Q questions… I usually buy the big 750 ml pump bottles from Tigi’s hair care line. Because they are so big I have to leave them standing on the floor, but I am worried if the under floor heating system might ruin the product or some of the ingredients?
Left Brain gives the lowdown:
An excellent question especially considering the amount of money you are 
putting out for Tigi hair products. The short answer is YES, you could be damaging the product. It’s better to store your personal care products at room temperature (72 F or 25 C) and in a dark cabinet. The reason is related to product stability.
Cosmetic Stability
As part of the product creation process, cosmetic chemists perform stability tests to ensure that the product you buy & take home will be the same as when it first left the manufacturing plant. Some companies do a better job than others but nearly everyone will do at least a little stability testing.
During these stability tests, they expose the product to high & low temperatures and different lighting conditions. After a certain period of time they check to see if the product has changed.
Heat Ages a Product
There is a rough rule-of-thumb in chemistry that increasing heat will speed up chemical reactions and physical processes. You see this when you try to dissolve sugar in water. It dissolves much quicker in hot water. While this heat/speed relationship doesn’t always hold true, it’s good enough for stability testing. In the cosmetic industry, storing a product at 45C for 8 weeks is roughly equivalent to storing it at room temperature for 1 year. So, heating up your hair products makes them “older”.
Heat Effect
Of course, just because it is “older” doesn’t mean that it is ruined. Heat could have the following effects on your products.
1. Makes it smell worse. Heat exposure changes the fragrance so the product might not smell quite right.
2. Makes it thicker. Heat increases the speed of water evaporation so your product might get thicker. A conditioner could get so thick you can’t get it out of the bottle.
3. More prone to contamination. While this is a low likelihood, heating a product will reduce the effectiveness of the preservative system and increase the chance of microbial growth. Not good.
4. Changes color. Heat can also make the product turn darker or more yellow.
5. Reduced effectiveness. For hair products, heat won’t really affect the performance. However, products like sunscreen, dandruff shampoos, or anti-perspirants that have real active ingredients can actually become less effective. These should definitely remain out of the heat.
Effect of light
Incidentally, heat is not the only thing you should avoid. Light exposure can also change the odor / color of cosmetic products. It is best to store all your personal care products in a dark drawer or cabinet. It’s not as critical with products in opaque packages since light can’t get in. But if you have a clear bottle, storing it in a window sill is just not a good idea.
Beauty Brains Bottom Line
You probably won’t impact the effectiveness of your Tigi hair products by storing them next to the heat, but the product odor might change leading to a less enjoyable experience. The Beauty Brains recommend you store them in something that is closer to room temperature and preferably dark.
Where do you store your beauty products? Leave a comment and let us know. We’d like to see which is the most interesting.
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Hm. The only place I tend not to store stuff like that (excepting of course shampoo and conditioner) is the bathroom proper where the shower is. I don’t want things to get too humid.