Period after opening (the open jar with 6M, 12M or 24M)
Once you have opened it, the maker says the product stays safe and can be used without harm to you for the number of months shown: 12M means 12 months after first opening. The law requires this symbol only on products that keep for more than 30 months unopened.
How to read it
Count from the day you first open it, not from the day you bought it. A mascara marked 6M opened on 1 March is covered until about 1 September. A face cream marked 12M opened in January is covered until the next January. Article 19(1)(c) allows the period in months and/or years, so a period given as one year means the same as 12M. Writing the opening date on the pack with a marker is the simplest way to keep track.
What it does not promise
It does not promise a shelf life for an unopened product: the number starts at first opening, and a product sold with this jar instead of a date is one the maker says lasts more than 30 months unopened. It does not promise the product turns harmful the day after the period ends either — only that the maker no longer vouches for it.
This page explains what a symbol or mark on the pack means in law or in the scheme’s own rules. It is not advice on whether a product or an ingredient is safe for you or suits your skin: for that, read the product’s warnings and ask a pharmacist or doctor.
- What it looks like
- A small jar or pot drawn with its lid lifted open, with a number and the letter M (months) inside or next to it: 6M, 12M, 18M, 24M. The law also allows the period to be given in years.
- Legal reference
- Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, Article 19(1)(c) and Annex VII point 2
- Also called
- PAO symbol; open jar symbol; open pot symbol; 12M / 24M symbol
Good to know
Article 19(1)(c) makes the jar the rule only for products whose minimum durability is more than 30 months; products that keep for 30 months or less carry a best-before date instead (the hourglass). The law also allows no jar at all ‘where the concept of durability after opening is not relevant’. Great Britain kept the same symbol in its retained version of the regulation.
Related
Other marks with the same shape
Sources
Each document was fetched and read on the date shown. Written in our own words; quotations are the documents’ wording.
- Legal text — EU Official Journal text, reproduced by legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives): Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 — Article 19, Labelling (as adopted) — Article 19(1)(c): for products with a minimum durability of more than 30 months ‘there shall be an indication of the period of time after opening for which the product is safe and can be used without any harm to the consumer … by the symbol shown in point 2 of Annex VII followed by the period (in months and/or years)’. Checked 2026-09-26.
- Legal text — EU Official Journal text, reproduced by legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives): Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 on cosmetic products — Annex VII, Symbols used on packaging/container (as adopted) — Annex VII ‘Symbols used on packaging/container’, point 2: ‘Period-after-opening’ — the official drawing of the open jar. Checked 2026-09-26.
- Legal text — EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the European Union): Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 — consolidated text of 1 May 2025 — The consolidated text of 1 May 2025 keeps the same Article 19(1)(c) sentence on the period of time after opening. Checked 2026-09-26.
- Legal text — legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives): Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 — Annex VII, latest version in force in Great Britain — The latest version in force in Great Britain lists the same three Annex VII symbols, point 2 being ‘Period-after-opening’. Checked 2026-09-26.