or: What Happens When Personal Care Products are Similar Colours

Some of the full size bottles I had been traveling with are now down to less than 100ml so I thought it would be a good idea to transfer them to some smaller bottles and gain space and weight in my bag.

I had taken larger bottles with me as I wanted to lessen my impact on the environment where possible. Before you ask, yes, I carbon offset my flights.

Am I great at minimising my impact? No. But this post isn’t about that.

Back to what it is about…

There were four bottles, three with a light blue screw top lid and one with a pump. They were sitting on the bathroom vanity waiting to be filled.

For the observant, this does not match the photo to the left. This is because I had an extra bottle and another pump which I cut to size from the original toner bottle. I like a spray for my toner at the moment and wanted to also have a spray for the face wash (its original full size pump was lousy so this was a good opportunity to use another).

I decanted. I replaced the lid on the toner so it could keep the old one. I added the lids and pump to the others.

I recycled the full sized bottles and I moved onto my next location.

I washed and conditioned my hair. I cleansed and toned my face. I used the detergent to clean my reusable water bottle. I did this multiple times. Just like I always do (except I now wash and condition my hair less frequently thanks to my time in Madagascar. The cold salt-water showers helped break my habit of doing this daily).

Or so I thought.

Something wasn’t quite right. The products were an unfamiliar texture. They didn’t smell as I’d expect.

My cheeks began to fill out and become more plump and possibly shiny (or is that just the light?). A pimple appeared. My hair was soft yet not quite so full of bounce.

And therein lies the importance of labels.

* Thanks to Bush for the title to this post.