Do Beard Oil expire? All you need to know

Chances are that if you’re reading this post, you are most likely well underway with growing your beard. You’ve probably gone past the itching-phase and now you’ve stockpiled on all different kinds of beard oils and maybe even beard balms.
So, this raises the question; Does Beard Oil Expire? Well, let’s take a step back and look at the obvious first.

I share a house with my wife and my two kids. And I know for a fact that our two bathrooms are FILLED with stuff. Half of which I don’t know what it’s for. (Thanks wife).

However, these products that we have laying around, have been there for ages. Meaning that we probably have a lot of products that have passed their expiration date. Most of them are fine using after that, but some are not.

So this raises the question; Does your Beard Oil Expire, or is it something you can use way past its the expiration date, and what are the signs you should keep an eye out for?

Different products have different expiration dates

Beard Oil

In one of my past posts, I’ve compiled 7 Beard Oil recipes that you can make yourself at home.

In this post, you see that there are tons of different variations of the Beard Oils. There are, for example, Cedarwood oil, Coconut Oil, and Jojoba Oil, all having different properties.

Oil is used for making your skin moisturized, but also keeping your magnificent beard healthy and soft.

However, different Oils have different properties, making them also have different expiration dates. I’ll list a general rule of thumb below for how each Oil should be expected to expire.

All oils listed below are kept at room temperatures

Type of oil	Expected lifespan
Coconut oil	2 years
Jojoba oil	5 years
grapeseed oil	6 months
lavender oil	6 years
tea tree oil	3 years
cedarwood oil	8 years
avocado oil	6-8 months
almond oil	6-12 months
apricot oil	6-12 months
castor oil	6-12 months
sunflower seed oil	2 years
argan oil	1 years
sandalwood oil	4-8 years
lime oil	2 years
peppermint oil	2 years
hazelnut oil	1 years
Pine essential oil	2 years

Beard Balm

Beard balm is widely used by guys with the long beards. The purpose of Beard balm is almost the same as beard oil: To soften your beard, moisturize your skin, and also helping you to style the beard.

The most common ingredients in Beard balm is a base of beeswax or Shea butter. Each having a different lifespan in terms of shelf life.

There are however synthetic options that include alcohol in their ingredients. These products are not recommended by me because they dry up your skin and may leave you with your beard itching once again.

All items listed below are kept at room temperatures

Type	Expected lifespan
Beeswax	2-5 years
Sweet Almond	2 years
Shea Butter	2 years
Cocoa butter	2-5 years
Mango butter	2 years
Jojoba Oil	5 years
Argan oil	1 year
Vitamin E oil	3 years

Beard Butter

If you compare the texture of beard butter to beard balm as mentioned in the section above, you’ll find that beard butter is a lot thicker than beard balm. This is due to the fact that it has a higher ratio of coconut butter or shea butter compared to beard balms.

Beard butter pretty much has the same ingredients as beard balm, however, they have a different set of the ratio between them. As the name kind of gives out, beard butter has a lot of butter in it. Beard balm typically has a lot more wax in its ingredients than beard butter, making beard balm more suitable for styling than beard butter do.

You should use Beard Butter if you are looking to gain any of the following properties:

• A very good way to keep your skin very hydrated thanks to its high-fat ratio.
• Softer beard. Beard butter does an amazing job of keeping your beard very soft. Your significant other will thank you!
• Anti-inflammatory. Beard Butter actually has anti-inflammatory properties thanks to shea butter and its high vitamin ratio.

Signs to look out for

Smell

This is probably the easiest of the bunch. As soon as you open the lid or take the pipette out of its bottle, and you smell an odor that is new to you. That is a clear sign that you should not be putting that stuff in your beard. Do yourself and your beard a favor, throw that bottle away (or wash it out and use it as a bottle for your homemade beard oil found here!).

Feels weird

If you for some reason missed the smell as we talked about in the post above, and you’ve just put it in your palms, and you start to feel like a grainy chunk or even slimy consistency. Then you’ve guessed it, its time to throw it away!

Separation

As beard oil contains a lot of different ingredients, and these ingredients can start to separate when it’s getting worse. It starts to look like one of those layered drinks that you can order at the pub. However, I would strongly advise against drinking it. If it comes to this stage, throw it away, or wash it out and save for another DIY project.

Bottle not feeling quite right

Have you ever opened a bottle and it comes off as someone has put sand in the lid? Well, the same thing can happen in Beard Oil bottles. If this happens that means that bacteria have been building up and there is a residue in the lid-tracks.

Or, maybe even worse, you hear a “pfff” when opening it. It’s not a beer opening, but harmful gases from bacteria that have been chilling your bottle.

Irritates your skin

If you’ve somehow missed all the signs above, and you STILL put bad beard oil in your beard. You might end up with irritated skin.

I would say that if you missed all the signs that we’ve just talked about. You deserve to endure an itchy skin for a day. Maybe you’re one of those guys that need a liter of coffee in the morning (I’m one of those guys btw), and then I might be okay with you missing all of the warnings above.

Ok, how do I store it?

This is maybe the most important part, and why some people’s beard oils go bad faster than others. You need to store it right.

If Beard Oil is stored the wrong way, it will lose its effectiveness and you may start experiencing all or some of the warnings we’ve discussed.

Beard Oil should be kept tightly closed and stored at room temperature. If you keep the Oil in the open you may risk sunlight hitting it, and that will greatly affect its lifespan.

You should also keep the Beard Oil in an upright position. I’ve learned this from experience while traveling. Those oils have a nasty tendency of oozing out regardless of how tight you screw the lid.

Also, as being a father myself, keep it out of reach of kids. The pipette especially looks funny and will most definitely bring out your child’s experimental side if given the opportunity. Thankfully I’ve never experienced this. However, I did break a bottle myself and I can tell you; Beard oil is very very slippery when dropped on the floor!

How often to use

It depends! …But for most people, once a day should be enough.

It ultimately comes down to personal preferences. My beard now is about 5cm (roughly 2 inches), and I used Beard Oil every morning. However, if you live in a warm area you will notice that you may need to top up during the day.

The amount that you put in your beard also varies according to your beard length. If you have a shorter beard or maybe a stubble, a few drops are enough to cover the whole beard.

But if you have a medium / long beard as I do, you will have to test out what works best for you. Start off with about 4-5 drops and see how long that takes you. This is due to beard thickness.
My close friend that has a pretty long beard, but not a very thick one, uses about the same amount as I do.

Below I’ve listed a few of amazons current top rated oils.

Cleaning your beard

This is so important! Many guys really do not put enough effort into cleaning your beard.
Imagine if you put all these oils in your hair. It would very shortly become greasy havoc!

Start off by washing it with warm water. Either in the shower or over a sink.

After that apply either Beard Shampoo or Sulfate-free shampoo. This is to loosen up all the oil and grime that have been accumulated over time.

Then rinse your beard until you feel that you’ve gotten all the shampoo out. Dry your beard with a towel afterward, and then apply some moisturizing like beard oil or beard balm.

An important note; you do not need to wash your beard every day. A few days in a week is usually enough, but as always this does come down to personal preference. You may have a skin that is easily irritated, and therefore you cannot wash it as much as you would like.

Summary

In this post, we’ve covered what the key ingredients are in beard oil, and how every ingredient has a different kind of expiration date. You’ve also learned what you should keep an eye out as the expiration is very much different depending on how the oils have been stored. Both in your cabinet, but also on the store shelves.

I would definitely recommend you try to make your own oil, it’s not hard at all, and it’s an epic gift to give to your bearded friends. As you buy a lot of the ingredients in bulk, you can experiment with many variations and scents.

Have you ever had an oil go bad? Let me know in the comments!