Aroma Library Storage

If perfume making is just your hobby most likely you don't have a dedicated room where you can nicely arrange all your aroma treasures on shelves along the walls. As weekend perfumers we must find a way not only to store all the oils neatly out of sight but to be able to pull collection quickly out when we get just a couple of hours for our hobby.

Most of the oils come in bottles of different sizes (5ml-30ml; 1/6oz-1oz) as we get them from different suppliers with labels on sides. We can use 3/4" and 1/2" round labels to mark bottles caps. This way we can efficiently store them in a box and quickly find particular bottles.

The following plastic box (Plano 3700 Series Deep Stowaway @ Canadian Tire - $8.99) closes up tight and is perfect for majority of amber bottles. Plastic inserts allow you to change the size of compartments easily to ensure oils are not loose. Similar oils (herbal, floral, fruity, woody, oriental, gourmand, etc.) can be placed in the same row and even sorted alphabetically for fast retrieval.

For taller bottles (or bottles with screw on pipettes) you might use a combination of Rubbermaid See-Through Snap Case - 6.8L (on sale $8.99 at London Drugs) and 4 smaller trays (Rubbermaid Drawer Organizer - $3.49)

Both types of boxes would fit nicely into a Plano Fishing Tackle Bag (I bought it at Canadian Tire for like $20, but I cannot find it in their online catalog now). Two Plano 3700 plastic boxes would fit nicely also into Plano Guide Series Tackle Bag, 3750 (price: $70), but keep in mind that it would not fit Rubbermaid 6.7L Cases.

Finally you can even use thin plastic tackle case to store plastic pipettes, vials and bottles with carrier oils on top of the other two cases.

This kind of aroma library organization proved to be effective, compact and easy to manage.

Please do not hesitate to share your experiences and ideas regarding storage of essential oils and aromatic compounds.