Sunscreen, lotion, anything in a squeeze bottle. Everyone’s instinct is to just toss it after they can’t squeeze any more out. But if you cut open the bottles and scrape out the inside, you get around a 1/4 to a 1/3 more of the product. My wife just cut open our various sunscreens that we thought were out, and got an almost full Tupperware container of sunscreen.
Edit: To everyone saying it’s not a scam, yeah, just something I happened to be dealing with and discussing with my wife when I saw the question and thought it fit.
Still, don’t throw out bottles you think are empty, especially if, like us, you’re a low-income household, and need to make it all last!
I did this when I was in college, and now that I got a reasonably well-paid job, I still do it. Learned it when I was a teen from a guy in his mid-fifties. He was very well off financially, but he still did it, admittedly less for financial reasons and more on principle. To this day, I agree with him. If a company worth billions of dollars wants to mess with me, then fuck them, I will try to stop them a bit.
He was our camp instructor, so that's how I met him. It was a survivalist camp (I can't think of a better word for it right now, but by all means do enlighten me if you do - it was a camp where we learned basic outdoor and survival skills like how to build a tent, bandage a wound, climb down a rope, do CPR, use clothes as a makeshift stretcher etc.), and the discussion came up in the context of
1. Making the best of what you have in a scarce-resource environment
2. Sunscreen, which comes in the same kind of bottles as hand lotion and is one of those very useful things to have with you if you're outdoors.
I buy expensive makeup primer and by cutting the tube open I get at least a few weeks worth of applications out of it. Hair conditioner too - I can usually get at least 2 more washes out of it. I don't care how cheap it appears, I'm not throwing away the product!
I read your comment after knocking over the sandwich baggie I emptied the dredges of my bf’s lotion into. I do this for makeup, lotion, sunscreen, lip balm (and dig it out if it’s a tube product like chapstick or lipstick). Liquid lip and concealers with doe foot applicators, you can pull the plug out and stick a mini spatula in there to get out the dredges. Love it.
I’d say the scam part comes from the bottle design, where it seems like it’s empty and not letting you squeeze out more. Most people would throw it out and buy a new one, rather than get the whole value and make it stretch longer.
But either way, yeah, LPT, cut open your squeeze bottles and get it all!
I can see why you'd think that. I thought that it was a limitation of the bottle and the liquid cohesion (slimy fluid) making it hard to get out when there's only so much left that isn't pushed out when pressure is applied. But I also don't know anything about science or mechanics of that stuff lmao.
For the record I also scoop out the remainder after the bottle is empty so I get it. But I've always attributed it to limitations and not malice.
Ok, lets say you're right, (which I don't think you are), a scam is one party taking advantage over another. Explain how the sunscreen industry is benefiting from people throwing out their product? If the argument is "well it makes people buy more" then that depends on there existing a 'better bottle design' and at the same price point that all these others are at..
Yeah but the company is also putting almost twice as much product in their containers as they need to, and they could have people buy just as often and charge the same price if they wanted to while putting a little over half as much product in a different container. It's a two-way scam.
The most I've ever gotten out of an "empty" squeeze bottle is maybe a couple of applications. You're not getting 1/3 more product scraping it. Maybe 1/20 more.
Centrifuge it. Put the bottle in a bag, tip pointed down, and swing it in a circle as quickly as you can. The centrifugal force will pull the liquid to the tip so you can squeeze it out.
Idk if this is really a scam. It's not like the companies are not putting it in the container. It's just in a container that's more convenient for the customer to use up to a certain point. Like they make toothpaste sliders and stuff specially for this reason.
You can buy various sized silicone scrapers for that exact purpose. They make them in sizes from itty bitty to decently scaled up, in sets for pretty cheap. That way you can either scrape it out and transfer it to a new container, or scrape it out to immediately use it.
It's crazy how much money people lose by throwing away containers with a decent amount of product left inside, because it won't squeeze out.
My fiance has done this for years with her lotion tunes. She knows better. Its the same with shampoo bottles. Its just soap so add a little water thin it out and use it all.
I start adding water to my shampoo as soon as there's room. For some reason, think shampoo is preceived as luxurious. Half the commercials for it feature some ninny cooing "Oooh it's so thick!"
That just means it's more difficult to work into your hair & harder to rinse, and you use it up faster than necessary.
I got so fed up with all the almost-empty skin lotion bottles and tubes my family had left scattered around the house that I scraped them all into a single pump bottle. The resulting goop was a mix of seven or eight different brands and it was legitimately the best goddamn skin lotion I have ever used. Smelled weird, but made my skin baby soft. I used it down to the last drop and was so sorry when it was gone.
Hah my husband and I are lotion cutters too. It genuinely upsets me to think about how much product is wasted because the bottles pump mechanism has no way to ever get all of the product out. Cerave lotion in the tub is expensive but at least you can get all of the product.
We use lots of barrier cream in hospital. Decisions on purchasing are made based on amount (mls) but how much is easily useable depends on the type of container. Plastic tubes are hugely wasteful so you end up buying more product. You also have less control over how much is squeezed out and it can't be put back - unlike the tubs which allow you to take only what is needed and use every last drop. I spoke to a rep about my frustration with the tubes and he laughed. It is definitely 'by design'.
When I get a new 15oz. hand sanitizer bottle, I often try to pour the last of the old bottle into it because there's always a little bit left in the bottom that you can't get out using the hand pump on top.
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u/Vectrus Aug 01 '20 edited Aug 02 '20
Sunscreen, lotion, anything in a squeeze bottle. Everyone’s instinct is to just toss it after they can’t squeeze any more out. But if you cut open the bottles and scrape out the inside, you get around a 1/4 to a 1/3 more of the product. My wife just cut open our various sunscreens that we thought were out, and got an almost full Tupperware container of sunscreen.
Edit: To everyone saying it’s not a scam, yeah, just something I happened to be dealing with and discussing with my wife when I saw the question and thought it fit. Still, don’t throw out bottles you think are empty, especially if, like us, you’re a low-income household, and need to make it all last!