Verification of cosmetics for authenticity and expiration date

The main criterion for the purchase of 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, it can save not only wasted money and time, but also health.

Expired or fake funds can do more harm than good. This is an allergy, infection, inflammation. In general, care for your health begins with the purchase of high quality products.

Avoiding the acquisition of expired goods is quite easy. It is enough to know the release date and expiration date. Many leaving and perfumery products indicate the permissible time of use in closed and open form. However, there are some nuances.

• Not all manufacturers provide this information.. For example, American and European companies, according to the law, are not required to indicate the period of storage of the product in a closed form, if it is more than 2.5 years (30 months).
• It happens that on the packaging of imported cosmetics When translating information, Russian distributors make mistakes.
• Wrapper on which the production date is placed, buyers throw out immediately after the acquisition.

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

Each facility has two identifiers. You can get important information from them.

It is an alphanumeric cipher containing from 3 to 10 characters. Moreover, there is no single rule for combining characters: each brand has its own encoding, 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 the number of the shift that is very convenient in case of defects. In such cases, you can quickly remove a certain 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 recorded in case the scanner could not read the information on a linear barcode. Therefore, not all manufacturers indicate digital indicators.

By barcode, you can get information about the country of manufacture, the manufacturer and find out whether this product is officially registered. Usually it is a 12-bit cipher used in the USA and Canada, or 13 digits characteristic of the countries of Europe.

A successful check on the described codes already indicates the authenticity of the product. No when buying a cosmetic product, you should also carefully examine the packaging for damage or discrepancy with the original. If you want to check the products for authenticity quickly, you can use the ecogolik website. ru.

You can check it yourself when the cosmetic product was released, by the batch code or the barcode. First, consider the batch code.

There are two options for writing this identifier: alphanumeric and consisting only of numbers.

In the first case:

• the leading character encoded data on the country of origin;
• the next sign indicates the year of manufacture of the goods;
• the numbers indicate the serial number of the day of production starting from the beginning of the year.

In the second method:

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

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

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

This indicator consists only of numbers, where:

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

The last check indicator is determined as follows:

1. it is necessary to add 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 amount, remove the first sign denoting tens, and subtract the result from 10.

The coincidence of the verification and received figures indicates the original origin of the cosmetic product. And the discrepancy is about his falsification.

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

In order to calculate the storage period of the product, it is necessary to know the date of production of cosmetics. This can be done in several ways.

• Ask the seller for a table with a code breakdown. This is the easiest and most reliable way. Especially if the product does not belong to a major brand;
• Find open party code information on the Internet. This applies to large international companies.
• Contact the manufacturer. This can be done through a special form of appeal on the official website. Or write a letter to the company’s email address.

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

• Special tables with decryption the designations of each number and letter for many cosmetic brands.
• Decryption Sites. The recognition algorithm is already implemented in the program. You only need to enter the name of the cosmetic brand and code in a 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, it is possible to find codes of rare brands in it.

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

Besides, mobile applications will be very convenient. There are many special 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 designs and use the information of manufacturers that are in the public domain, therefore errors are possible.

You can find tips on determining the authenticity and shelf life of cosmetics in the next video.