Temperature and BPAL

[violet femme]

personally, i am more concerned when receiving oils in the coldest of winter sub-zero

months simply because of possible glass bottles cracking/breaking...

 

i think the oil is hearty enuff to handle the extreme temp issues in my humble opinion =)

 

 

I live in Canada, and it can get mighty, mighty cold some days! Almost every single bottle of my last Yule order arrived solid (i think one was semi-liquidy), and they all thawed just fine. Also, all of the bottles themselves survived - even the imps. (and i was too impatient to do the whole "let it thaw slowly" business - i tore that sucker open thisfast. i think they'll be fine).

[cometgirl21]

Bump to see if anyone knows whether or not it's safe to refrigerate oils. It got hot here sooner than expected and I don't know what to do with the BPAL to keep it safe.

[mrsveteran]

Bump to see if anyone knows whether or not it's safe to refrigerate oils. It got hot here sooner than expected and I don't know what to do with the BPAL to keep it safe.

 

The BPAL rep I spoke with said that oils are best stored at room temperature: she went on to say something like "If the temperature is comfortable for you then it's probably okay for the oils." I took that to mean not to refrigerate *or* let them get too hot, so I keep mine in a little "office fridge" set to 68 degrees F.

 

I'm not sure there is an official answer to that or not, though, that's just what I was told when I emailed them. :-)

 

MV

[cometgirl21]

Thank you. Hmm...I may have to move them downstairs for the summer. It's normally cooler down there than in the rest of the house.Thank you. Hmm...I may have to move them downstairs for the summer. It's normally cooler down there than in the rest of the house.

[whateverish]

i've been wondering about that. in singapore it is always hot. my oils are mostly in my dressing room drawer and my house doesn't get direct sun. still, heat is heat. 24/7 except at night when we switch on the fan. i worry, will it kill my oils?

[mrsveteran]

whateverish, I don't think it's so much that heat kills the oils, it's more like they don't last as long if it's too hot. Also, some oils change their scent after awhile. Heat may (or may not) speed up the process. If it speeds up the process for one component and not another, then the scent of the overall mixture could change.

 

I've heard that some oils can go rancid-smelling after awhile, but I haven't seen that happen with BPALs. Then again, I've been storing most of mine in my little office fridge for over a year now, so I might not know. I do know lots of people who don't bother refrigerating their oils and who live where it's warm and they don't always have problems.

 

Just remember that with or without heat, the oils will age and change over time. Sometimes that's a good thing -- just look at all the people looking for "aged Snake-Oil." :-)

 

MV

[Ishianti]

Hooboy, I got the shipping notice for my last order while at the airport, but now I'm trapped away from home due to the baaaad snow storm in NJ. At what point does a bottle freeze over? I can't get a flight home till Thurs!

[veganxmegan]

I was taking my (only) 3 bottles of BPAL with me to my boyfriend's house and they fell out of my bag in the back seat and I forgot about them all night. It was cool in the car last night, but today it's around 99 and they were in there all morning. I keep them in a little wooden coffin and the coffin was hot and the bottles were also pretty hot. Are they going to be ok? D: They were in the heat in the car from when it got hot, around 8AM to 12:30PM. I just don't want my only bottles ruined!! Thanks!

[lookingglass]

They should be ok. It's not good for them to get hot/be hot for long periods but for just one morning...hell, they often sit in mailboxes for a while. Don't worry too much. Give 'em some lovin', maybe put in another order...

[tailoredshirt]

I think you are probably okay. The heat makes the oils break down faster, but bottles are exposed to more heat when they sit in mail delivery trucks for a few days in a row. I have left some imps in my car for a few days, in very very hot summer conditions, and they were fine after they cooled off. It's not recommended but I think it would take longer than a few hours to do any serious damage. (Probably also depends on the oil. Some might be more susceptible to damage from the heat.)

[veganxmegan]

Thanks guys! I figured since they can be shipped in hot temps that they would be fine after a couple hours. ;D

[sunqist]

Welp, I just pulled an envelope of decants out of the mailbox. Five decants and imps of various origins, four were totally normal, one was completely frozen through. Depending on then the mail came, it was probably outside for 2-4 hours, and temperatures were in the teens. The vial did not burst, and it took maybe thirty seconds to melt when I held it in my hand. Totally weird.

[elbow]

sunqist, now I really want to have the experience of a frozen vial melting in my hand!

 

I took a two-year road trip around the US, during which time my pared-down BPAL collection spent an awful lot of time in the trunk of my car. I tried to bring them indoors when I could, but it wasn't always practical/possible. They survived freezing weather in Chicago and 100+ degree temps in rural Texas with no problems. A couple of my imps faded a bit -- meaning, the scent became a little fainter -- but most everything was unchanged. Or, in the case of Snake Oil, improved.

 

So don't worry, my fellow fans of good smells! This stuff is, for the most part, extremely durable.

[Lycanthrope]

I did a cross-country move back in... um, 200...9? I had an overnight in some place called Grand Lake, and even changed a Travelocity booking because I didn't trust the hotel, cuz, you know, BPAL.

 

Everything still smells great, even my *cough* 2005 Snake Oil 10 mL

 

It is even better because it stood up to those Nebraskan (theoretical) ruffians!

[mamafuturama]

Can seasonal temps break down perfume oils during shipment?

Edited July 20, 2016 by mamafuturama

[Miss Landau]

I'm wondering about temperature impact in shipment too. I've never tried BPAL before, but smelling from the bottles and imps they are all less potent than I was expecting, definitely less than, say, a Body Shop perfume oil (both in terms of strength of scent and the staying power on me). Nothing I've tried so far has lasted on me more than a couple of hours. Some smell stronger than others, for example Bess, but I have to have my nose right on the opening to be able to smell them, and I've asked a couple of other people to have a sniff too, just to make sure it wasn't me.

 

The scents themselves so far are pretty lovely and on point, and I'm converting several into sprays. This obviously doesn't improve the potency, but does improve the throw.

 

It could be that BPAL perfume oils are just more subtle than Body Shop ones. This isn't a complaint or criticism about the product as like I say I love the scents themselves. I'm just posting this in case other people have had similar experiences recently.

[Elspethdixon]

I'm wondering about temperature impact in shipment too. I've never tried BPAL before, but smelling from the bottles and imps they are all less potent than I was expecting, definitely less than, say, a Body Shop perfume oil (both in terms of strength of scent and the staying power on me). Nothing I've tried so far has lasted on me more than a couple of hours. Some smell stronger than others, for example Bess, but I have to have my nose right on the opening to be able to smell them, and I've asked a couple of other people to have a sniff too, just to make sure it wasn't me.

 

The scents themselves so far are pretty lovely and on point, and I'm converting several into sprays. This obviously doesn't improve the potency, but does improve the throw.

 

It could be that BPAL perfume oils are just more subtle than Body Shop ones. This isn't a complaint or criticism about the product as like I say I love the scents themselves. I'm just posting this in case other people have had similar experiences recently.

 

I don't know if this applies evenly to all scents (since different components break down at different rates, with top notes generally being the first to go), but at least some BPALs can stand up to heat. I discovered yesterday that I'd left an imp of Jezebel in my purse at some point this spring, and said purse has been exposed to temps in the upper 90s on a daily basis throughout June/July. I put the last of the oil in the imp on my hair this morning and it smelled the same as always. It's still detectable now four-five hours later.

 

Other forumites could likely confirm this for certain, but IIRC oil-based perfumes like BPAL have different throw/sillage/wearlength profiles than alcohol-based perfumes. With the exception of a few strong basenotes like vetiver, most BPALs only last a few hours on me, including the ones I've ordered and had shipped to me in the winter; I put it down to how quickly my dry skin absorbs the oil, because if I put bath oils from the trading post directly onto my skin, the scent has much more staying power than the exact same scent does in regular perfume oil form (ex: the chocolate notes from El Dia de los Reyes, various 13s, and Boomslang vanish into my skin quickly, but the same chocolate note in Marshmallow Cookie Pie bath oil lasts overnight and is still detectable the next morning).

[Casablanca]

 

Other forumites could likely confirm this for certain, but IIRC oil-based perfumes like BPAL have different throw/sillage/wearlength profiles than alcohol-based perfumes. With the exception of a few strong basenotes like vetiver, most BPALs only last a few hours on me, including the ones I've ordered and had shipped to me in the winter; I put it down to how quickly my dry skin absorbs the oil, because if I put bath oils from the trading post directly onto my skin, the scent has much more staying power than the exact same scent does in regular perfume oil form (ex: the chocolate notes from El Dia de los Reyes, various 13s, and Boomslang vanish into my skin quickly, but the same chocolate note in Marshmallow Cookie Pie bath oil lasts overnight and is still detectable the next morning).

 

 

Ja, basically... In an alcohol-based perfume, the alcohol carries the fragrance compounds outward with it as it evaporates. So these tend to have a little more throw/sillage.

 

In an oil-based blend, some fragrance goes out, but a good portion of the oil sinks into your skin, so it's a little more of a personal experience for the wearer. A little less throw... as a tendency.

 

Not that there aren't alcohol perfumes with poor throw and oil perfumes with notes that have crazy throw... but these seem to be the tendencies, and why. I'm waiting for science to confirm oil perfume sentience and ability to project those notes we personally like least.

 

I'm not sure how or if this plays into longevity, though...

[Miss Landau]

@ Elspethdixon and Casablanca

 

Thanks for the reply! That makes a lot of sense. Like I say this isn't a complaint, as I know some perfume oils last longer than others, and everyone's skin is different. I have no idea how these things work so was wondering if/how travelling from summer in the US to winter in Australia might affect the oils.

[crimescenecleanup]

Ugh. I've had bad luck with package deliveries lately. A couple days ago, UPS dropped a large, heavy parcel right on top of the boxes USPS left on my porch. The boxes underneath were broken open, including one from BPAL. Luckily, nothing was broken.

 

However, when my husband was cleaning up the mess, he set one of the BPAL bottles on the windowsill to keep it from rolling away, and forgot about it. When I came home from work and found it, it has been sitting outside in the sun all afternoon, and was very hot to the touch.

 

I brought it inside to cool it off, but is it ruined?

 

I keep all of my essential oils and perfume oils in a climate controlled room, in a dark cabinet, so I haven't really experimented with how much of a beating they can take from heat and light.

Edited July 24, 2017 by crimescenecleanup

[Minh Scent]

Crimescenecleanup, getting oils in summer for me always makes me nervous because they are on the mailtruck all day and can sit in the mailbox for hours if no one is home. I have unwrapped my bpal packages to find the bottles HOT. Fortunately, after they settle, I cannot detect any issue.

 

I would venture to guess that one day in the window sill, although not ideal, will not be a complete or any disaster, especially as it will be spending the rest if its life in your nice dark climate controlled cabinet.

[Elspethdixon]

Crimescenecleanup, getting oils in summer for me always makes me nervous because they are on the mailtruck all day and can sit in the mailbox for hours if no one is home. I have unwrapped my bpal packages to find the bottles HOT. Fortunately, after they settle, I cannot detect any issue.

 

I would venture to guess that one day in the window sill, although not ideal, will not be a complete or any disaster, especially as it will be spending the rest if its life in your nice dark climate controlled cabinet.

 

I can confirm that one instance of sitting around in the heat won't damage most oils - I've accidentally left imps in my purse before and then proceeded to let said purse sit in the noonday sun on top of a metal table for an hour while I ate lunch (in July, in NYC), and they didn't seem any worse for it. I'm not sure how it would affect the oil if I did this to the same imp over and over, though, so I don't exactly recommend "inside my black leather purse which is sitting out in the sun" as an imp storage method.

[crimescenecleanup]

Thanks! I appreciate the replies.