Purchasing high-quality essential oils and infused products from a reputable brand like Young Living is a worthwhile investment in one’s health and well-being. To obtain the benefits that Young Living products offer, it is crucial to know whether these items expire.
Young Living products do not have conventional expiry dates but will eventually expire after several years once opened. The duration you can use these natural, plant-based products safely and effectively depends on the product category, ingredients, and storage conditions.
The essential oils and infused products from Young Living will last many years if stored correctly. However, the quality of these products starts to change and eventually diminish after long-term use. If you want to know about the longevity of Young Living products, you might want to consider the following information.
How Long Before Young Living Products Expire?
The Young Living brand produces essential oils and other health and wellness products that you can use and store for extended periods due to their exceptional quality.
Young Living sources premium plant-based ingredients from ecologically-sustainable farms. The brand also has stringent manufacturing standards. Young Living’s Seed-to-Seal certification system ensures the highest quality products that last longer than many comparable wellness items on the market.
Nevertheless, Young Living products have finite lifespans. Once opened, the essential oils, supplements, and related items that Young Living offers won’t last indefinitely.
Young Living products don’t have shelf lives or expiration dates on their labels (except for the brand’s food and beverage items). However, the quality of the products will gradually degrade after opening unless one finishes them within a certain period.
The limited lifespans of Young Living products are primarily due to:
- a lack of harmful or toxic synthetic preservatives (such as parabens),
- the oxidative degradation that inevitably occurs when container lids are open.
The lifespan of Young Living products depends on several variables, including the product type and storage practices. Nevertheless, it is generally advisable to use Young Living products within about two to five years because they will eventually start to lose efficacy and strength.
Young Living Product Categories And Their Lifespans
Young Living has an extensive product catalog covering the following categories:
- essential oils,
- personal care,
- natural home care,
- nutritional supplements,
- food and beverages.
These products lose efficacy and strength (or expire) at different rates. Let’s look more closely at the average lifespans of each Young Living product category. We will start with Young Living essential oils because these are the brand’s flagship products.
Young Living Essential Oils
Essential oils are at the heart of the Young Living brand. These products are also the longest-lasting items in the Young Living catalog.Â
Why Do Essential Oils Last So Long?
Unopened essential oils can potentially last for decades when stored in optimal conditions.Â
The reason essential oils last for a long time is because of their physical properties and phytochemical constituents. Essential oils are oil-based liquids, which makes them resistant to microbial contamination.
In addition, essential oils contain numerous volatile organic compounds like terpenes and flavonoids which inhibit the activity of microorganisms that might contaminate the oils and cause them to expire.
For this reason, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) categorizes essential oils as non-perishable. As a result, the regulatory agency does not require manufacturers to include the expiry date on these products.Â
What Causes Essential Oils To Degrade (Or Expire)?
Nonetheless, essential oils are not immortal. When one breaks the seal on the bottle, air enters and starts to oxidize the contents.
As a result of the oxidation process, the molecular compounds in the oil lose electrons, initiating subtle transformations in their potency, fragrance, color, and viscosity. Similarly, oxidation occurs each time one opens a bottle of essential oil to use it.
Long-term exposure to sunlight and excessively high temperatures also lead to the degradation and eventual expiry of essential oils.
How Long Do Young Living Essential Oils Last?
As we established earlier, Living Young essential oils do not expire in the formal or conventional sense. However, like all essential oils, it is unavoidable that the brand’s distilled plant essences will slowly undergo molecular changes and begin losing strength and effectiveness incrementally over a period of years.
The premium quality of Living Young essential oils means that if one stores them properly, the products will generally last anywhere from two to five years or longer. If you are using the oils routinely, they will probably run out before they become ineffective.
In addition to storage conditions, the lifespan of Young Living essential oils depends on the type of plants they are derived from.
Most plant essential oils have shelf lives of two to three years. Essential oils made with citrus fruits generally have shorter lifespans of one to two years because they are rich in highly volatile monoterpenes. Oils like patchouli and sandalwood contain heavier, more stable sesquiterpenes and typically last four to eight years.
Based on the expert recommendations of Robert Tisserand and Rodney Young (in their book titled Essential Oil Safety), we can estimate the average lifespans of popular Living Young essential oils to be on the upper end of the following ranges:
| Essential Oil (Single Plant Type) | Average Shelf Life |
| Lemon | 1 – 2 years |
| Lime | 1 – 2 years |
| Orange | 1 – 2 years |
| Tea tree | 1 – 2 years |
| Black pepper | 2 – 3 years |
| Cypress | 2 – 3 years |
| Frankincense | 2 – 3 years |
| Davana | 2 – 3 years |
| Patchouli | 4 – 8 years |
| Vetiver | 4 – 8 years |
| Myrrh | 4 – 8 years |
| Copaiba | 4 – 8 years |
Young Living Personal Care Products
The Young Living brand’s range of infused personal care items combines the benefits of essential oils with other natural ingredients. Young Living has specially-formulated products for the following applications:
- skin care,
- hair care,
- body care,
- bath care,
- dental care.
These products do not have expiry dates but will eventually expire months or years after opening.
Like essential oils, the contents of the Young Living beauty and hygiene-related products undergo oxidation over time. The oxidation process changes the molecular structure of the products, leading to a gradual reduction of their quality.
The lack of artificial preservatives in these natural personal care products means they don’t last as long as lower-quality, mass-produced items that contain chemicals like parabens. Having said this, the infusion of essential oils in Young Living’s personal care products helps to extend their lifespans.
The inclusion of water-based ingredients also contributes to the finite lifespan of Young Living’s hair, skin, bath, and other personal hygiene and grooming products. Water-based ingredients such as fruit pulp and juice are more prone to oxidation and microbial contamination when compared with oil-based substances.
How Long Do Young Living Personal Care Products Last?
The lifespans for Young Living’s personal care items vary because of the diverse ingredients contained in the different products.
Nevertheless, we can estimate how long one might expect these products to last by referring to the average lifespan for natural personal care products.
In general, soaps, moisturizers, shampoos, and associated products made with all-natural ingredients have a shelf life of two to three years.
Due to the premium quality of Young Living products, we can assume that the brand’s personal care items will probably last about three years after being opened, provided they are stored correctly.
After three years, it is advisable to monitor the product contents to assess if they are undergoing unfavorable transformations that might reduce their quality and beneficial properties.
Young Living Home Care Products
Young Living has a range of natural products for keeping your home clean and sanitized. These home care products are offered under the Young Living label and one of its exclusive in-house brands called Thieves.
Young Living’s range of home care products includes items such as:
- dishwasher powder,
- household cleaner,
- laundry soap,
- kitchen and batch scrub,
- hand soap,
- hand sanitizer.
These home care products from Living Young contain natural ingredients with powerful cleaning and anti-microbial properties. However, once you start using the products, they change subtly over time and inevitably expire (though this process happens imperceptibly).
How Long Do Young Living Home Care Products Last?
The lifespans of Living Young home care products differ depending on their constituents.
While these products do not have official expiry dates, we can infer their probable lifespans by considering how long comparable home cleaning products typically last.
In this case, Young Living home care products might last between six months (laundry detergent) and two years (cleaning sprays).
Young Living Supplements
Young Living has an extensive range of nutritional and dietary supplements that contain health-promoting natural ingredients (usually packaged in capsules). These supplements include:
- amino acids,
- stomach pH regulators,
- meal replacements,
- probiotics
- immune boosters.
The dietary and nutritional supplements that Young Living offers do not have formal expiry dates. However, the products have finite lifespans and will expire at some point after one breaks their container seal.
How Long Do Young Young Supplements Last?
The lifespan of Living Young’s nutritional and dietary supplements depends on their contents.
Although Living Young offers supplements that do not have expiration dates, we can estimate their potential lifespans by consulting the general guidelines for these kinds of products.
In most instances, gel capsule supplements are effective for about two years. After this period, the products are still generally safe to consume, but their benefits progressively decrease.
So, it is reasonable to presume that Living Young supplements will last at least two years when stored in a cool dark place with tightly-closed lids.
Young Living Food And Beverages
The Young Living product range also includes all-natural foods and beverages. These delicious and nutrient-rich foods and drinks include wolfberry (or goji berry) products that are available under the NingXia in-house brand, such as:
- organic dried wolfberries,
- wolfberry fruit juice blends,
As with most natural foods and beverages, these products from Living Young degrade and expire after one opens the containers, as this causes their water-based contents to start oxidizing.
How Long Do Young Living Food And Beverages Last?
Living Young foods and beverages have different lifespans depending on the product type and ingredients.
You can check the labels on the packaging of each product for specific information about their shelf lives and expiry dates. However, Young Living’s preservative-free drinks will last about six months to a year on the shelf if stored properly. It is probably advisable to consume them within a few days after being opened.
The brand’s organic dried wolfberries have a shelf life of about one year or more. Once the product is opened, it will last about three to six months if is re-sealed and kept under favorable storage conditions.
Conclusion
The question of whether Young Living products expire is somewhat complicated. Young Living products have finite lifespans and degrade over time due to the unavoidable effects of oxidation.
The precise lifespan of Living Young products depends on the kind of item, its ingredients, and the storage conditions. Young Living’s essential oils are the longest-lasting products in the brand’s catalog, with average lifespans of two to five years (or more).
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