How to store eye drops

Find the storage line on the label and follow it; it is the only instruction written for your particular bottle. Quell’s is short: Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). In other words, room temperature, which in most homes means a cabinet, a drawer or a bag, and not the refrigerator.

The range in everyday terms

The bottom of the range is cooler than most rooms but warmer than the inside of a refrigerator, which normally runs well below it. The top of the range is a warm day, and it is easy to go past in places that trap heat: a parked car, a sunny windowsill, a mailbox in summer.

None of those is a good home for a bottle. A kitchen drawer away from the stove, or a bedside drawer, keeps it in range without any thought.

Keep the tip clean

The label’s handling rule matters as much as temperature: Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination. That includes your eye and your fingers. Recap the bottle after each use, and keep it somewhere it won’t knock around loose with keys or coins.

Keep it away from children

Drug labels say this for good reason, and Quell’s adds what to do if it goes wrong: If swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center immediately. At home, a high shelf or a closed cabinet does the job. In a handbag or backpack, an inside zip pocket is better than an open one.

Know what it should look like

Product appears as a milky brown solution. It is meant to look like that, because of its natural oil-based ingredients. The eye drops have a naturally milky-brown appearance. This is normal and does not indicate a problem with the product.

What the label asks you to watch for is change. Its Do not use line reads: If this product changes color. Compare the bottle with how it looked when it arrived. If the color has changed, do not use it.

At work and in your bag

At work, a desk drawer away from a sunny window or a radiator does the job. A bottle in a handbag or gym bag goes through every temperature you do, so take it out of a bag left in a hot car or a cold locker.

Spare bottles

If you order several at once, keep the unopened ones in the same conditions as the one in use. There is a practical reason to leave spares sealed until you need them, too: unopened bottles can be refunded within 30 days of delivery without being sent back, and opened ones can’t.

Away from home

The storage rules travel with you. Pack the bottle somewhere it will stay in range, out of direct sun. Traveling with eye drops covers trips in more detail, and eye drops in a hot car covers the most common mistake.

The quick version

• Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F).
• Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination.
• Keep it out of reach of children.
• Do not use it if the color changes from how it arrived.
• Leave spare bottles sealed until you need them.

The full label is on the Drug Facts page, and the same storage line is printed on the carton.