We just got back from a trip to Florida (we had an AMAZING time!), and of course I took my oils along with me. Here is a picture of all my Young Living goods I brought and posted on Instagram:
We flew to Florida, and I have never had trouble flying with my essential oils before (see this post here). But on this trip, you can see from the picture above that I had some issues with oil leaking and eating away at my bottle labels a bit. This photo was taken after our flights TO Florida. When I opened my ziplock bag once we arrived in Florida, there wasn’t much oil in the bag, but I could definitely tell some oil had leaked a bit as evidenced by some of the labels coming off and by the strong aroma of oil!
But check out what my bottles looked like after enduring our flight home!!! :(
Yeah… some of the labels got completely eaten away by leaky oil!! :( After our flights home there still wasn’t a ton of oil in the bag, but clearly enough to do this!! I couldn’t figure out why it happened, until suddenly it dawned on me after determining almost the only leaky oil I was smelling was Tranquil… ROLL-ONS LEAK DURING FLIGHT!
There are several different cosmetic products I have used over the years with a roller-ball applicator, and I have learned the hard way over time that flying with them is always a bad idea. It doesn’t matter how tightly the cap is on, I think the pressure changes caused by flight cause liquid to leak out of roller ball tops. I have learned to either 1) leave these cosmetics at home or 2) put them in a separate smaller snack-sized baggie so when it DOES leak, it doesn’t get all over everything else. I actually left one of my favorite products at home this trip because I KNOW this always happens!!
I mean, SERIOUSLY. Why it never occurred to me I might have a problem with my essential oil roll-ons is beyond me! My Breathe Again roll-on fared better than my Tranquil roll-on, but those 2 roll-on bottles were definitely problematic. The rest of my oils (with regular orifices and lids) seemed to be completely fine, but clearly their labels were damaged!
So What to Do?!
So what can you do about this problem, if you will be flying with your oils?? Next time I fly, I will probably forgo bringing any oils with roll-on tops. There are enough oils I can use in their place. For instance, I can use R.C. instead of Breathe Again.
If there is an oil in a roll-on bottle that I know I NEED to bring with me, I will definitely be packing it in a smaller, snack-sized baggie before putting it in with the rest!
And the Bottles With Unreadable Labels?
Thankfully I don’t get rid of my empty essential oil bottles, my husband gives me a funny look every time I add another empty oil bottle to the basket in my closet. :) But I simply found empty bottles for the oils that had really damaged labels, (so I grabbed empty bottles of Lemon, Lavender, etc), and I dumped the oil from the damaged bottles into the good bottles! Hording can sometimes come in helpful, you know?!
Have you had this happen with roll-ons during flight?! Or is it just me??! ;)
Elsbeth says
here I thought it was my Panaway that leaked on my drive into the mountains. It must have been my Deep Relief roll-on!
Angie says
Yes, it probably was!!
Chrissy says
I have noticed my LLP roller bottle I made has been leaking my my Armed But Not Dangerous case. Took me a minute to figure out which one was leaking but it turned the foam yellow from the lemon so it was easy to figure out. Makes me sad that they seem not to be able to be moved around much. The RutaVaLa on my nightstand has been fine but I leave that staying upright all the time.
Angie says
I think you’re right – those roller bottles need to stay upright!!
Lesley says
I had Tranquil do the same thing to me while in my luggage, in the car, traveling 45 min to my destination. It’s very problematic to travel with!!
Freyja says
This just happened to me with my stress relief after I switched it to roll-on. Always the stress relief one that I happen to lose!! Hahaha… go figure! It also leaked through all the life savers in my purse so that was also very pleasant (not) lol… I’m wondering if keeping them upright is a better idea, I will do that for my return home flight today and see what happens! Thanks for your blog! I also keep all tincture, droppers, and oil bottles after they run out and have a nice go to box for roller add on’s, lids, sprayers and more. And my honey thought I was being a hoarder until I saved one of his liquid vitamins from a crappy plastic dropper bottle!