To get paid, paID, PAID…
And then we buy, bUY, BUY…
A wide range of products, prodUCTS, PRODUCTS…
To get that “fresh” skin, skIN, SKIN…
Then we hoard, hoARD, HOARD…
Becoming a miser, miSER, MISER…
For something that will eventually expire, expIRE, EXPIRE!
Weeks,
Months, and Years are the duration of any products lifespan. It is a scientific
fact that everything expires, especially cosmetic products, regardless of how
much it costs. With that said, you will be dazed to know how many people out
there believe otherwise. If you fall into this category, hopefully, you will be
convinced by the time you’re done reading this.
On
most cosmetic products, you will find that there is a batch number, manufacture
date or packed date, and the expiry date (Best Before, Best By or Used Before).
Sometimes it may have all three, and others may just be the two; manufacture
date, and the expiry date. It is typically printed on the side, lower back and
base of/underneath the container or at the sealed end of a tube as seen in
facial scrubs and toothpaste.
In
rare cases whereby products only have the manufacture date, take a closer look
at the label, you will find that the instructions will mostly likely read “Use
before X months from manufacture date”.
That’s
the easy part, let’s move on to the other part that is not obvious…
Determining
the expiration date of a cosmetic product is not just restricted to printed
numbers on the container. Another way it may appear is a symbol of a jar with
an open lid, a number and an “M”. This is referred to as the Period After
Opening (PAO) symbol.
The
graphic symbol indicates the lifetime of the cosmetic product after its package
has been opened for the first time, for which the product can be used without
any harm to you. This is represented compactly as a number, followed by the
letter "M" the initial for the word “month”, as in "30M" for a period of thirty months,
written either onto the front side of the depicted jar, or to the right of it.
What
is out of the ordinary about this symbol is that the letter "M" is
not only the initial for the word “month”
in English, but also in many other European languages. This makes it a “language-neutral”
symbol. In the European Union, cosmetics products with a shelf-life of at least
30 months are not required to carry a "best used before end of ..."
date.
However,
please note that some products have both the PAO and the Best Before date. Therefore
avoid buying a product that has a PAO of 24M and a BB date for March 2013.
Aha!
There you go…
We
all have that cream, perfume, shower gel, soap, lipstick, powder, etc we keep
for “only special occasions” or use cautiously because it was expensive. You
name it! We save it! And save it and save it till it expires!
I
recall when Dora Akunyili began her regime at NAFDAC. There was a jingle for
her fake drugs campaign that went like this…
make we join NAFDAC chase fake drugs kormot.”
The
campaign focused on teaching consumers to ensure they avoided buying fake
products and unsafe food as well as making sure we only bought products that had
an expiry date.
However,
it is one thing to avoid buying an expired product, and another thing to let it
sit on your dressing table, use sparingly, allow it to gather dust and expire.
If you were able to buy it, the chances are that you are worth every kobo, penny
or cent! So “shine your eyes”, look through those products on your dressing
table, and throw away what has expired. An expired cosmetic product can do more
harm to your skin than an allergic reaction to an active ingredient.
No
more “Eh, no, no, no, no, no don’t touch it!”, “Small small o, don’t you know it’s
expensive” way of thinking.
You
will always be worth it.
