Safe Containers to Use with Essential Oils

When it comes to the power of essential oils, we sometimes hear concerns about the type of containers to use with liquids and DIY products containing essential oils. While it is true that oil will dissolve some plastics, there are other container options that are completely safe.

Safe Materials
There are several types of containers that are safe to use. These include glass, steel, and a high quality plastic called HDPE or High-Density Polyethylene. Find out more about each material below.

Glass. For any of our DIY recipes, we recommend using glass spray bottles, or glass jars to store scrubs, lotions, etc. This is because glass is impervious to essential oils, and is the perfect container for keeping DIY products fresh. Glass is also really easy to clean after using oils in the container, you only really need to use water and soap to get the residual oils out.

Steel. doTERRA roll-ons, like those in the doTERRA Touch® line, have roller balls made of steel. Not only are steel roller balls better quality, they also allow for better control of application. It helps that steel is also impervious to oils and easy to clean. Stainless steel water bottles are an excellent option if you are worried about dropping and breaking a glass bottle.

HDPE. Plastics that are specifically used with essential oils in caps, diffusers, orifices, etc. are made of HDPE, also known as plastics number 2. This very high quality plastic has stronger bonds and longer chain lengths that are not broken up by essential oils. HDPE plastics will not be affected by essential oils.

Other Containers
Some of you may wonder about aluminium containers. We would not anticipate any issues in using essential oils in aluminium containers, such as water bottles. We suggest adding a drop of the oil to the outside of the container to verify that there is no change to the aluminium over the course of a few minutes after the oil is applied.

Another common type of plastic, PET, (plastics number 1) is also resistant to essential oils and can be used safely. But what about the other types of plastic? Some are definitely not a good idea. Many essential oils have compounds in them that dissolve some plastics. For example, Polystyrene (plastic number 6) is easily dissolved by d-limonene in Lemon oil. Lemon oil disrupts the van der Waals forces, causing the polystyrene chains to break apart from one another. But, other plastic containers may work if not reused and if only a small amount of oil is added at a high dilution rate. If you are not sure if a plastic is resistant, perform the same test that you would for aluminium. Add a drop of the oil to the outside of the container and make sure there is no change to the plastic after a few minutes.