Posted on February 23, 2015
You all have done this. Opened up that sunscreen which was sitting in your car/suitcase/cabinet and used it. Who knows how OLD it was… Sometimes it was cakey, or yellow, or smelled a bit off. But you used it anyway. The question is does old sunscreen still work?
I read a blog on this, where someone asked, can they use the sunscreen they bought last summer, or do they need to purchase a new bottle each year? The answer was a non-answer in some ways- they said “dermatologists recommend using sunscreen daily, not summer only, so if you are using it daily and in the correct amount a bottle should not last long.”
Sounds great. Not realistic.
BUT they had some good information on how to rate ancient sunscreen you find.
- FDA requires all sunscreens retain their original strength for at least 3 years.
- There may be an expiration date on the bottle
- If there is no expiration date, when you buy sunscreen you can use a sharpie and write the date on the sunscreen
- Any change in the color or consistency means it is time to get a new bottle. They didn’t comment of the efficacy of the sunscreen at that point, but I am sure all of us have been burned (pun fully intended) by using a sunscreen we know likely is older than my kids and then getting burned when it (shockingly) does not protect us from the sun.