Bath & Body Works - Do Products Expire? When To Toss? 

I have never had a mist go bad. Timeless. ❌️⭕️

I stopped hoarding products because all my body creams went bad and had to throw them away. So I now only buy what I can use up in the next months (2-3)

Ha, I've got mists from 15 yrs ago that still smell good. I have old shower gels and lotions from 10+ years ago that are still totally fine. Yes, the creams are a different story, only last me about 4 yrs or so.

Not being a collectible person, when I buy a product I use a black marker and write the date either on the top of the cap or on the back of the cream tube. So when I store them on my carts I can immediately see what I should be using asap.

I have lot of mists from 2011 & 2012, they are totally fine😊

Some of my creams have ended up looking like cottage cheese when they’ve gone bad lol

If anything looks or smells gross I will toss it

To perserve your products longer store in a cool dark place.

That actually is exactly what the berry waffle cone shower gel looked like when it came out lol. I have no idea why they made it like that

9:10 peel off the label and keep it in a scrapbook or a photo album spray a little cotton swab and keep it in there so you can remember the scent. LOL I used to do that with my scratch and sniff stickers I didn't want to use them so I would keep them unscratched but I would sacrifice one, so we could know the scent from the 80s. I still have those scratch and stiff stickers bonnie, from the 80s in packages unopened. No not a hoarder just an only child who collected everything. I got one for myself and one to share and then one to keep LOL

I am using a Magnolia shower gel that is very old- it’s still perfectly good. Smell is 100% and it lathers up nicely!

Hey Bonnie! I put creams and lotions in my crisper drawer to keep it fresh longer and other extras go into my closet that cold and dark. I still have heavenly body mist from VS you over a decade and it still smells delicious

Hi Bonnie ! Thx so much for the low down on expirations ! Yes I can say my sprays last longer for sure 😊

My sunset glow was yellow when I purchased it

Great video! Thank you! Just did some furniture with Margarita Cupcake, not separated or chunky, just a little yellow. The "older cream formula was better. Some had avocado, and almond oil in them. The shea butter is almost a "carrier", and depending on maybe the batch(?) turns more quickly. I don't buy cream or butters unless I know I am going through them in the same year, or gifting. The butters last longer than the creams, I have found, as long as air doesn't get to them, and they come with that inner plastic cover. VS seals their tube lotions, and I have some 4 years old that were fresh when opened. Finally, I do use shower gels on the doggies, especially in Summer, when they get more dusty and muddy. Yep, the dogs smell like strawberry soda and coconut colada. Haven't had any issues, since we can use it on human skin, but folks may want to test it out. The creams for furniture has been great, and also old leather handbags. The main thing is to try and keep a handle on the in-flow, and check your collection often, so you don't waste money. It is so dry in the Southwest, you just want to "cream" everything. :)

I use the yellow body creams in the shower to shave so I can enjoy the scent but I don’t have to look yellow

Body creams last for like a month, I swear~ I hate the yellowing of them, because they stain! I mix with a white lotion to use them up but I cannot stand the body cream formula due to how volatile it is. However the lotions aren't very hydrating. Mists can last ages if stored correctly~

Since I’m the only person in my house I keep my tubes of body cream in one of the bends in my refrigerator door no problem.

Thank you for the info Bonnie. That’s so true about the body creams. They are great but they don’t last as long as the lotions. The nice thing about fragrance mists is they last a long time.

I think the most authentic way to tell if body creams have gone bad is if the scent changes. It's normal for products to settle, separate and or change colors. Ive had body creams that looked cottage cheesy, but once i shake them really well, they were back to creamy and smooth.

I have a BBW Seaspray lotion from the 90's i have kept in my bathroom closet bc it was my fav. It still smells like Seaspray. The old dark green top packaging.i wouldn't dare use it though, just keep for nostalgia.

I can’t remember ever having a shower gel go bad. I’ve had one mini mist from like 10 or 12 years go bad. Just a very strong alcohol smell even when it dried down. I’ve had creams that separate but they smelled fine and I continue to use them. Thanks Bonnie!!

My Fairytale cream has gone bad. Tried to 'savor' it

Happy Wednesday, Bonnie! 👋😊❤ The date info is so helpful! Thank you so much for sharing this! Have a great day!

Creams are the only things that i’ve found to go bad enough that they’re unusable. They can be a waste of money. Especially gourmand scents they go SO quick. I switched to buying only lotions last year because i’ve never had one go bad in my years of collecting. B&BW is a luxury and I simply can’t afford to be tossing it out after a year I’m holding out as long as I can 😅

Oh wow. Operation gonna use my cream everyday. Good thing I don't have that many.

SUPER HELPFUL VIDEO. I have to keep an eye on my creams. Need to be sure to use them up. Thanks for the information. 😊

I have 2 bottles of BBW lotion that are from 2016. There are only a little bit left in each one, but I haven't toss them out because the consistency and the smell are still perfectly good. I try not buy too many lotions and creams but sometimes it's hard to pass up when there's a good sale. 😆

Bonnie this was so great! Thank you.

Thanks Bonnie for this update

Definitely helpful! Thank you! 🌺

It’s been pouring rain here since last night, but I did go out and got to see the sturgeon spawning! I even got to watch some of them be tagged and eggs harvested. Aww… that’s sad your Sunset Glow cream is already turning. 🙁 Had that happen with a Berry Waffle Cone cream recently. I do view my products (other than the FFM) in body care as stuff that I either have to use it or toss it. I’m also in a decluttering phase of my life, so a lot of stuff falls in the toss or donate category. 😄 Great video Bonnie!! 😊

Only mist I had go bad was vanilla bean Noel. Smelled like vomit.

I totally know what you mean by the odd smell! That’s the only time I won’t wear the body cream. & when it’s yellow it can stain your clothes and bed sheets! ❤

Hi Bonnie I will watch this video later! Ty for it!

Thank you for the information and I have had the yellow ones actually stained my bras and they came yellow

I have shower gels from 2017 and there fine. I have a mist collection of over 250 sprays they last forever. The creams and body butters go bad quick especially if there's vanilla in the scent notes they turn yellow and clumpy. The lotions last longer but will turn watery over time.

Hi Bonnie! Thank you so much for sharing this video! I really needed this information- definitely saving this video to watch whenever I forget how long bath and body works products last. Thank you! 🥰

Thank you, this was very helpful!

Basically just use your judgment if it smells bad throw it out and wish they would make it simple and just stamp the year it was made and just put 2024 on the labels

Yes Bonnie!! Just had to declutter body creams! Can’t see my self decluttering mists though!

Having the code information is super helpful. I have a bin of fragrance mists and of the body creams. I’ll focus on rotating the body creams to use them up.

Hi Bonnie, thank you for this video. I have soooo much to use in body creams, lotions and shower gels before they get too old. I bought so much of my favorites, thinking BBW would retire them or it would be years before it would come out again but I don’t want it all to go bad so I will be bathing in all of it now. Haha

Thanks Bonnie❤️

I have bought products on line before and looked at the date and some were the year before 😮 i though that was weird. Thanks for the information Bonnie. 💕😊

I finally had a Hello Beautiful cream go bad recently. It separated and smelled sour. I didn't realize til I put it on and I had to hop in the shower again to take it off lol. So gross. It was an older one though, from when they still did the Ultra Shea.

THANK YOU ❤

Keeping, and USING ,2 diff things♡😊

I had a shower gel go bad once. It had been given to me so I don’t know how old it was, but it smelled awful. And I’ve also had a VBN body cream go bad, I think it was two years old and between the color and smell, I knew it needed to be tossed. Now I know how to read the codes, thank you 😊

Great video Bonnie! I have to agree with you on the shelf life of the body creams and hand soaps. I learned the hard way that they can go rancid pretty quick. I had to toss all my pink berry clouds (my desert island scent)body cream because they went liquid/gloppy and rancid. Very sad but lesson learned. I do still have the sunset glow (same one you have) and will have to see how they are doing. I keep them in bins under my bed. They say in cool dark place that way. It’s hard sometimes to not go overboard on your desert island scents (sunset glow is another for me) but like you said they will eventually come back. The hand soaps I have experience lack of forming and or just smell off after 2 yrs. So I do my best to only buy what I will use. Thankfully, my family goes through hand soap pretty quick, so that’s not much of an issue.

Thank you for this video it was helpful! 😊

Hi Bonnie! So about sunscreen-they are actually regulated as drugs and because of this, the FDA regulates them and actually mandates that all sunscreens should be shelf-stable for at least 3 years. Unless B&BW is skimping out on these regulations somehow (which is unlikely for how big of a company they are), the sunscreens can be used for up to 3 years. The only time it'd start being necessary to really toss them before that 3 year mark is if the product has been moved inside another container outside of the original packaging (plastic and other containers can cause sunscreen to solidify or develop an unusable texture) or if its been exposed to great temperature fluctuations, especially heat, which breaks down the product.

I actually go through a lot of cream. I use it on my hands several times a day!

Very informative Bonnie

Happy Wednesday Bonnie and everyone 😊 sometime I think the oils that they use starts to separate when you're not using your products a long period of time.

I’ve had a couple of mists that started to smell like alcohol after only about a year.😮 And I was careful to store them in cooler, dark low humidity environments. And the alcohol was still strong so it was a disappointment.

I honestly wasn’t sure if candles had a shelf life! Thank you Bonnie!!

That year thing can get quite confusing. Because it could end in 2, but be from 1992 2002 2012 or 2022. That's the differentation that needs to be explained quite extensively for me.

I never buy the cream unless I plan to use it immediately. This is one reason it really irritates me when B&BW only makes some scents in cream, not lotion. I have lotions that have remained good for yrs. I also use whole bottles of lotion at a time until it's gone, so mine don't sit around with a bunch of air in the bottle and I think that helps. I also store them in cool, dark places. Mists live forever. 🤣 I had a Fresh Pineapple mist (my all time favorite scent) from the late 90s that I just finally used up in the last couple yrs because I was holding on to it as long as possible. It was good the whole time. I have had issues with the very vanilla or cake-y scented hand creams turning yellow and smelling really off within a year or so.

I 100% agree to avoid buying older scents on Mercari- people charge a ton of money, and you have no way of knowing how old the products are, (unless you are aware that they were released within a year or two)

Happy Wednesday! ❤🌼

Hello Bonnie! Enjoy your Wednesday! Bring on your thoughts on the expiration dates and reviews ❤😊

I stopped buying the lotions so much. If I see it's just looking crazy or separated I toss it.

Yes if it's going bad I'm definitely buying too much. BTW I love the body cream as foot cream and use nightly

My Pear Creme Brulee Body Cream from 2021 is soooo stagnant and icky but i cant BEAR to get rid of it!! 😂 It smells fantastic in the packaging but i wont dare to put it in bc its totally rancid LOLOLOL! The Fragrance Mist however is still amazing!! Smells sooo good and might as well still be brand new! I really wish B&BW reproduces Pear Creme Brulee so i can snatch some new ones!! 🍐🍮

IMO everything should be safety sealed except maybe the spray ,unless shipping it, b/c it's hard to mess with the spray. Anybody can open a cream lotion whatever and alter it. Just saying it's strange that they sell things that are not sealed, When anybody could have touched it. Now I'm not saying everybody's got some crazy ,but as a post covid ICU RN , sometimes I'm a little creepy abt stuff . One idea if you have lotion or creams is to turn them upside down Ev few weeks, so they don't settle for long. I have $40 lipsticks from last Christmas that I just simply put a little alcohol on before I use and wipe it down and C'est La Vie your mouth is dirtier than anything. LOL but lip gloss in a tube is a little different I agree. Now I also have really expensive perfumes even the first star from Angel, I ever received from my late husband that has to be 20 years old, the perfume inside has turned color and is nasty but I sent him mentally just can't get rid of it since he's gone now. I won't use it but I keep it. Can't keep everything obviously but I started following what my kids used to do when they were little with Shopkins and little pet shops. When we would have doubles or get rid of some they would keep the little card or cut out the little name on the paper that came with it and made a little scrapbook of all the ones they had instead of keeping them all. In other words peel off the label if you want to keep a memory book LOL I know it sounds ridiculous but you know what you can also take a picture my brother-in-law was a crazy stamp collector since he was a little kid and he lost it all in a nasty divorce.( he was collecting stamps since he was 5 years old, she did not need to take it and had no right to it but that's another story).. before the internet and stuff, we collected things in different ways. He took pictures whether Polaroid or whatever they are of every single set of stamps in every stamp he ever had, so at least he has that

I have had a moisturizing body wash go bad, it was the sunset glow in the same packaging as the body cream. The shower gels seem to last for years.

@queenofthegirlgeeks Bonnie! A lot of us are hardcore collectors BBW or whatever I used to be a major scrapbooker in fact my corsage from prom is dried and smashed in a scrapbook book from 1989. Anyway if you want to keep a Memento peel off the label and put it in a scrapbook or a photo album if it's a candle scrub the jar keep the top add a little handle and you've got a great little storage bin and it's beautiful for Q-tips cotton balls coins whatever. Good and by the way I've been popping off the top of my sanitizers and refilling them😅. Not with sanitizer but with a little bit of soap on the go so whenever I somewhere I can wash my hands

I agree. As a collector, collect the body mists. But also, keep a file of good quality pictures of entire collection so you can compare older packaging (and pricing) with the new stuff. Make sure everything is dated and labeled well.

Have you heard when or if FIRECRACKER POP will come out? It is my favorite, I have more compliments on Firecracker Pop!! I always trust your judgement. You're the GREATEST BONNIE!!!❤

I had a warm vanilla sugar mist go bad!! I had it for about 6 years, and all of a sudden, it smelled like nothing 😂 just alcohol. I was saving the last little bit of it just because I thought it smelled slightly different than the new warm vanilla sugars, but, not sure how true that is lol!

I’ve always decluttered things before letting them expire. A tube of body cream for example only gives me about 15 applications. If I don’t even want to use it 15 times in a 2 year time period I obviously don’t like it and it doesn’t need to be in my collection.

Good morning Bonnie l have had to toss out to lam just going to collect the body mist s and dust with the furniture polish l tried dusting with it when you talked about it a long time ago l ❤ it it smells amazing thank you so much for the video have a blessed day everyone 😊❤😊 14:51 😊😊 14:51 ❤

Hi Bonnie! Here in Canada on the back of the fine fragrance mists there is a 12 month symbol. I believe back of the body washes as well. I'm pretty sure with the body creams/lotions as well, but I don't buy them often due to having sensitive skin. If I do buy creams/lotions I will use them up right away. It's maybe a once or twice a year for me. However, mists will not go bad despite the 12 month symbol. I feel like when they do start going bad is when you smell mainly that alcohol smell. I've never had a mist go bad on me ever. My oldest mist is from 2013 which is a Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin. It still smells good to this day. I only kept the bottle which is half full due to collection purposes. I used the ones I had during that time. I buy mainly the mists due to the reason they last the longest and I like to keep them around the longest.

Hey Bonnie, SPF products have an expiry date. They don't need to be tossed after a year. Not sure if the SPF lip products have one but the others do. Tfs 💙

I've had mists and perfumes go bad. Took along time though. And the mists were in bottles that you could open so that may have been a contributing factor. I've had multuple perfumes go bad but they have more oils in them so I'd say that's why. My tease perfume from victoria secret went bad after like 6 years I'd say. It completely seperated. And my Giorgio Armani si completely went off. Dont know how old it was though since I bought it on ebay but I only had it for like 4 years if that. I had a bunch of little samples of it too and those all went bad as well around the same time and I bought them from a different seller. Maybe it was how I was storing them, probably stupid to have kept them in the bathroom since the temperatures fluctuate so much.

Hey Bonnie 🎉

I just ordered a pumpkin marshmallow mouse foam off of Mercari because I only use the shimmer fizz lotions after the shower and they don’t have anymore right now 😂😩. I hope it’s okay once I get it!! Idk when they would have made that!

I work at bbw. Now that we have reformulated everything and it’s vegan it goes bad quicker

Pocketbacs do toss when liquid is loose and no longer geled or when sticky.

My Sunset glow from last year was yellowed colored. I don’t think it’s bad.

I don’t use anything but the mists anymore. My dermatologist said to stop bc they are not good for your skin and are disrupters. He said dove sensitive or original is best so I switched back to that. The mists are hit or miss same with the anti bacterial spray.

I bought a Sunset Glow at semi annual sale that was already yellow when I bought it. Some of my Sweetheart Cherry creams are already turning yellow. It makes me sad! I put them in the fridge, so we’ll see if that helps.

i think the body cream lady at least 2 or 3 years as long as it don’t look like cottage cheese and it don’t smells that how i do mines if it separate before that then it no good but i hve some that last three years with no separation at all so i guess it depends

So…I’ve smelled some old scented body creams before (Velvet Sugar and Cherry Blossom) and the best way to tell (when to toss so that way you don’t have to wait till it’s disgusting) is when the cream just smells like bland (unscented) lotion. If you can’t smell the original scent…it’s over. There’s also a texture in which the substance barely wants to rub in.

I stopped buying the body creams because I heard they expire quickly.

Lately my mists are turning to smell just of alcohol when i spray them, after 2/3 years. But i used up a mist from 2016, in 2019 and it was perfect still. So i have no idea what causes or doesn't cause them to change

I have noticed in some of the products they have changed the ingredients over the years.

The Bridgerton was manufactured in 2024 and the Sunset Glow in 2023. I think you said 2004 and 2003. Just FYI.

I know that the warm vanilla sugar cream doesn’t last very long before it goes bad.

2 102 isnt 2021.. I've been doing this all wrong LOL❤ I thought it too could be 2002 2012 or 2022😂😂😂😂

I recently finished a sweet pea lotion from 15 years ago 😅 still was totally usable, creams on the other had I have seen go chunky in 6 months. 😮 Same with hand creams. But the lotions never seem to go bad.

Their creams are very lightweight. I always feel like it has been used.

I’m here because I’m livid I just had to throw out my bonfire bash and black currant vanilla creams 😞😩

This has nothing to do with what the video is about but, how do people get their orders from dirty soul soap fast and me and other people I have seen place their order and a month later it's still not shipped??? idk I want to really love this company but they are taking a bit too long shipping out orders..

What about the Avon skin softener?

Perfumes, EDT, will last you 20 years +.

The body cream goes bad and I wouldn’t keep longer than 2 years.

Yes the products go bad after a long time. I am very cautious about products ever since diagnosed with breast cancer. Thats why i dont over buy and dont save old stuff.

I think sunscreen & hand sanitizers (pocketbacs) are the only things with expiration dates put on them. Those things are FDA regulated. It makes me crazy seeing old hand sanitizers for sale on places like mercari.