Checking cosmetics for authenticity and shelf life

The main criterion when buying care products is the original origin and their shelf life. But today the market is oversaturated with fake and expired products. Therefore, do not neglect the verification of cosmetics for authenticity and shelf life. After all, she can save not only wasted money and time, but also health.

Expired or counterfeit funds can do more harm than good. These are allergies, infections, inflammations. In general, taking care of your health begins with the purchase of high quality products.

It is quite easy to avoid purchasing expired goods. It is enough to know the date of issue and the expiration date. Many skincare and perfumery products indicate the permissible time of use when unopened and unopened. However, there are some nuances.

• Not all manufacturers provide this information.... For example, US and European companies are not required by law to declare a product's unopened shelf life if it is more than 2.5 years (30 months).
• It happens that on the packaging of imported cosmetics Russian distributors make mistakes when translating information.
• Wrapper, on which the production date is posted, buyers discard immediately after purchase.

Also, when buying cosmetics, sometimes doubts arise about their originality. For example, differences in colors, a different smell, or a defect in the design may indicate a falsification or defect in a separate batch of genuine cosmetics.

Each tool has two identifiers. You can get important information on them.

It is an alphanumeric cipher containing 3 to 10 characters. Moreover, there is no single rule for combining characters: each brand has its own coding, which is convenient only for him... This information is not intended for consumers, but for internal use.

The batch code contains data on the production date, expiration date. Sometimes it may contain information about the manufacturer and about the number of the released shift, which is very convenient in case of defects. In such cases, you can quickly withdraw a specific batch and not touch the full line of cosmetics.

This is a special registered number that is printed on the product packaging in the form of thick and thin black stripes. At the bottom, numbers are separately written in case the scanner was unable to read the information by the linear barcode. Therefore, not all manufacturers provide figures.

By barcode, you can get information about the country of manufacture, the manufacturing company and find out if this product is officially registered. Usually this is a 12-bit cipher used in the USA and Canada, or 13 digits typical for European countries.

A successful verification using the described codes already proves the authenticity of the product. Ho when buying a cosmetic product, you should also carefully examine the packaging for damage or discrepancies with the original... If you want to check the products for authenticity quickly, you can use the ecogolik website. ru.

You can check for yourself when a cosmetic product was released by the batch code or barcode. Let's look at the batch code first.

There are two ways to write this identifier: alphanumeric and only numbers.

In the first case:

• the front character contains data on the country of origin;
• the next sign means the year of manufacture of the product;
• the numbers indicate the serial number of the day of production, starting from the beginning of the year.

In the second way:

• the front two digits are responsible for information about the manufacturer;
• the third character indicates the year of manufacture of the product;
• the fourth character indicates the month of the cosmetics release.

In both of these options, you can easily decipher the code, having with you a special table with the designations of each symbol. However, each brand has its own way of writing the identifier. And it is not always possible to calculate the date of production of a product on your own.

If verification by the batch code is not possible for any reason, use the barcode information.

This indicator consists of numbers only, where:

• the first two characters indicate the country of origin;
• the next five characters contain information about the manufacturer;
• the other five digits are used to designate the name of the cosmetic product, characterize its consumer parameters, size, weight, color;
• the extreme character is a check one, it determines the correctness of the reading of the identifier by the scanner.

The last test figure is determined in the following way:

1. it is necessary to add up all the numbers in even positions;
2. then the resulting amount should be multiplied by 3;
3. to it you need to add all the numbers in odd places, with the exception of the extreme;
4. in the total, remove the first sign denoting tens, and subtract the result from 10.

The coincidence of the verification and the obtained figure indicates the original origin of the cosmetic product. And the discrepancy is about its falsification.

It is much easier to get information on the barcode on the labeltest website. com. To do this, it is enough to enter digital indicators, and then read the message about the authenticity of the goods.

In order to calculate the shelf life of a product, you need to know the date of production of cosmetics. This can be done in several ways.

• Ask the seller for a table with the decoding of the code designations. This is the easiest and most reliable way. Especially if the product is not a major brand;
• Find public information about batch codes on the internet. This applies to large international companies.
• Contact the manufacturer. This can be done through a special contact form on the official website. Or write a letter to the email address of the company.

You can find out the expiration date yourself using the following services.

• Special tables with decoding designations of each number and letter for many cosmetic brands.
• Decryptor sites... The recognition algorithm has already been introduced into the program. You only need to enter the name of the cosmetic brand and the code in the special field.

There are some of the most popular resources in English.

• Checkcosmetic. net... This service has a simple interface and is represented by a large number of cosmetic companies.
• Checkfresh. com. It differs from other sites in that it shows a sample batch code specifically for the requested brand.
• Cosmeticswizard. net. Despite the small list of companies represented, codes of rare brands can be found in it.

And there is also a website in Russian: makeup-review. com. ua.

Besides, mobile applications will be very convenient. There are many custom programs written for almost all leading companies. With their help, it is easy to find out the date of manufacture and the duration of storage of products. For example, there are programs in Russian. it "Check Your Makeup", "Cosmetic Bag".

All sites, tables and decoder applications are personal developments and use information from manufacturers that are in the public domain, therefore, errors are possible.

For tips on determining the authenticity and shelf life of cosmetics, see the following video.