A set of symbols from different systems
The back of a sun protection pack carries a cluster of small pictograms, printed in the same weight, in the same colour, in the same area. They look like one system and they are not.
Some come from the cosmetics regulation. One comes from a Commission recommendation. One relates to weights and measures. Several relate to packaging, recycling or private schemes and have no connection to the product inside at all.
Distinguishing them is one of the more practical things a reader can learn about a label, because the visual similarity does a lot of quiet work.
| Symbol | What it records | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Open jar with a figure | Period after opening in months | The cosmetics regulation |
| Hourglass | That a date of minimum durability is printed elsewhere | The cosmetics regulation |
| Hand and open book | Refer to enclosed information | The cosmetics regulation |
| Circled UVA | UVA protection threshold relative to the factor | A Commission recommendation |
| Stars | Ratio of UVA to UVB protection | A voluntary proprietary system |
| Lower case e | Average quantity control | Weights and measures rules |
| Chasing arrows, resin codes | Packaging material and recycling | Packaging schemes and standards |
| Private scheme logos | Participation in a scheme | The scheme operator |
Framework of this publication. It describes how published rules and guidance fit together and is not a measurement, a survey or a study.
The open jar
An open cosmetic jar with a figure such as 12M or 24M. It is the period after opening: the number of months the product is expected to remain suitable once first opened, under specified storage.
It appears where the product's minimum durability exceeds thirty months, which means the presence of this symbol tells you something in itself. It is a duration, not a date, and it depends on you remembering when you opened the pack.
The hourglass
An hourglass or egg timer shape. It indicates a date of minimum durability, and it is a pointer: it tells you that a date exists and that it is printed elsewhere on the packaging, usually inked onto a crimp, a base or a shoulder.
It appears where the minimum durability is thirty months or less, so a pack carries this or the open jar, not both. The two markings are compared in period after opening and expiry dates.
The hand and open book
A hand pointing at an open book. It means refer to the enclosed or accompanying information, and it appears where a pack is too small to carry all the required particulars and they have been placed on a leaflet, a tag or the inside of a carton.
It is worth acting on. On a small pack the information it points to typically includes the directions and the ingredient list, which are the two most substantive pieces of content on any sun protection label.
The circled UVA
The letters UVA in a circle. Unlike the others in this list it is a performance mark, and unlike the others it comes from a Commission recommendation rather than from binding law.
It records that ultraviolet A protection reaches at least a third of the labelled factor, with a critical wavelength criterion. It is a threshold, it has no degrees, and its bar rises with the factor. It is examined at length in the UVA circle and the star rating.
The star rating
Where present, a row of stars describing the ratio between a product's ultraviolet A protection and its ultraviolet B protection. It is a proprietary British system used voluntarily, not a statutory mark, and a product can be sold here without it.
Because it expresses a ratio rather than a level, a high star count on a low factor product is not equivalent to the same count on a high factor one. It is the most commonly misread element on a British sun protection pack.
The estimated sign
A lower case e beside the quantity. It is a metrological mark relating to how the average quantity in a batch is controlled, under weights and measures rules. It says nothing about the product's composition, safety or performance.
Its presence next to performance related symbols is a good illustration of the general problem: a reader has no way of knowing which small mark relates to protection and which relates to filling machinery.
Packaging and recycling marks
A triangle of chasing arrows, a resin identification code, a scheme logo, a tidy man figure. These relate to the packaging, to recycling systems or to producer responsibility schemes.
Two things are worth knowing. A recycling triangle does not by itself establish that a pack is collected for recycling where you live, which depends on local arrangements. And a scheme mark records participation in a scheme rather than an environmental outcome.
Where a pack makes an environmental claim in words alongside these marks, that claim is governed by consumer protection law and the Green Claims Code, examined in reef safe and environmental claims.
Legibility, which is itself a requirement
An element that is easy to overlook is that the mandatory particulars must be indelible, easily legible and visible. That is a requirement in its own right, and it applies to the symbols as much as to the words.
In practice symbols are among the first things compromised when artwork is crowded. They shrink, they lose contrast against a busy background, and on a small pack they are pushed into a strip alongside recycling marks and metrological symbols where nothing is distinguishable from anything else.
The hand and open book symbol exists as a formal answer to this problem: where a pack genuinely cannot carry the required particulars legibly, they may be given on enclosed information instead. What that answer does not cover is a pack that carries everything at a size nobody can read, which satisfies presence without satisfying legibility.
For anybody auditing a pack, the test is the plain one the requirement implies: can the particulars be read, by an ordinary reader, in ordinary light, without assistance? A symbol cluster that fails that test is not compliant merely because every element is technically present.
Third party and private marks
Beyond these, packs may carry marks from private schemes: accreditation logos, association memberships, certification marks, charity partnerships and quality symbols.
None of them is a regulatory mark, and the questions that separate a meaningful one from a decorative one are the same in every category. Who operates the scheme, are its criteria published, is assessment carried out by somebody other than the applicant, and does the mark correspond to what the pack is claiming?
A mark that cannot answer those is a graphic device, and its position among regulatory symbols lends it a standing it has not earned.
Where to look for them
The symbols cluster in predictable places, and knowing where saves turning a pack over repeatedly.
The open jar or the hourglass sits with the durability information, usually near the base of the back panel or on the crimp of a tube. The hand and book, where present, sits close to the particulars it is standing in for. The circled ultraviolet A mark and any star rating sit on the front, near the factor, because they are performance claims and belong with the number they qualify. The lower case e sits beside the quantity statement. Packaging and scheme marks group together, typically in a corner, well away from anything about the product.
That grouping is itself a useful signal. Marks placed near the factor are making claims about performance. Marks grouped in a corner with the recycling triangle are about the container. Anything that has drifted between those two zones deserves a second look.
Symbols you will not find
It is worth naming a few marks people expect on a sun protection pack and will not find, because their absence is informative.
There is no official approval mark. No regulator issues one for cosmetics, no such symbol exists, and anything resembling one is a private scheme.
There is no symbol for the protection factor other than the printed figure and its category word, and no symbol denoting the testing standard used.
There is no symbol indicating water resistance. That claim is made in words, and where a duration or condition accompanies it, that too is in words.
And there is no symbol recording when the product was manufactured. The batch reference identifies a production run to the manufacturer and tells a reader nothing about age.
What to take from this
Open jar for period after opening, hourglass pointing to a date, hand and book for enclosed information, circled UVA for a performance threshold, stars for a voluntary ratio, e for metrology, and the rest for packaging or private schemes. One visual language, several unrelated systems.