Lids, lot numbers and first in, first out
A raw material starts losing value the moment it is opened, and the record of that opening is the lot number. Write the lot on the container when it arrives, with the date received and the date opened. Keep the supplier label intact, because it carries the name, the grade, the hazard information and the lot, and a container with a handwritten name and no supplier label is already a weaker material. Close the lid fully after every use, and check that the lid seal is clean and undamaged; a lid that does not seal lets in air, moisture and dust.
Store materials first in, first out. New stock goes behind old stock, and the oldest lot is used first. This is not tidiness for its own sake: an oil that has been open for a year is a different oil from the one that arrived last month, and a preservative near the end of its life may not deliver the dose on the certificate. If a container has no date, treat it as old and check with the supplier before use. A shelf where the newest drum is at the front is a shelf that quietly uses the oldest material last.
Transfer only what you need into a secondary container. Do not decant a bulk drum into an unlabelled bottle for convenience, and do not keep a small jar of powder with a marker scrawl that could be anything. The secondary container gets the material name, the lot, the date and the initials, and it is used only for that material. When it is empty, clean it and remove the label rather than reusing it for something else, because a jar that has held one powder and now holds another is a mix-up waiting to happen. Label the secondary container before the material goes in, not after, because a full unlabelled jar is already an unknown material.
Record the lot in every batch record that uses the material. If two lots of the same oil are open at once, keep them apart and use one at a time, so a batch can be tied to a single lot. When the lot changes, note it in the record even when the supplier and the name are the same. A complaint that traces to a lot is only findable if the lot was written down, and the writing takes a few seconds at the bench. If the lot is illegible, do not guess it; ask the supplier for a copy of the certificate or the invoice before the material is used.
- 1. Write the lot number, the date received and the date opened on the container.
- 2. Keep the supplier label intact and legible.
- 3. Close the lid fully and check the seal after every use.
- 4. Place new stock behind old stock and use the oldest lot first.
- 5. Transfer only the needed amount into a labelled secondary container.
- 6. Never decant into an unlabelled bottle or a food container.
- 7. Record the lot in every batch record that uses the material.
- 8. Keep two open lots apart and finish one before opening the next.
Bench example
A salon receives two five-litre drums of a base oil, one in January and one in June. The January drum is written with its lot, the receipt date and the opening date, and it is placed at the front of the shelf. The June drum goes behind it, and the rule is that the January oil is finished first. In July a batch of balm is made from the January drum, and the record shows that lot. In August a client reports that a balm smells slightly rancid. The record leads to the January lot, which was opened in February and had been in use for six months, and the supplier confirms that the lot was within its shelf life but at the end of it. The June drum is unaffected, and the next batch is made from it with a fresh opening date. Without the lot on the drum and in the record, the salon would have blamed the formula rather than the age of the oil. The shelf is rearranged so the oldest drum is at the front, and the monthly check now includes a look at every opening date.
Caution: A container with no lot number cannot be traced. If the supplier label is gone and the lot is unknown, the material is not a batch ingredient.
Cool, dark, dry and no food
Most cosmetic raw materials want a cool, dark, dry place. Heat speeds up oxidation and can melt or separate a paste; light degrades some oils, colours and vitamins; moisture turns powders into lumps and feeds microbes in anything water-based. Keep the storage area below the temperature the supplier states, out of direct sunlight, and away from the water bath, the hot plate and the window. A closed cupboard at room temperature is usually better than an open shelf above a radiator, even if the shelf looks more professional. Check the supplier's storage temperature on the label rather than assuming that room temperature is always acceptable.
Do not store food or drink with raw materials. A fridge that holds a staff lunch and an opened preservative is a fridge with two sets of contamination and two sets of smells. Keep a separate shelf, or a separate fridge, for materials that need cold storage, and label it. No food on the bench, no drink beside an open jar, and no phone resting on the weighing area. A crumb on the bench is a particle in the batch, and a coffee cup that is set down beside a beaker is a spill waiting to happen. If a fridge is shared, put the materials in a closed box with a label, and keep the box on a shelf above any food, never below it.
Fingers never go into a bulk jar. Pour or scoop with a clean, dry tool into a secondary container, then close the bulk jar before doing anything else. A wet spoon in a powder jar creates a crust and a microbial niche; a used spoon returned to a jar inoculates the whole container. Use one tool per material, and clean and dry it between uses. If a scoop is left standing in a jar, treat the top layer of that material as suspect and do not use it for a batch that matters. A jar that has been open with a scoop standing in it should be treated as a contaminated lot until the top layer is removed and the rest is checked.
Check the storage area monthly. Look for lids that are not sealed, labels that have fallen off, powders that have clumped, oils that smell different, and containers that have leaked onto a shelf. Clean the shelf, discard anything out of date or unidentifiable, and write the check in the log. A storage area that is checked monthly is a storage area where a small problem is found before it becomes a batch problem, and the check takes less time than a single failed batch. Write the date and the initials on the log, and note anything that was discarded, so the next check can see whether the same problem returned.
- 1. Store materials below the supplier's stated temperature.
- 2. Keep them out of direct sunlight and away from heat sources.
- 3. Keep the storage area dry and the containers closed.
- 4. Keep food and drink out of the material store and off the bench.
- 5. Use a clean, dry tool for every material and never fingers.
- 6. Pour into a secondary container and close the bulk jar at once.
- 7. Check shelves monthly for seals, labels, clumps and smells.
- 8. Discard out-of-date or unidentifiable material and log the check.
Bench example
A salon stores its raw materials in a closed cupboard under the bench. The cupboard is cool, dark and away from the water bath. A new assistant puts a bag of biscuits on the top shelf because there is space, and within a week a opened bag of powder on the same shelf has absorbed a smell of biscuits and formed a crust at the top. The biscuits are removed, the crusted powder is discarded, and the shelf is cleaned. The salon then labels the cupboard 'materials only' and adds a small shelf in the office for staff food. A monthly check finds a jar of oil with a loose lid and a bottle of fragrance with a faded label; both are dealt with before the next batch. The cost of the discarded powder is small, but the lesson is recorded in the storage log, and the cupboard is no longer a pantry. The rule is written on the cupboard door: no food, no drink, no open containers, and no material without a date. The check is signed at the end of each month.
Caution: Do not put a wet or used spoon back into a bulk jar. One spoon can contaminate a kilogram of material and every batch made from it.
What to do with an unlabeled jar
An unlabeled jar is an unknown material. It has no name, no lot, no date and no supplier, so it cannot be recorded in a batch and cannot be traced if something goes wrong. Do not use it, do not smell it to identify it, and do not taste it. Do not add it to a batch because it looks like the material you need. Two white powders can look identical and behave very differently, and a clear liquid can be water, alcohol, glycerin or a concentrated acid. The only safe assumption is that the jar is not a batch ingredient.
Move the jar away from the working stock and label it 'unknown, do not use' with the date and your initials. If you know who opened it and when, write that on the label as well. Ask the person who bought it whether the supplier label or the invoice can be found; if the identity can be established from a document, the jar can be relabelled with the name, the lot and the date, and then used. If the identity cannot be established, discard it through the correct waste route. A jar of unidentified material is worth less than the batch it could ruin, the client reaction it could cause, or the false record it would create.
The same rule applies to a container whose label has faded, whose lot number is unreadable, or whose contents do not match the label. Do not use a material on the strength of a memory. If the jar is the last of a lot and the batch cannot be made without it, the batch waits for a new delivery. A delay is a cost; an unidentified ingredient in a product that goes on a client's skin is a risk that cannot be calculated, and it also breaks the traceability that the whole record system exists to provide. Do not relabel a container from memory or from the colour of the powder, because a wrong name is worse than no name: it looks like knowledge.
When a material is discarded, write it in the waste log with the date, the approximate quantity and the reason. This is how a pattern of poor labelling is seen. If the same material keeps losing its label, change the storage: keep it in its original container, write the name on the lid as well as the side, and stop decanting into unmarked jars. The fix is almost always a storage habit, not a better memory. A simple rule helps: write the name on the lid and on the side, and keep the original container whenever the material will fit on the shelf.
- 1. Stop and do not open, smell or taste the unknown material.
- 2. Move the jar away from the working stock.
- 3. Label it 'unknown, do not use' with the date and your initials.
- 4. Ask who bought it and whether a supplier label or invoice exists.
- 5. Relabel only if the identity can be proved from a document.
- 6. If identity cannot be proved, discard it by the correct route.
- 7. Record the discard in the waste log with the reason.
- 8. Change the storage habit that allowed the label to be lost.
Bench example
A maker finds a 250 mL jar of white powder at the back of the cupboard. The label has fallen off and the only marking is a faded marker line. The powder could be the chelating agent, the thickener or a preservative, and all three are used in small amounts. The maker does not smell it, does not put a fingertip in it, and does not add it to the batch waiting on the bench. The jar is labelled 'unknown, do not use, 20261025, A' and moved to a quarantine shelf. The supplier invoice from three months earlier lists a chelating agent and a thickener, but not which jar is which, and the person who opened it cannot remember. The jar is discarded, and the salon buys a new one with the lot written on the lid and the side. The batch is delayed by two days, and the record shows why. The next delivery is stored with the label facing out and the name written on the lid, and the problem does not recur. The waste log entry is signed, and the new delivery is checked in with the lot written on the lid before it goes on the shelf.
Caution: Never identify a material by look or smell. An unlabeled jar is not a raw material; it is waste until a document proves otherwise.
This is a Nandu Nai textbook. It is a private brand book, not a government licence, and it does not give the right to give medical treatment.