December 1, 2020

Serious Question. Are They Selling Us Old Stock? Here’s How to Tell!

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Who hauled skincare yesterday? I know I did! I took advantage of the Huda Beauty’s Sale as some of the Wish Skincare I wanted to try was on sale, also, I grabbed the eye balm I wanted from beautybio.com and of course, I had to grab dome stuff from Dr Denese because the deals were so damn good! Yeah, so, needless to say I did some hard skincare hauling!

I’m weird because all this skincare on sale had me thinking are they selling me old stock? Or even makeup…! There’s so many discounts and sales are they selling old product that was sitting on the shelves?

Don’t worry you can tell just how old the items you are buying are! This is an especially handy hack if you shop makeup or skincare at TJMaxx or Marshalls.

It’s actually really fun checking dates on skincare at TJMaxx and Marshalls because some of that stuff is like 10 years old and here we all are thinking we got such a great discount. Bring your phone with ya and load up checkcosmetic.net or www.checkfresh.com when you hit up places like Nordstrom Rack or Marshalls and punch in the stock number on the box. It should be located on the bottom of the box but sometimes you can find it on the side. These sites will check in their database and tell you the exact date the product was made. With that info you can tell if you got a good deal or just a really old, expired product.

I admit I shop fragracenet.com more than is healthy but I’m always a little weirdest out by the too low prices. The site is legit and has been raved and hailed by Fragranticas far and wide but I still always compulsively check the stock dates on each purchase I make from them!

Are you a bit weary of sales and why things are so cheap sometimes?

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About the Muse

Isabella MuseIsabella is just an average everyday geeky girl who doesn’t blend her eyeshadow correctly, wears too much blush, and hopes she never finds her holy grail products because she likes the thrill of the chase so much. Her mission is to bring you super honest reviews on makeup, skincare, fragrance and all things beauty. She’s in no way an expert on the topic and she sure as hell isn’t a super model. But she’s passionate about makeup and is seeking like-minded individuals that like pina coladas, getting caught in the rain, and ones that enjoy spending hundreds of dollars at Sephora without feeling buyer’s remorse. If you’re that person feel free to reach out and leave a comment or follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Bloglovin‘.

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Comments

  • Swoozy

    I buy old stock and generally am fine with it. I won’t buy old SPF, retinol, or vitamin C based products. Moisturizer that’s sealed – great. Powder-based makeups – sure. Soaps or body oils – perfect. I bought a 7 year old Rouge G lipstick. It was fine. I am also relentlessly cheap and will eat foods as long as they don’t look or smell weird past their expiration date, so I like to live dangerously.

  • kjh

    OMBLOODYG! What a phenomenal tip. Not so much with s/c, but m/u that includes cream, cream gel, etc. my old time fave, HG mascara (Blinc Kiss Me, need tubing) was great at first, but every tube I’ve gotten in the past 5 years has been trash can material. Old. Death old. With the FIFO approach to inventory mgt (first in, first out) everywhere gets rid of the old stock first. Duh! The site that has disappointed me most is Space NK. Never again. The only issue with this wonderful tip is that it presupposes that you can see the packaging in person. For staying home and online, you really can’t check. But great for those places you feel ok about popping into.

  • Samantha

    Thank you for sharing this tip! I often wonder the same thing when I’m in TJ Maxx. I recently saw Milk makeup and Boscia there and it seemed relatively up to date. Great deals this time of year!

    • Isabella Muse

      My pleasure ;-D Oh thank goodness glad to hear they were fresh! SO many good deals right now. My reader/friend showed some piccies of a recent NARS purchase she got at TJ! I can’t believe TJ has NARS now! GASP!

      • Christina

        I’m so jealous of everyone else’s TJ Maxx/Marshall’s. All of the stores in my area sell the weirdest brands I’ve never heard of or they sell the already inexpensive brands. I get so jealous when people post their hauls. Can I at least get some Nars? Nope! Not here! LOL!

        • Isabella Muse

          Oh I am too! We get some good stuff but it’s disgusting. We’ve had Tom Ford, NARS, UD, TF, but all of it is opened and swatched and gross. So yeah, thanks but no thanks!

          • Christina

            LOL! Yah, that’s not any better. To be fair, ours is all opened, too, and it isn’t even the good stuff!

          • Isabella Muse

            LOL! I literally see everyone from old ladies to young children to people in their twenties opening, sniffing, squirting, and swatching stuff. It’s like ew. no thanks! I do know one store started putting those alarms around things so that helps!

  • Adrienne

    Thank you so much for that information. It’s bookmarked now. I often wonder about outdated items and gift sets. I’ve gotten dried out eyeshadow primer and also mascara. I’ve found Olay, Rimmell, Hard Candy, Milani and Physicians Formula at Dollar Tree. Some items have been discontinued so it makes me wonder when I see them at TJX, Gabe’s and other stores exactly how old they are and where they came from. The Mars gift set with the dried out primer and mascara also came with a mini blush and it’s the same one on their website now. I got mine at TJX and they said they didn’t return opened cosmetics and unfortunately I didn’t know it was dried out until I paid for it and opened it. That link is definitely going to come in handy.

  • Frozendiva

    I have probably bought some old stock items. A lot of any higher end makeup and skincare is sealed in the plastic case. No idea what colours they are. So I made note of the shade number and looked up any items that interested me. Some were 2-4 years old. I would occasionally see a Tom Ford mascara but passed – in case it was old and dried up. I bought a Dior moisturizer that was probably older but it was fine. Saved $70. Have bought holiday or Mother’s Day gift sets a few months after. Still good and an excellent value.

    I think the old stuff is probably at the back in the display case so it get sold first? Or maybe at the front?

    I suppose stores cannot sell a lot of older stock so it ends up at discount stores, or it is discontinued. If everything goes on sale, maybe product prices can be reduced slightly. There is still a huge profit. Maybe some lines need to make less products. The amount of stuff out there is staggering. Not everyone can afford every new collection if something comes out every 2 weeks. My face is not going to shrink or expand either.

    • Isabella Muse

      It’s not really about your face shrinking or expanding lol! It’s mostly the ingredients are expired so you aren’t getting the benefits promised. For example, say something contains Vitamin C if it’s been on a shelf for 4 years you’ll likely not going to see any brightening from it. A deal is great yes but spending money on something that doesn’t work doesn’t make much sense. That’s a waste of $$.

  • Mary B.

    I wish the U.S. was required to mark items the way they are in South Korea, with a manufacture date and an expiration date, clearly visible on the packaging. >:-(

    • Isabella Muse

      that would be amazing please and thank you because I swear I walk into sephora see skincare and come back a year later and it looks like the SAME exact stock from last year lol!

  • Chris

    It’s also not a bad idea to check stock on makeup in drug stores too. Purchased a L’Oreal Yuzu Lemon Mask jar & when I checked it was over a year old! It’s fine but I am annoyed at CVS for selling expired stuff. With Covid, the makeup companies are desperate to have money coming in because no one is wearing facial makeup due to everyone being masked up.

    • Isabella Muse

      Excellent tip! For sure there are prob items at the drugstore that aren’t so fresh!

  • MDW

    I used to work in a now probably bankrupt department store as a teen. I swear we got the last old dregs of any company stock. Never able to get the popular colors and dealers would call in complaining that my particular store did not pay them. I would listen because they were not able to contact anyone above me.

    I wonder if it was like that for the whole country? Seems like TJ/K Maxx does that now with full disclosure.

  • Hannah Mary

    Great advice! I did this the other day at Marshall’s on a Murad kit with a full size serum ($20). And I was surprised to see the serum had been made in March 2020.

  • mirdza

    but how can we know the manufacture date when we order online? is there any way? I was trying to buy a bare minerals pressed powder but when i checked the barcode ,every store has 2 years old powders in shelf

    • Isabella Muse

      sadly you can’t really tell as they don’t provide that info anywhere on websites like ulta or sephora.