PAO and expiration date: when do skincare products expire?

Did you know that your cosmetics have an expiration date? Sometimes we avoid using our favorite cosmetics so that they don’t finish up, although that may be counterproductive if we let them expire. This guide will help you know how long you can use your cosmetics so that you don’t accidentally damage your skin.

Hello! Today I am going to talk about a very interesting topic that affects us all: the expiration date of skincare products. Although we are used to associating the concept with food, we must bear in mind that in cosmetics, the expiration date is also important. You want to know why? Keep reading!

The topics that we are going to see in this article are the following:

• Do skincare products expire?
• How can I know when skincare products expire?
• What does PAO mean?

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1. DO SKINCARE PRODUCTS EXPIRE?

The answer is clear: yes. All cosmetics expire, without exception. As with food, skincare products have an expiration date. It has happened to all of us at some point in our lives, we discovered a moisturizer or serum that we love and we have been saving it for years. And suddenly, one day we take a good look at the packaging and we notice that it has been expired for two years. But is that a problem?

The best thing that can happen to you when using an expired cosmetic is that it does not fulfill its function and does not give you the result you are looking for. The worst case? Irritation, allergies and other more serious dermatological problems. When a skincare product is made, it is stable (it maintains its characteristics) during a specific period. The manufacturer makes sure to maintain that stability in many different ways: formulating the product correctly, using a suitable container to preserve it, etc. When the expiration date comes, the manufacturer cannot guarantee the stability and, therefore, does not guarantee that the product works properly or that it won’t cause problems for you. Also, if you modify the composition of the product (for instance, by adding an oil), its expiration date will be reduced.

Besides the expiration date, we also have to pay attention to the correct conservation of the product. Failure to do so will expire the product faster than it should. In this case, each manufacturer will indicate the appropriate way to preserve each of their products. There are certain cosmetics (for example, those that incorporate vitamin C) that should not receive direct light, so it is convenient to keep them protected from the sun. Recently, I have read many recommendations that talk about keeping cosmetics at cold temperatures (even small refrigerators are sold for this purpose), but we should not do it unless the manufacturer expressly indicates it, since most cosmetics are designed to keep them at room temperature and it can be harmful to store them incorrectly.

There is currently an excessive trend towards chemophobia as a skincare marketing tool. In this way, some brands try to sell that chemicals (well, in the abstract, that sounds terrifying) are bad, without any scientific or logical basis. Those evil chemicals include preservatives, silicones, or parabens (among many others). And why am I talking about chemophobia now? Because I’m seeing more and more products whose claim is not to incorporate preservatives among their ingredients. As I indicated, this is just another marketing tool, since by not using preservatives among the ingredients, the only thing that is achieved is to create products with a shorter life (so we will have to replace them more frequently). The use of preservatives is completely safe, and for this the European Union has various systems that guarantee the safety of the cosmetics we use. Preservatives allow us to use the products for a longer time. In this case, the important thing is not to formulate products without preservatives, but to use those that provide an effective result and that allow us to take care of our skin in the best possible way..

2. HOW CAN I KNOW WHEN SKINCARE PRODUCTS EXPIRE?

And now that you know that all the cosmetics you have at home have an expiration date, you are probably wondering, how can I know that date?

As a general rule, skincare products show their expiration date both on the packaging and on the box. Normally, the expiration date appears in MONTH/YEAR format, although if you buy Korean cosmetic products you can find other formats. In Korean cosmetics, it is common to find these two symbols: 제조 (production date) and 카지 (expiration date), followed by numbers that correspond, in order, to the year, month and day.

Generally, there are certain cosmetic products that expire before others. For example, eye contours and sunscreens often have a shorter lifespan than other products such as cleansers.

In any case, sometimes we can find that a product has expired even though its expiration date hasn’t passed yet. If the product has not been properly preserved or has been contaminated, we can observe changes in its texture, an abnormal smell or color or, directly, we can notice that the product is not applied properly and even causes irritation. In any of these cases we must stop using the product immediately and contact the brand directly so that they indicate the steps to follow with said product.

What if the expiration date of the product has been erased? It’s alright, there is a possible solution. If, for some circumstance, you cannot find the expiration date of a cosmetic, there are websites that allow you to find out based on the brand and the batch. Of course, it is not a foolproof system, but it is a resource that can get you out of trouble..

3. WHAT DOES PAO MEAN?

In addition to the expiration date, cosmetics always include (usually on the packaging and in the box, next to the expiration date) what we know as the PAO symbol. I’m sure you have seen this symbol hundreds of times without knowing its name or what it really means. The PAO symbol (which refers to the Period After Opening) is made up of the image of an open jar, next to which are indicated a series of numbers followed by the letter M (for example, 12M for a year), thus indicating the number of months that the product can be used normally after opening.

Products with an expiration date of more than 30 months are not required to indicate the expiration date in the European Union, but in any case the PAO symbol must be used to show us the period during which we can use the cosmetic.

A good tip is that, if you have several products open at the same time (or if you have a terrible memory like mine), you can write down the opening date underneath it so that you always know when the PAO is running out.

What’s more important: expiration date or PAO? Whatever happens before.

What if the expiration date occurs before PAO? Even if you have just opened a product with a 6 month PAO, if its expiration date is in 3 months, once those 3 months are over the brand won’t guarantee its safety and effectiveness.

What happens if the expiration date happens before PAO? We should part from the first date, so if you start using a new cosmetic today and its expiration date is one year from now and it has a 6 month PAO, the stability of the formula won’t be guaranteed after those 6 months.

This is especially important with products we buy at physical stores and that don’t have a security seal, since there’s a chance that someone opened the product in the store (to check its texture, scent, color…) and left it back on the shelf. Since that moment, as the product has been opened, the PAO will start counting, even if you don’t open it until a few weeks later.

I hope this article has helped you to know better when the cosmetics you have at home expire. As you can see, it is easy to know the expiration date of cosmetic products, once you get used to checking it, you will surely start doing it more frequently. Before you used to look at its expiration?

If you liked this article and want to continue learning about cosmetics and skincare, you will surely like these others:

• Patch test: how to start using any skincare product.
• 3 things you should know about your skin.

Do you want to learn to take better care of your skin? You can see an index of all my informative posts here. 

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