Do Essential Oils Expire? Separating Facts and Myths

Essential oils are widely popular for their countless benefits and applications. However, purchasing wholesale essential oils often leads to the question: do essential oils expire and how long do they last? 

When you find that one unused and unopened bottle of your favorite essential oil, you might wonder if it is still good to use or what happens if you use expired essential oil? For more information, we asked our QC experts to throw some light on the topic. 

Do Essential Oils Expire? 

Yes, essential oils are natural botanical extracts that often lose their quality and therapeutic properties with time. 

Essential oils are primarily composed of a variety of chemical compounds extracted from leaves, flowers, seeds, and gum of different plants. Each essential oil is unique in its composition and active compounds. Exposure to environmental factors like air, humidity, sunlight, etc changes this chemical composition thus resulting in a change in chemical properties of essential oils. Some compounds in essential oils evaporate while some transform into another compounds. As a result expired essential oils might smell and look different from the fresh ones. 

But does it mean all essential oils go bad at the same time and in the same way?

Absolutely not! Given the unique chemical composition of diverse essential oils, their degradation also varies. 

Just how the experts advise not leaving citrus fruits cut for long, similarly, citrusy essential oils are the fastest to expire. On the other hand, if stored properly, woody oils like vetiver essential oil or sandalwood oil are often believed to age better. But be careful, getting better only means in terms of aroma and not in terms of skincare properties. 

What Is The Shelf Life Of Essential Oils?

The average shelf life of essential oils is approximately 2 years but this greatly varies with the type of essential oil and storage conditions. 

Essential oils with compounds like limonene are the first ones to go bad and have a shelf life of 1.5 years. These are usually oils like bergamot essential oil, grapefruit essential oil, lemon essential oil, lime essential oil and even their CO2 extracts. 

Other herbal and floral oils like eucalyptus, jasmine, chamomile, rosemary, and cinnamon oil have a comparatively longer shelf life of up to 3 years. This is due to more stable molecular structure and compounds. 

Woody and earthy essential oils like frankincense, sandalwood, cedarwood, patchouli and even vetiver are often believed to last for up to 6 years. Some people rather like the aged aroma of the older versions of these oils and intentionally wait for them to grow old. 

Shelf Life Of Essential Oils Chart

What Are The Factors That Affect Shelf Life Of Essential Oils?

Some of the common factors that affect the shelf life of essential oils include:

• Type of essential oil
• Extraction method
• Temperature
• Packaging type
• Humidity levels
• Exposure to sunlight
• Sealing mechanism
• Essential oil quality

If your essential oil is not 100% pure, there is a higher chance of it going bad sooner due to adulteration compounds. Hence, make sure you buy bulk essential oils from a trusted wholesale essential oil supplier like Aromachology Oils. Our oils are continuously checked for purity and potency to ensure you get the finest wholesale essential oils with every purchase. 

How to Identify Expired Essential Oils?

Here are some simple at-home tests you can do to check if the essential oils have expired or if they are still good to use. 

Check For A Change In Aroma

As obvious as it sounds, identifying a change in aroma of essential oil is the easiest way to check if they have expired. Expired essential oils either have a foul smell or a dull scent, usually different from the fresh one.

Look For Change In Color and Consistency

Essential oil degradation usually causes a change in the color and in some cases consistency too. If the essential oil color has turned darker and the oil has become stickier than it is probably expired. 

Stick To The Packaging Details For Essential Oil Blends

It gets more difficult identifying expired essential oils when it is a blended oil. Due to the variety of essential oils in the blend, the aroma and appearance test might not be accurate. In such cases, stick to the expiry date mentioned on the essential oil packaging. 

Do Essential Oils Expire If Unopened?

Yes, essential oils expire even if they remain unopened. While not opening and keeping essential oils sealed can increase the shelf life, it doesn’t ensure that the oils will not expire. There is always some air trapped in the bottle when the essential oil is sealed which begins oxidization. Moreover, if the essential oil is stored in a glass bottle, there will inherently be some exposure to light. Hence, unopened essential oils will also eventually expire. 

What Happens If You Use Expired Essential Oils?

While the output depends on the intended usage, using expired essential oils can cause allergies and toxicity. Using them for making skincare products might result in severe skin reactions. 

You might wonder if not for skin, can I use expired essential oils in the diffuser? No, we strongly advise against it as it can cause respiratory concerns in you, children or pets. When you diffuse essential oils, you inhale the molecules of these oil that enter your blood stream and will also land on your skin. In either case, it can result in negative reactions and should be avoided. 

Storage Tips for Maximum Shelf Life

Here are some tips and tricks to store essential oils for higher shelf life

• Store in a dark place away from direct sunlight
• Keep the lid sealed whenever possible
• Transfer to opaque bottles
• Refrigerate whenever possible

Learn more about how to store essential oils in our complete guide. 

What to Do with Expired Essential Oils?

If you have a bunch of expired essential oils and you don’t want to throw them away, here’s how you can use them (only if they don’t smell extremely off)

• Add a few drops to the mopping water and mop your house with it. It will leave a lasting pleasant aroma and offer aromatherapy benefits. 
• Alternatively, you can use them to make your DIY crafts smell amazing too. 
• Mix 1-2 drops to surface cleaning cloths and use it to wipe surfaces like counter tops. 
• Some oils like citronella can also be diffused in garden to keep insects away. 

Concluding Thoughts

Contrary to many popular beliefs, essential oils do expire and should not be used once they have gone bad. Even traditional cultures across the world emphasised on using the freshest essential oils for maximum therapeutic benefits. This ensures you get the best of plant compounds for your skincare, wellness and aromatherapy needs.

As a renowned wholesale essential oil supplier, we at Aromachology Oils go out of the way to source freshest oils. All our wholesale essential oils come with a minimum shelf life of 1.5 years and have a manufacturing of now less than 3 months from the time of purchase. This helps skincare makers, soap makers, candle makers, perfume makers and other essential oil bulk buyers to get the most of their money.