Can Essential Oils go "off"?

by Kym
(Brisbane, QLD, Australia)

Is it possible that oils can go off?

My Young Living Abundance essential oil blend has gone dark brown and I seem to recall that it's original colour was lighter. It also has a more spicy type of scent that I don't recall and this really is really noticable for me and quite displeases me!

I consider myself very oil savvy with care, storage and use. I don't touch the plastic dropper with any part of my body, my essential oils are stored out of direct sunlight etc so I wonder how the change in my oil has come about and what this means.

I look forward to your insight Jen. Thanks

Kym

ANSWER:
Hi Kym thanks - great question! Fantastic to hear you are using Young Living essential oils because that tells me straight away--no your essential oil hasn't gone "off".

With inferior quality essential oils, it is possible that the essential oil may have gone "off" but this will smell more like a rancid smell rather than the "deepening" of the scent the essential oil you describe. A poor quality essential oil will smell like a cheap perfume after a while--very bad!

Great to see that you have kept your essential oils out of the light and heat. This is extremely impoortant. All essential oils will go off at a quicker rate when exposed to heat and light. So always store them in a cool, dark place (and the bottles should be amber glass for this reason too).

So when you have a high quality essential oil such as Young Living, the answer is more likely to do with maturity of the essential oil. Essential oils are like a good wine, they can "mature" with age and that is why it smells like it has more depth!

If you don't like the smell, I suggest diluting your essential oil with a high quality vegetable oil such as V-6* vegetable oil complex or raw, organic coconut oil.

Although, it is said, if you love or hate an oil, you really need it! Do you resonate with that you might now have an aversion to abundance?! If this resonates, it would certainly be an oil I would suggest working with in your life on a daily basis.

Of course, I only use and recommend Young Living Essential Oils. *These products are only available from Young Living Essential Oils. Please visit my store for more information.

Enjoy!

Jen
Essential Oil Goddess