bottle with a rubber dropper if the oils are already mixed with a carrier oil?
Susan B
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?
Brandon Roberts
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.