When stored properly, floral waters have a typical shelf life of 1 year. We recommend using the following guidelines to store your floral waters:
Do Not Keep Bottles Partially Full
When a bottle containing a floral water or aromatic oil is left only partially full, the oxygen that also lives inside the bottle reacts with the floral water and begins to oxidize it. This process can cause the volatile aromatic components to permanently separate (after this occurs, shaking the bottle does no good).
The empty space inside a bottle is called the "headspace." You can prolong the shelf life by reducing this headspace. As an example, let's say that you have a 16 oz. bottle of floral water that is only half full. You will prolong the shelf life by either transferring the floral water into an 8 oz. bottle or by transferring it into two 4 oz. or four 2 oz. bottles. Transferring a larger quantity of floral water into multiple smaller bottles helps you use only what you need later on.
Keep Bottle Caps Tight
Oxygen is an enemy to floral waters. Don't overly tighten your bottle caps as they could potentially break and allow oxygen in, but do always ensure that you keep all bottle caps screwed tightly.
Store Floral Waters Away from Direct Sunlight And Ideally In a Dark Location
Direct sunlight and UV rays are especially damaging. Repeated exposure to any light source may be damaging as well. Store your bottles in a room that does not receive much, if any direct sunlight. Ideally, store your bottles in a cabinet, container or boxes to protect them from all light sources.
Store Floral Waters In a Dry, Cool Location
Store floral waters in a room that is kept cool and dry.
Maintain the Integrity of Your Floral Waters
Don't allow unsterilized items like your fingers, cotton balls or other items to come into direct contact with the floral waters that you are storing. Instead, pour off the quantity that you need or measure it into a container and then work with that, leaving the integrity of the remaining floral water intact.
Other Important Tips:
Keep a Record of the Date Purchased and the Shelf Life for Each Floral Water
For convenience, write the date that you received the floral water on the label using a permanent marker. Also jot down the shelf life (1 year) for the floral water. If you have a large grouping of floral waters, you can purchase small circular Avery-style labels at office supply stores. Adhere the circular label to the top of the bottle cap and jot down the name of each water, the date received and shelf life.
Keep Floral Waters Away from Children
Floral Waters, Essential oils, flavor oils, fragrance oils and some vegetable oils can smell especially delicious to curious children. Keep all liquid aromatics out of the reach of children.
Extending the Shelf Life of your Floral Waters
Adding 0.1% Liquid Germall Plus as a preservative can help extend the shelf life of your floral waters.
Calculating the Percentage:
For this example, let's pretend that you purchased a 32 fl oz. bottle of floral water and want to add 0.1% Liquid Germall Plus to prolong its shelf life.
To calculate small percentages, it's often easiest to convert ounces into milliliters.
1 fl. ounce = 29.57 ml
If you purchased a 32 oz. quantity of floral water, the total ml quantity is as follows:
29.57 ml (equivalent to 1 fl. ounce) x 32 fl ounces = 946.24 ml
To calculate how much alcohol to add to 946.24 ml of floral water, multiply this amount by 0.1%.
0.1% is the same as .001
946.24 x .001 = 0.94624 ml of Liquid Germall Plus is needed. It is fine to round that measurement to 1 ml.
Our 1/2 oz. Measuring Cups with Pour Spout contain metric (ml) and ounce measurement marks. These small beakers are a great way to measure out mls. Simply measure out 1 ml of Liquid Germall Plus into this measuring cup and add to your floral water.
Important Note About Floral Waters vs. Hydrosols: Floral Waters are not the same as natural hydrosols. Floral waters are synthetic, water-soluble fragrances that can be used to make linen sprays, face & hair mists, body splashes and other water based products. Hydrosols are natural, more fragile and require greater care in storage and handling. For information on handling hydrosols, please refer to the Hydrosol Storage Tips and Guidelines article.
