Have you ever wondered why are most natural and organic products or essential oils stored in brown bottles?

If you think that skincare products stored in brown bottles are purely pleasant for the eyes, then you might want to re-think it. Like most people, it is a common perception that brown bottles used to store skin care products are purely fancy packagings that give aesthetics to the brand. While it might be true to a certain extent that brown bottles look more aesthetically pleasing to the eyes, it actually has more to it.

These brown bottles that are usually seen to store skincare, natural and organic products, and essential oils are called Amber Bottles. The reason why amber bottles are usually used to store skin care products is that it actually provides more protection of the content against light damage, thus, prolonging the effectiveness of any content stored in it.

Then again, it boils down to another question. Why only amber bottles? You might have seen bottles of different colors and thinking that they might just have the same effect in protecting these skin care or essential oils but again, there are always more to it.

Amber bottles are being used widely for its ability to repel UV rays. The color of amber can actually filter out blue light and ultraviolet light better than most other colors.

A recently study done by The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has shown the results of clear, green and amber bottles against each of their ability to repel UV rays on the basis of different wavelengths (Figure 1). Clear bottles are seen to have the poorest protection at some critical wavelengths as it allows 90% of the light to penetrate through. Green bottles give better protection as compared to clear ones but at a wavelength of 370mm, it still allow 70% of the light to pass through. Amber bottles, on the contrary, give the best protection against UV lights.

*FIGURE 1: CHART ADOPTED FROM WRAP

The percentage of UV lights blocked off by different colored bottles were later consolidated and reflected corresponding results with amber bottles scoring the highest percentage of UV lights that was being blocked off at 97.4% – 99.9%.(Figure 2) 

*FIGURE 2: CHART ADOPTED FROM WRAP

Now that you have imparted with this piece of “lifehack” tip, if you haven’t known this before, then maybe it’s time you take extra notice when it comes to choosing the the right product that can last you a longer time. Of course, whether our skin care products or essential oils are stored in amber bottles or not, it is with no doubt that all these products should be kept away from direct exposure to any forms of lights.

Reference:

WRAP (2008). The Effect of Ultraviolet Light on Wine Quality. GlassRite. [online] WRAP, p.6. Available at: http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/UV%20&%20wine%20quality%20May%2708.pdf [Accessed 22 Feb. 2018].