Make sure to keep an eye on sunscreen expiration dates. I found a couple really old bottles last month!

A few weeks ago I was at the park with one of my best friends. She pulled out a tube of sunscreen I recognized as a freebie from the Melanoma Walk swag bag a few years ago. Being the bossy/concerned friend I am, I grabbed it, mentioned I’d loved this brand but had she checked the expiration date because they gave it away a few years ago? She insisted it was from this year. I flipped the bottle upside down and it had an expiration date of 2/12. She was shocked and borrowed sunscreen to use that day. I actually went home and found the same bottle in my drawer and tossed it right away!
I am preparing to speak to a girl scout troop about sun safety this weekend and pulled out my demo sunscreens from last year. I glanced at the expiration date and found that the sunscreen I bought last May to use in my children’s classrooms expired 3/14! Bah!
EVERY sunscreen bottle or tube has an expiration date stamped on it. I tend to hoard sunscreen bottles searching for the latest and greatest product and then shove them in my drawer when I don’t absolutely love them. I know this is the time of year people are pulling out the bottles from last summer. Although YOU know you should be wearing sunscreen all winter, right? This is a good time to do a sunscreen inventory and toss that expired sunscreen. PLEASE make sure you check your sunscreen for it’s expiration date. Also, make sure you don’t leave it outside or in your car because the chemicals will break down and cause it to not work as well! It’s not worth risking your skin to bad product!
The more you know!

*Edited to add, it’s been confirmed that expired sunscreen was distributed at the Skin Cancer Institute Melanoma Walk this year (November 2013.) PLEASE check all you bottles, including those freebies!