Timestrip smart labels banish old cosmetics to the bin

Incorporated within latest EU regulations, the new ‘Period after Opening’ (PaO) rules for cosmetic products have had to negotiate the thin line between giving consumers sufficient information to be useful and overwhelming them with too much detail. The open cream jar symbol and its time indication seem to be a step in the right direction towards giving consumers a good idea of how long a product will perform at its optimum level. But they still don’t solve the problem of trying to remember when the product was opened in the first place.   

Enter Timestrip: the smart label which monitors how long a product has been open. Simply activated, Timestrip removes the need for consumers to remember whether that new lipstick was purchased last Christmas or the one before; which pot of moisturizer was started first and whether their mascara is really three years old. The PaO labeling then becomes extremely useful, showing whether or not the product should be thrown away.

Whilst it’s generally understood that most cosmetic products have a long shelf life if used and stored with common sense, there are health implications from using a product for too long. Bacteria can spread, particularly in moist products such as mascara and creams in pots, where the product is exposed to the air and the bacteria in it. This is especially true with organic or natural cosmetics, which don’t contain the preservatives found in traditional products and hence are less protected against bacteria.

Not only does a Timestrip label offer added value to consumers by showing them when products are becoming potentially harmful, it also encourages them to replace items sooner than they may otherwise have done. Imagine the potential for additional sales if consumers are actually using products only during the time period for which they are meant!

Inexpensive and easy to use, Timestrip labels contain a non-toxic tinted liquid dye which, when activated, migrates across the label at a consistent rate. This allows accurate monitoring of the time that has elapsed since a product was opened, providing a reliable visual ‘alarm clock’.

‘We’re well accustomed to the idea of shelf life for food,’ said Reuben Isbitsky, Timestrip’s joint CEO. ‘We now need to give consumers a greater understanding of other products too. Cosmetics do have a shelf life and it’s important that we help consumers monitor when that shelf life has expired.’

Timestrips are appropriate wherever a product has a shelf life and the labels can be tailored to the period of time which needs to be measured, from a number of hours to 12 months. Timestrip technology is easily adapted for customized printing and can be incorporated into the product packaging itself, adding a highly visible indicator of when the product needs to be used up.