How to Store Turmeric Oil So It Stays Fresh

Open the average kitchen and you will find the three things an essential oil likes least: heat from the oven, light from the window and a lid left loose. Storing turmeric oil well is mostly a matter of moving the bottle a few feet and keeping the cap on, and the effort pays back in a bottle that smells the way it did on day one.

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Four rules, and the reason for each

Our own guidance is to keep the oil in a cool, dark place away from heat and direct light, and away from children and pets. The research behind it is simple. The Tisserand Institute says oxidation is encouraged by heat, light and moisture, and that the more air there is in the bottle the faster the oil oxidises (Is my bottle of essential oil oxidized or no longer good to use?). A 2013 stability review lands in the same place, naming temperature, light and oxygen as the factors that matter most (Turek and Stintzing, Stability of Essential Oils: A Review). So the working rules are cool, dark, tightly closed and not too much air.

Choosing the spot

Our oil comes in an amber bottle, which already keeps most light out, and Robert Tisserand recommends coloured glass for long-term storage as well. The room around it still matters. Good places are an interior cupboard, a dresser drawer or a closed box on a shelf away from walls that catch the afternoon sun. Places to skip:

A windowsill or any shelf in direct sun.
The cupboard above the oven, kettle or toaster.
A car glove box, which swings between hot and cold.
The bathroom, where steam brings moisture.

Short temperature swings are harmless if the oil is kept cool most of the time, according to Tisserand, so a bottle that rode home in a bag is not a worry. Also keep oils in a closed container apart from food, because food can pick up their scent (Lemon on the rocks: keep your essential oils cool).

What the fridge adds

Robert Tisserand writes that oils are happiest cold, that the 35 to 38 degrees Fahrenheit of a normal refrigerator is great for them, and that refrigeration will not damage any essential oil and will extend shelf life. The Tisserand Institute puts the gain at about double the useful lifespan. If you have a big bottle you are working through slowly, that is worth doing. Put the bottle in a sealed jar or small box, away from food, and shelve it where nobody will reach for it by mistake.

Two practical notes. Cold can thicken some oils, so if the oil pours slowly, warm the closed bottle in your hand. And as a piece of reasoning rather than a quoted rule, let the closed bottle come back to room temperature before you open it. Cold glass pulls moisture out of warm kitchen air, and moisture is one of the three things you are trying to keep out.

Keep the air down

This is the rule people forget. A bottle that starts full has little air in it. A bottle that is nearly empty has a lot. A 2 oz bottle holds about 59 ml; with 5 ml of oil left, roughly 54 ml of what is inside is air. If you buy a large container, we suggest decanting working amounts into smaller airtight bottles, and that advice is just as right for freshness: keep the big container closed and untouched, and open only the small one. Choose amber glass bottles with tight screw caps from a craft or supply shop, and fill them close to the shoulder. When a bottle runs low, pour what is left into a smaller one. Our bottle sizes post shows how far a half-ounce goes, and the bulk page has the details for pails and drums.

Small habits that help

Cap the bottle the moment you finish pouring, and wipe the neck so no oil is left to dry there.
Write the date you first open a bottle on tape, as Tisserand suggests.
Keep working blends in labelled containers, never in unmarked jars or old drink bottles. Our roller bottle post shows a sensible one.

Storage is also safety

Poison Control says that if you keep essential oils at home with young children, they must be locked up, out of sight and reach of children and pets, and that if someone swallows one you should call your poison center at 1-800-222-1222 (Essential oils: Poisonous when misused). A lockable box in a cool cupboard does the safety job and the freshness job at once. We go further into this in a storage-first plan for homes with children and in our pets post.

That is the whole routine: a cool spot, a tight cap and as little air as you can manage. Do it once and you will hardly have to think about it again.