Although my toiletries are one of those things I have well and truly under control, sometimes certain items do seem to multiply and then reach their expiry date while I’m not looking.
Sunscreen is one of those items that tends to do this due to a number of reasons like…
- An unplanned trip to the beach where a “pink pelt” like me has to lather on the sunscreen or that pink soon turns to blistered red so you duck to the nearest convenience store to buy a bottle.
- A planned trip to the beach where you forget the sunscreen and rather than go all the home you are forced to buy another bottle.
- A family picnic to the park where you forget the sunscreen and you borrow someone Else’s bottle, forget to give it back and can’t remember which family member owed it.
Needless to say now you have four bottles of sunscreen, two of which have passed their used by dates, taking up space in the bathroom cabinet.
This is only one small item but the same story applies to lots of different things. For example…
- The extra suitcase you bought while on holidays in America to bring home all the stuff you bought because things are so cheap over there
- The extra esky (Cooler) you bought last Christmas because you had a big family BBQ at your house and didn’t have enough room in the fridge
- The snow chains you had to buy because of unseasonal weather when visiting the mountains last April.
Need I go on.
The next thing you know you think you have outgrown the house you live in and start looking for another “dump site” with a bigger garage. It used to amuse me when I lived in the USA how many cars in our neighbourhood were parked on the street or in the driveway because the garage was full of other “stuff”.
Check around your house today and find one of these things and relegate it to the “get rid of” pile. Just remember you always have the option of borrowing things when in need, then you just give them back when you are done.
Two bottles of sunscreen past their used by date
Colleen’s Helpful Hint for the Day
A slightly damp microfibre cloth is great for removing deoderant stains, dust and other accidental marks from your clothes. I keep one handy in my bathroom cabinet just for this purpose.
I’m glad you wrote about expiration dates on sunscreens, I think most people are not even aware that you should not hold onto last year’s bottle as the product loses it’s potency.
Knowing about this, I still managed to throw out 4 bottles this month, 3 of the bottles were actually failed attempts to find a new great one I would love.
Did not work out that way, have to accept that I’m a drugstore chain’s version kinda gal!
Hi Andrea, there is nothing wrong with drugstore brand products you are often only paying for the name on the label with the “trendy” brands anyway. That goes for a lot of cosmetic and toiletry items too, make-up moisturisers, shampoo etc. It would be great if someone would develope a sunscreen that streads easily and doesn’t feel oily on your skin though, I would be happy to pay more money for that.
I just read a tip recently on saving money on sunscreen. Skip the special purpose sunscreens and go look for a lotion with the same sunscreen SPF that you would normally buy. They might not make lotions with 50+, but you can use lower SPF and just apply more often.
Good tip Carmen. I love any product that can double as something else. That’s one less item that needs to be lurking in the bathroom cabinet and since it is multi-purpose it is more likely to get used up before it reaches its used by date. I use a tinted moisturiser with SPF 15 instead of foundation when putting on make-up so I suppose I am using three products in one, good for me.