Body care is a unique item to sell because you can run the risk of it becoming imperfect with a quickness if it is not correctly stored, but, if properly stored it can have an insanely long shelf life!

FACT 1: Light is an ENEMY! 

Have you ever sold an item, or seen an online review for an item, that says “It’s FAKE! The smell isn’t nearly as good / strong as the real product!” - chances are the product is 100% real and just so happened to be stored incorrectly by a new seller!

Light on the bottle can (and usually WILL) cause the item to break down… not literally “break”, but the fragrance components within the body care will lose their “perfectness”. Additionally, light can cause the body care to discolor.  For YEARS I didn't realize I was storing body care horribly wrong!  These were my shelves back in 2007:

SOLUTION: Body care stores best in the dark! If you do not have a dark area, simply store the body care inside of it’s own box. If it doesn’t have a box, put it inside a box. ALWAYS KEEP AWAY FROM WINDOWS / SUNLIGHT! If you absolutely cannot avoid storing merchandise near a window, pickup a cheap BLACKOUT Curtain:

TIP: Get an INSULATED blackout. You can score these for as little as $8 (used) on Amazon. To truly keep light and temp out, you can staple-gun it to the window frame. 

Now we store all body care in our warehouse inside opaque boxes:

FACT 2: TEMPERATURE MATTERS!

Avoid moisture and heat.

SOLUTION: You absolutely should get this cheap, but awesome temperature-and-humidity gauge:

I use these in our warehouses in addition to all of our pets habitats and I have bought many (the white one is absolutely the best):

Often humans can’t really “tell” if it’s too humid or too warm because we don’t have the weather instincts that animals have. BUT a snazzy little gauge like the one shown above gives you all the details you need. WHEN STORING BODY CARE, AIM FOR LOW HUMIDITY! AS LOW AS POSSIBLE!!! For our adopted desert lizards, we have been able to get the humidity level is in the mid 20%-range, which is the exact range of the Sahara desert during the day. So I don’t see any reason why 25% humidity wouldn’t be sufficient for storing perfumes and body care. BUT, if you buy the humidity guange you might discover that your home has only 13% - 15% humidity, depending on your location. We are located in Michigan, which is surrounded by lakes, so we have to put effort into decreasing humidity.

If you are storing items in your basement, you should consider a dehumidifier if needed:

but don’t buy one until you first purchase the gauge. You may discover you don’t need to buy anything at all, let alone pay to run it! Regardless of what your gauge results are, fasten the gauge to your wall, in the center of the storage area, and keep it on 24/7. Monitor the results as the seasons change AND be sure to look at humidity levels AT NIGHT. Typically humidity increases when the sun goes down, so if you do need a dehumidifier, but you only need it at night, grab one of these amazing super-cheap timers so it turns on-and-off on it’s own. I love these things:.

FACT #3: BODY CARE IS NOT FINE WINE! Do NOT store it on it’s side!

SOLUTION: Always store bodycare upright. If the bottle was meant to be stored sideways, it would be designed to sit sideways, not upright! If you are stacking bodycare sideways because you need space, instead purchase some simple shelf tiers to create more space:

FACT #4: AVOID OPENING IT… yes, this means NO smelling!

I know, it’s soooo hard to resist but whenever air comes in contact with the product it becomes oxidized. More air = less “smell”. So, if you are able to exercise self restraint, make sure you do! Sometimes it’s just not possible because the product is too irresistible to not smell

FACT 5: NO SHAKING! Surprisingly, shaking body care does not make the smell more powerful. BUT what shaking does do is beat-up the tiny molecules within. ****YOU MAY NOTE HAVE CONSIDERED: If you are storing boxes of body care, directly on top of each other, and every time a customer orders one you have to move several boxes to get to the box you need, you are shaking the products unintentionally, over and over. A simple solution is to use shelving or shelf tiers so you can access the exact product you need without shaking up stuff that hasn’t sold. :)