You went out and spent a ton of money on a lot of different beard oils. You’ve got a dozen different smells from a dozen trusted and respected brands. You decided it was time to start treating your beard right and went all in.
I respect that.
But now that it’s a few months down the road, and nothing you’ve got is working. What gives? Does it expire or something?
Yes, beard oil expires. Beard oils are made out of natural oils which eventually go bad. Expired beard oil isn’t going to cause you any real harm, but it can be detrimental to the overall health and cleanliness of your skin and your beard. This process cannot be avoided in any way, it is just the natural life cycle of beard oil.
So, while each of these beard oils you got are great, you’re not going to have enough time to use them all. Stick around to learn more about how to tell if your beard oil has expired, how to plan for it, and how you can keep it fresh as long as possible.
How to Spot Expiring Beard Oil and What To Do When You Do
As mentioned, beard oil is a natural product, as is beard balm and beard butter. The following discussion can be applied to both products. When we treat our beards, we use all-natural products. These products are far less likely to cause any kind of irritation or negative reaction when compared to chemically produced products.
Unfortunately, chemically produced products have a tendency to last longer. They usually aren’t foolproof—as chemicals also degrade over time—but they are cheaper to produce and last longer when compared to natural products, so they can be very tempting to use.
However, natural products such as your beard oil are more likely to leave you feeling and looking better. That short lifespan is something that you just have to accept. There are ways of keeping your beard products in working condition longer, and we’ll look at those later on. But you might be wondering what it even means for your balm, oil, or beard butter to expire.
When you purchase milk, it has an expiry date on it. It doesn’t go bad right at this date, but it is a marker of when you should start paying attention and being careful with the product because the components that make it up will start to go wonky.
Beard products work in the same way, the only difference being that many don’t have an expiry date on them. These products tend to go bad in somewhere between six months to two years. With six months being the shortest amount of time, start checking and being mindful of your beard products after six months.
So how do you spot it when your beard oil is expiring?
There are quite a few signs to look for, but you need to be careful and understand that these warning signs don’t necessarily mean it has expired. Don’t quite follow? Here, let’s use an example.
One of the ways you can tell your beard product is going weird is that the texture is all wrong. If it is your beard oil, then it might be too sticky and thick. Meanwhile, your beard balm may be too runny. This could be a sign that it has expired, but it could also be a sign that it has melted and that you need to store it better. For more on that, check out the post How to Revive Beard Balm After it Has Melted?
Another warning sign is that it just doesn’t smell right. Scented oils will sometimes hold onto their smell long after the other ingredients have expired, but other times the weird smell is the first sign you consciously notice.
The next sign that usually gives it away is that, not only does it not do what it is supposed to do, but it goes ahead and does the exact opposite instead. Beard oil should soften the beard and soothe the skin underneath, but expired beard oil can actually irritate the skin.
If you start to notice these signs, approach your product with caution. Try some of the fixes you can find on the site here. Hopefully, they work; if not, then you just need to admit that it’s time to buy new beard oil.
Will Expired Beard Oil Hurt You?
Expired beard balm is not a hazard to your health. At least, not if you use it as is directed. If you try drinking the stuff, then you’re going to have a bad time. It won’t kill you, but it’ll certainly leave you gagging.
The problem with expired beard oil is not that it is a health risk at all. It is simply that, as the ingredients expire, they no longer provide any benefit. Rather than softening and moisturizing your beard, it will just get it a little messy.
Since there is no benefit to using expired beard oil, it really doesn’t make any sense to keep using it. It’s just unhygienic at that point.
How Can I Make My Beard Oil Last Longer?
The biggest factor in making a beard oil last longer is proper storage. Beard oil should be kept at room temperature. While you don’t want it to be cold, a chill room is better than a warm room.
When you keep beard oil in a warm room or in direct sunlight, the ingredients degrade much faster. It’s the same reason you put your tomatoes in the fridge instead of the apple basket. Heat might feel good on the skin, but it is constantly weakening the cells of whatever it is striking.
Another thing that’ll kill your beard oil is not securing the cap after using it. This opens up the oil to bacteria and other invaders. More than that, it increases the risk of spills. A tiny leak might not seem like much, but it adds up over time.
Do Expensive Brands Last Longer?
Nope. In fact, some expensive brands are among those that degrade the fastest. Part of the reason that they are so expensive is that they can only be sold for a small period of time. That makes them a product with smaller demand and larger risk. Specialty and designer brands often fall into this category.
In reality, there is no way to equate longevity to the quality of the product. It isn’t the manufacturing process that causes the decay but rather the ingredients themselves. You would only expect an ice cube to last so long out in the sun. You wouldn’t say it was low-quality just because it melted faster than another one. They’re ice cubes, that’s what they do.
Beard oil is the same way. It expires. It sucks, but it’s just what happens.
I Don’t Want to Keep Buying Beard Oils. What Brands Last the Longest?
You can expect between six to twenty-four months from a bottle of beard oil. If you’ve got a big bushy beard, then you’ll have no problem using up all your oil before six months. If you have a smaller beard or a stubble beard, you might be able to get away with a year or two years with the same oil. To pull that off, you need an oil that lasts.
Among the highest rated oils you’ll find people buzzing about in 2020 is V76 by Vaughn. This is a favorite beard oil of salons. You might think this means it has a short life span since salons have lots of customers, but it can actually survive for upwards of a year.
Another long-lasting oil is The Big Company’s beard oil. The great thing about this one is that it has a delightful vanilla scent to it. This will waft up to your nose and keep you smelling great all day, but it also means that there is still some benefit to using it even after it has expired. It might not make your beard softer, but it will make it smell nicer.
Conclusion
Beard oil expires, it’s just a part of nature. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t make the best of it. Instead of buying a lot of scents at once, buy two or three at the most. This will give you a few different scents for your beard; and when you combine it with different colognes and body washes, it gives you plenty of room to play with your smell.
Store your beard oil properly for the longest shelf life and only purchase as much as you could use in a six to twelve-month period. If you stick to these rules, you won’t break the bank buying beard oils that expire before you can even use them.