Friday, February 12, 2010

Ladies, Did You Know?

Everybody knows that beauty products and makeup have an expiration date. It was always a guessing game for me. But, did you know there is a little symbol on most products that actually tells you how long it's good for? I had no idea about this until I read it in a magazine.

The little symbol looks like this


I bought some new moisturizer, checked the back and voila!...it was there!

3 comments:

starnes family said...

I never knew that!

I am also using eye liner I'm sure I bought in college. Just dug it out of an old box. Hope my eyes don't fall out.

Julie said...

Hey, since I'm in the business, obviously I know lots about this. The symbol is actually only required in Europe on anything that has a shelf life of less than 3 years (nothing should have a longer shelf life; some do, but you should probably replace all beauty products sooner than that anyway). And the number means the amount of time the product is good AFTER you open it. In the US, there is no requirement for an expiration date or anything. But, in my experience, most products will last 1-2 years. But if it's an eye product, I wouldn't use it if it's more than a year old. (Meaning mascara, eye liner, etc. Eye shadow and creams should be fine.)

Feel free to ask me any questions you ever have about cosmetics! Since I'm the Quality & Regulatory Affairs manager, I know all about how long things last, the ingredients in them, and all the governmental requirements all over the world!

Amanda said...

I totally forgot you worked with cosmetics Julie. I keep thinking of Colgate. Good to know though! Also, the moisturizer I bught was Origins Night-a-mins. Which I love love love!