Ensuring the utmost longevity of your skincare products requires proper steps. It is often more than just keeping them on your shelves at room temperature. When talking about storage, we frequently think about refrigeration, which works wonderfully for many products. Unfortunately, it can also ruin and damage the qualities of others.
Whether a product can be refrigerated or not depends on the ingredients present in it. For example, elements like fatty alcohols, oil, etc., will end up separated and solidifying under cold temperatures. On the other hand, vitamin C and such ingredients will actually remain better in the refrigerator.
Let’s dive deeper into this topic in this blog and discuss the different skincare products that should or shouldn’t be refrigerated.
Common Issues Associated with Cold Temperature for Skincare
While not all skincare products will suffer from a freezing temperature, some will have specific issues. Let us show you some basic issues that your certain skincare products may face when in the refrigerator or freezer-
Separation
Skin Care products come with different consistencies that maintain their effectiveness and an even application on the skin. However, refrigerating many of them can result in separating their ingredients and ruin that consistency.
Alteration in the Texture
Certain moisturizers can solidify or freeze when under a really cold temperature. It will make it almost impossible to apply them. Moreover, it can also cause the ingredients to lose their texture.
Reduction of Effectiveness
Ingredients like oil, fatty acid, etc., can lose their potency when under low temperatures. As such, their effectiveness for caring for your skin gets dull. The longer you refrigerate them, the lesser their efficacy will get.
Damages of the Skin
One of the worst things about certain skin care products with a very cool sensation is that they may often damage your skin’s protective barrier. IT can welcome different conditions like flaking, redness, itchiness, or dryness.
Damages on the Package
If you are storing skincare products in freezing temperatures, many packages can crack or get other damages from them. In the worst-case scenario, it may cause the content to leak or spill.
Usual Refrigerator and Freezer Temperature
While the ideal temperature for refrigerators and freezers varies in accordance with your environment, there are still some average points.
Most refrigerators are set at a temperature range between 35° and 38° F (1.6° and 3.3° C). However, many often increase the temperature up to 40° F (4.4° C) under certain situations, but that is different.
Meanwhile, most freezers have a set temperature range of -10° to 0° F (-23° to -18° C).
What Skincare Products Should Not be Refrigerated?
Not all skincare products will have the same issue under refrigeration. Some may only suffer in icy settings. Others mustn’t even put it in the refrigerator for even a few hours.
Firstly, the followings are skincare products you shouldn’t refrigerate at all-
- Peptide-based serums
- Growth factor serums
- Exosome serums
The above ones will not only lose their efficacy under refrigeration but also their steadiness. It may result in an uneven skincare. Of course, not all products within these will have the same level of impact.
The followings are skincare products that may separate or solidify under refrigeration-
- Face cream
- Body cream
- Lotions
- Ointments
- Moisturizer
Additionally, anything clay-based is a must not to freeze as it solidifies pretty quickly. It will become difficult to even break it out of the refrigerator or freezer, let alone apply it.
Meanwhile, moisturizers and oil-based creams suffer from texture changes when refrigerated.
What Skincare Products Should Be Refrigerated?
The following skincare products can be refrigerated, but you must warm them to room temperature before using-
- Vitamin C serums
- Toners
- Retinol serums
Let us point out that the retinol serum we mentioned here only includes those without peptides. If it contains peptides, keep it away from frigid temperatures.
Vitamin C serums and toners actually stay better in refrigerators than in warm environments, making it their perfect storage unit. However, applying a very cold product on your skin is not ideal. We will talk more about this later.
Why Is Refrigeration Bad for Skin Care Products with Lipids?
Lipids have their internal molecules and their characteristics to blame for not being refrigerable. They have hydrophobic carbon chains. Any hydrophobic structure doesn’t want to get with water. However, when you refrigerate the product, the cold temperature not only solidifies the content but also exposes it to high concentrations of hydro.
In addition, when the lipids solidify, the kinetic energy that lies inside dies down, which spirals into the slowing of the hydrophobic chains. All these cause two issues.
- First, the exposure to water ends up separating the lipids from the other ingredients and also losing their integrity.
- Secondly, solidified products like these are hard to apply on the skin, let alone using them alongside other water-based products like emulsions or serums.
Similarly, storing lipids-based products in very hot or humid environments like bathrooms also damages their structure. It is best to keep them at room temperature.
What Type of Fatty Acid-Based Skin Care Products Can You Refrigerate?
When we talk about fatty acids, we mean one of the following two categories-
- Saturated fatty acid
- Unsaturated fatty acid
You can find both in skincare products, especially in moisturizers. Moreover, their storage requirements are also completely opposite. Let’s break it down below-
- Saturated fatty acids are usually more prone to solidification, making them ideal for storing at room temperature. Some examples of them are palmitic or stearic acid.
- Unsaturated fatty acids don’t usually come together nicely. As such, keeping them in the heat makes them more fluid than necessary. Refrigeration is the best storage technique for them. Linoleic or oleic acid are some common examples.
However, make sure to bring any cold product to room temperature before application.
Can Skincare Products with Ceramides Be Refrigerated?
Ceramides are a type of lipid molecule with waxy properties. You can find it in many serums or creams. This makes them unsuited for cold-temperature storage. Refrigerating them will either thicken the substance and ruin the texture or crystalize them.
Can You Refrigerate Fatty Alcohol-Based Skincare Products?
We can find fatty alcohol in different skincare products like emulsifiers or thickeners. They are usually meant to proliferate the effectiveness of varying skincare products by altering their formula feel. You will know that a product has them when its ingredients include anything like cetearyl alcohol, cetyl alcohol, or stearyl alcohol.
However, you should remember that fatty alcohol is also a type of lipid. So, you can probably guess already that refrigerating fatty alcohol will be a poor choice. When it is stored in cold temperatures, its texture changes, making it perform weirdly. For instance-
- People use cetearyl alcohol typically for blending water and oil as much as possible. However, chilled fatty alcohol will end up separating them instead while the substance freezes or solidifies.
- Cetyl alcohol is a common ingredient for light cream thickeners. However, while that may be so at room temperature, it becomes different when cooled. Instead of the fluffy formula people want, it becomes more solidified and dense.
So, why does fatty alcohol do that? Well, the underlying cause lies in its molecular structure again. As they are lipids, their internal molecular chains solidify and slow down as they lose their kinetic energy when cold.
Storage Tips for Other Serum Types
Now, we have the basic and more prominent skincare ingredients out of the way. So, let’s talk about the ideal storage process for some other common ingredients found in serums.
Glycerin-Based Toners, Serums, and Moisturizers
Usually Found in: Skin Softeners
Glycerin is used for skin softeners due to how well they work with water. However, since they attract water a lot, cold temperatures allow them to thicken too quickly. While most toners, serums, or moisturizers with glycerin provide an even and spread texture, they lose this ability when cold. However, they don’t lose their effectiveness in the process. So, refrigeration is a viable option if you are okay with the thickness.
Exosome in Serums
Usually Found in: Anti-Aging Creams or Serums
Exosomes contain lipids that aid them in maintaining their structural integrity. You may think that having lipids means that exosome-based serums can’t be refrigerated. However, you can actually do it since the cold helps the lipids keep the exosome intact rather than any humid weather. There are two catches here, though.
- While you can refrigerate most exosome serums, you can’t freeze them. Otherwise, the exosome may solidify too much, causing its structure to crack.
- Moreover, after keeping them cold, you need to warm them to room temperature before every use.
Niacinamide
Usually Found in: Anti-inflammatory creams or skin glowing creams
Niacinamide is one of the ingredients that perform almost perfectly at room temperature. We mentioned ‘almost’ because their integrity does diminish over time, but not too much. Moreover, it happens very gradually.
As such, there is no necessity to refrigerate niacinamide. You can store these serums in your usual skincare shelf or cabinet.
Hyaluronic Acid
Usually Found in: Serums
Most serums with hyaluronic acid perform just fine at both room temperature and slight coldness. Many believe that refrigerating them will increase their effectiveness. However, it is not true and is just a myth.
The truth is that there are many grades of hyaluronic acid. Some lower-graded ones can thicken when chilled. It won’t reduce their efficacy but make them less spreadable.
On the other hand, this ingredient doesn’t do well in high temperatures either. The opposite of thickening will happen here, which is the breaking down of the substance.
The best storage process for hyaluronic acid is keeping them at room temperature.
Vitamin C
Usually Found in: Serums
Most vitamin C serums require refrigeration to keep them from oxidation because of their ascorbic acid ingredients. We said most, as some of them are made for excellent room temperature tolerance, like the ones with a higher rate of microencapsulation.
Whichever one you use must be at room temperature at the moment of application.
Vitamin A
Usually Found in: Anti-aging serums
Like vitamin C, serums with vitamin A also require refrigeration or their potency and stability drops. You will find vitamin A in skincare products in the form of retinol, tretinoin, adapalene, or retinaldehyde.
While freezing them can damage their potency, refrigerating them is the ideal way to store them for long-lasting use.
Can You Refrigerate Sunscreens?
Most sunscreens are not meant for extreme hot or cold storage. Moreover, you can’t refrigerate all types. Let’s discuss different types of sunscreens regarding this.
Chemical Sunscreen
- Avobenzone or similar UV filters benefit from refrigeration by increasing their UV shielding or absorption potency.
- Unstable chemical filters, like oil-based sunscreens, require refrigeration to keep their lifespan long by preventing oxidation. However, keep the temperature in control and don’t chill too much.
Mineral Sunscreen
Refrigeration can solidify mineral sunscreens containing minerals like titanium dioxide or zinc oxide. They remain just fine in places with light and heat exposure.
Can You Refrigerate Toners?
Most toners come with different alcoholic ingredients with high hydro-affinity. It makes them suitable for refrigeration without much chance of separation or texture alteration.
Meanwhile, toners without alcoholic bases are not okay to refrigerate as they may thicken.
Can You Refrigerate Ointments?
Refrigerating ointment doesn’t degrade their potency or efficacy. However, the process makes it tricky to apply them evenly to your skin due to their thickening. You can store them at room temperature as most ingredients in ointments, like vaseline, Polysporin, Neosporin, etc., work better in this way.
Conclusion
After following the article, you can see that most skincare products are best stored at room temperature to avoid solidifying, losing efficacy, or rupturing. Only some of them, like alcoholic toners or vitamins, are okay to chill.
Make sure you go through a product’s ingredients carefully before choosing its storage. Refrain from putting all of them together in the refrigerator or your skincare cabinet.