Use Code: SK2FEVER 
13 suggested cosmetic expiry dates to infer your product expiry
Do cosmetics expire? How long should I continue using expired cosmetics? What happens if I use my favorite foundation past the expiry date? These are the questions that we’ve been receiving recently, and the article will address all of them.
Cosmetics are the most useful and beneficial to your skin when used before the expiry date. As soon as the products have passed their ‘Best Before’ date, degradation begins, and their effectiveness cannot be guaranteed. Some products become toxic to your skin, deploying a reverse effect that can lead to breakouts.
Are Expired Cosmetics Dangerous?
You might have heard that you can still consume expired food, as long as the food didn’t expire so long. Expired food becomes less delicious or simply turns you into a frequent toilet visitor over a short period. Nothing chronic, right? So, to get rid of the feelings of guilt over wasting food, you choose to feed yourself the expired food.
But expired cosmetics can cause chronic skin infections, characterized by swelling, red patches, scaling, and rashes if used repeatedly. And believe me, you can’t stand scratching the irritated areas, long-term scarring is most likely the consequence. The irritation is because chemicals as preservatives or product enrichment would break down into non-skin-friendly compounds, which will get you crying if you have sensitive skin.
Fun Fact: Your body absorbs about 60% of all products applied to the skin. So checking the expiry date is essential as the last thing you want for your body is the expired cosmetics ingredients.
How to know if I should throw your unfinished products away?
Don’t get me wrong – once the product expires, it doesn’t automatically turn into dust. You don’t tell it is expired by smell, and of course, taste… But you can know it is expired when you feel hurt and itchy after applying it on your skin (not recommended). Therefore, carefully look for the expiry date to ensure the time left before expiry is long enough for you to finish off the product.
Most packages of Korean skincare products are beautiful, so you probably won’t overlook anything printed on the packages. You should have noticed a logo of a small round jar with an open lid. It states how long you should keep your product once it is opened. It can be explained by the fact that the effectiveness would diminish since chemical reactions might begin once the product is exposed to oxygen. Therefore, it is recommended that even if the expiry date is stated as two years, you should manage to finish off your product within 12 months if the jar logo says 12 months.
How to make sure that I can remember to throw them away?
After estimating when to throw away the unfinished products, how do you ensure you remember to take action when necessary? The tiny print of the expiry date is not strong enough to remind you. We recommend marking down the date on the container and the smartphone calendar. Make sure the writing is large enough to grab your attention, and the notifications of the calendar are turned on.
If you are someone who loves to have everything well-organized, you might want to run management for your beauty products. Beautistics is a perfect app for you. You can write down the expiry date, purchase date, the period after opening there so that it would remind you when you should say goodbye to the products. It provides a premium version, but you can do enough management by just sticking with the normal version.
By the way, if you see no expiry date printed on the packages of the products, don’t consider buying just because of the attractive prices. Because you would doubt if it is counterfeit or if it is expiring, and you would probably feel mentally uncomfortable when using. Even if an app tells you about its power in tracking the unknown production date and expiry date with only a batch code, it is not the official way to know your products.
P.S. You don’t get to examine your order for expiry dates when you are shopping online. With TofuSecret, you don’t have to worry. We would examine it for you.
To give you some basic information to estimate whether your products are expiring, here are the suggested period length after opening.
- Mascara: 3 months
- Liquid eyeliner: 3 months
- Foundation: 6 months
- Eye shadow: 12 months
- Blusher: 12 months
- Lipstick: 18 months
- Lip gloss: 18-24 months
- Powder eye shadow: 2 years
- Cream eye shadow: 12-18 months
- Nail color: 1 year
- Fragrance: 2-5 years
- Shampoo: 2 years
- Shower gel: 2 years
Unlike cosmetics, whose usable periods vary between categories, skincare’s are more constant. You are most likely to see a small round jar logo with “6M” or “12M”.
One of the FAQ: How many cosmetics products are too much? Our answer is, they are too much when you don’t get to use them up before the expiry date! You would feel guilty to throw away the very unfinished products. But reason tells you that you should because you don’t want to use products full of bacteria!
However, skin care is what you can’t skip every day, so you are more able to finish off skincare products before they go expired. You can skip mascara, eyeliner if you want to look casual today. But you don’t want to skip skincare because it would affect your skin’s getting nutrients. When it comes to K-Beauty, and if you’re going to follow a classical 10-step Korean skincare routine, you don’t consider getting all the necessary products for the ten steps to be too much. Or you might think it is too much because following the routine incurs great expense.
But no worries! At TofuSecret, you are getting the products at the lowest prices! A lot of popular products are on sale right now! Grab all the necessary skincare items for your 10-step Korean skincare routine here now!
