How to read the expiry date on cosmetics - simple idea that turns out not everyone knows

Not every cosmetic company will print the production date and expiry date clearly.

How to know the shelf life of a product? This is too easy, just read on the packaging.

But this seemingly easy story is not very true for cosmetics. From lipstick, chalk, lotion, perfume to sunscreen . many people find it hard to find out their shelf life.

The reason is that for cosmetics, the shelf is not always printed on the packaging, or printed, each company has a style, making consumers do not know which way.

Of course, every cosmetic must have a shelf, we just don't know how to find them.

Cosmetics have 2 types of expiry dates

When checking the shelf life of cosmetics, you must pay attention to 2 factors.The first is the Expiration Date , and the second type is after opening (PAO - Period After Opening).

With the Expiration date, you will only find them with cosmetics with a shelf life of less than 30 months , because that is the general rule of most countries for the cosmetics industry.

Expiry date printed on the packaging of cosmetics.

This information will be printed on the product case, usually on the casing, the bottom of the case, or the bottom of the tube-type products, with the identifier characteristics such as : "Best by" or "Exp". Or sometimes, it is just a sequence of numbers divided by day / month / year, but usually it must accompany the production day.

Shelf life is sometimes just a sequence of numbers divided by date / month / year only.

For products with a shelf life of 3 years or more, it is not required to record the expiry date. Instead, the producers will only mention the term after opening (PAO - Period After Opening). You will know this information if you see the open box cap symbol as shown in the image above.

Batch Code - the deadline for every manufacturer to print but customers do not know how to read

Here comes this problem. Take, for example, a lipstick that has PAO for 2 years, but at the time of purchase it has been 3 years from the date it was produced - that is expired. So how to know that?

Do not think this is a silly question. If you buy in a genuine store, this situation rarely happens because they always replace new ones. But with the portable goods market floating, the merchants had to collect goods for quite a long time, even taking inventory to get good import prices, this is a very remarkable issue.

The answer to this question is to check the production date - Manufature date . Any company will write this information on the packaging, but how to check it is not simple. Some "mindful" companies will write this information in a relatively easy-to-understand way. For the most part, carriers will use a string of characters called "batch code".

Batch code is used to mark the place of production, shipment number, and the time of birth of a product. The trick is that the batch code does not have a common formula, but each company has its own code set rules .

For example, the brand of French L'Occitane cosmetics, the whole product just doesn't have any lines that mention "manufature date" , but only the code line at the bottom of the tube. That's the batch code, and the truth is nobody can translate it without knowing it.

Looking at this picture, can you guess what the expiry date is?

The same story happened with Dior, Chanel . and countless other large and small cosmetics firms in the world.

Batch code is used to mark the place of production, shipment number, and the time of birth of a product.

How to read batch code?

The easiest answer is to paste that code into cosmetic inspection websites . The most popular pages are the Check Fresh or Cosmetics Wizard, but it should be noted that not all firms are updated, and the parameters through cycles may have been changed.

Results of checking a batch of code on L'Occitane products.

Another way is based on experience . As the batch code on the MAC, there are usually letters (A, B, C .) - numbers - numbers. Here, the word is shown for the shipment, the first number is the production month, and the next number is the year. After 10 years, the sequence will be refreshed.

Batch code on the MAC is usually in the form of letters - numbers - numbers.

Christian Dior's batch code is similar to the four characters of numbers and letters, but the opposite. The first is the year, the symbol is 1 digit, followed by the letter representing the month from A to M respectively, where A is January and M is December, then continues N is January . for to the end of the alphabet.

With L'Occitane's product, what you need to care about is the last 3 digits of the batch code. In which: the first 2 numbers show the week, and the last number is the year of product manufacturing. The code will be repeated after 10 years.

With L'Occitane's product, what you need to care about is the last 3 digits of the batch code.