Essential oils don't freeze per se, meaning they do not completely solidify. If your essential oils are pure, they won't freeze. However, when your essential oils freeze, it usually means they contain a lot of water. Allow them to thaw slowly before using them.
Putting essential oils in the freezer is perfectly safe as constant temperature and lack of light help preserve them. Some oils such as rose, thyme and others may have natural components that solidify or crystallize in the freezer. All liquids, including essential oils, will freeze if you lower the temperature enough. Freezing and refrigerating food can significantly improve its longevity; however, some products should never be frozen, while others should only be prepared to be consumed quickly.
One of the most common questions is whether essential oils can be frozen or not. While they are certainly more resistant to cold than most oils, this does not mean that freezing them is a good idea. Freezing essential oils may seem like a good way to extend their shelf life and save money. But unfortunately, it can also damage the quality of your oils and create a new mixture with weaker therapeutic benefits simply because of the dilution that occurred when it froze.
If your essential oils freeze, allow them to return to room temperature naturally before attempting to use them. Do not try to heat them to return them to a liquid state. As winter storms begin to affect us, don't worry if your essential oils are delivered in cold weather, even if they have to stay outside for a long time. Cold or freezing temperatures shall not damage oils, whether distilled, extracted with CO2, expressed, absolute or a carrier.
HEAT Because of their flammable nature, essential oils should never be kept near open flames or any source of heat or fire, such as sunlight, candles and stoves. You can also mix essential oils with carrier oils to make hair and body lotions, hair conditioners and massage oils. To prevent or delay oxidation and evaporation processes, it is important that bottles remain capped when essential oils are not in use. The flash point of some essential oils is between 100-140F (38-60C), which means that the lighter components of the oil can be temporarily separated and vaporized in the sealed bottle.
It may mean that one is of higher quality than the other, but it could also simply be that the chemical profile of the first ginger essential oil fits better with what your body needed than the second. For this reason, it is strongly recommended that all oils be properly stored, handled and used before they expire. You can also have a patch test with a diluted essential oil on the inside of your elbow to see if you have a reaction to a topically applied oil. All essential oils have a shelf life of about one year to about six years depending on the oil and its exposure to air, light and heat.
With all the information circulating about essential oils, you may repeatedly come across information that seems too good to be true or that directly contradicts other information you find. The shelf life, quality, beneficial properties and safe use of an essential oil largely depend on the way it is stored. This means that a ginger essential oil, for example, could solve your problem better than a different ginger essential oil. When kept in the right container and at the right temperature, an essential oil can reach its maximum shelf life with a conservative estimate of at least one year.
Heat, air and light can change essential oils through oxidation, isomerization, dehydrogenation, polymerization and thermal rearrangements.
