How to store CBD drops and hemp resin so they last until the use-by date

Drops and resin are plant extracts in oil. Like any oil, three things spoil them: heat, light and air. Remove those and the product keeps until the use-by date on the pack without any trouble. Here is everything you need to know – including what happens if you leave resin in a hot car or drops on a sunny windowsill.

Three rules for everything

1. Cool: room temperature or below, away from radiators, the stove and a car in the sun. The fridge is allowed but not required.
2. Dark: in a cupboard or drawer. Our bottles are tinted, but UV light over days and weeks still does damage.
3. Closed: cap or lid on straight after use. Air oxidises the oil and changes the taste.

Drops (10 ml and 15 ml bottle with pipette)

• Store upright so oil does not get into the rubber part of the pipette.
• Wipe the neck of the bottle after use, or the cap will stick.
• Do not put the pipette in your mouth – every contact with the tongue puts bacteria into the bottle. Drop onto a spoon or under the tongue without touching.
• In the fridge the oil thickens and drips more slowly; the content is unaffected. Hold the bottle in your hand for a few minutes before use.
• Cloudiness or fine sediment at low temperature is normal for cold-pressed full-spectrum hemp seed oil and disappears at room temperature.

Resin (5 ml dosing syringe)

• Resin is soft at room temperature and hard in the fridge. If it is hard, leave the syringe at room temperature for 5–10 minutes or hold it in your hand; do not heat it on a radiator or in a microwave.
• Close the syringe cap firmly after use and store it flat or cap-up.
• If resin gets too warm (a car in summer) it turns liquid and can run out when opened. The content does not change, but you lose some of it. Let it cool and thicken before opening.
• Resin with beeswax (50 %) hardens more in the cold than 30 % – that is normal.

How long they keep

The use-by date is printed on the pack next to the batch number; for batch 0826 it is 12/2027. It applies to unopened and opened products stored by the rules above. In normal use you will finish an opened pack long before that – how many days a pack lasts at different daily amounts is in How long do drops and resin last.

When to throw a product away

• The oil in the drops smells rancid (like old sunflower oil) – it has oxidised.
• There is mould or flakes in the bottle that do not disappear at room temperature.
• The use-by date passed months ago. CBD content slowly declines over years; a product past its date is not dangerous, but it no longer contains what the label says.

What does not affect quality

• Resin hardened in the fridge.
• Thicker drops at low temperature.
• Darker resin colour between batches – it depends on the harvest and the extract, not on quality. Check the content on the COA in the Certificates tab.
• Slightly different taste between batches – a plant extract is not identical every year.

Travel

Drops and resin go in hand luggage without trouble (10 and 15 ml are below the 100 ml liquid limit, as is a 5 ml syringe). We recommend the original labelled packaging and a printed COA for the batch if you cross a border – rules on CBD products differ between countries and we cannot guarantee anything there.

FAQ

Do the drops have to go in the fridge?

No. A dark cupboard at room temperature is enough. The fridge extends the oil’s freshness, but the drops thicken and drip more slowly.

The resin has gone hard – is it spoiled?

No. It hardens in the cold and softens at room temperature. Hold the syringe in your hand for a few minutes.

How long do opened drops keep?

Until the date on the pack if closed, dark and cool. At 25 mg a day a 10 ml bottle of 10 % drops is used up in 40 days, long before the date.

Where is the use-by date?

On the pack next to the batch number. For batch 0826 it is 12/2027; the COA for the same batch is in the Certificates tab on the product page.