It's always a sad day when you go to use one of your favorite products and only a drop comes out before the bottle makes that horrible empty pfffft sound. Eventually, you give up trying to squeeze the life out of it, and in the trash it goes.
In an enlightening cosmetics hack TikTok video, Alyssa Barber (@newlifestyle) revealed just how much remaining product might be hiding in that seemingly empty bottle or tube. In the now-viral video, Barber cuts open her favorite hair cream to show plenty of the product still inside before introducing viewers to a tiny spatula she uses to scrape out the remaining product.
@newlifestyle Best $2.25 I've spent. You can also just search "product spatula" on Google! #reuse #sustainability #sustainableliving #ecofriendly #ecofriendlyliving #zerowaste #zerowasteliving #lowwastelifestyle ♬ Love You So - The King Khan & BBQ Show
Barber shows us how she transfers the extra hair cream into another empty container for further use.
(Tip from us: Empty pill bottles or those little takeout cups that come with salad dressing or condiments are great for this, too, after you wash them out. You can also use any small empty plastic containers you have around the house to put some product in to take on vacation rather than buying travel size or special small bottles just for the purpose!)
Although Barber's hack is simple, using it regularly could save you money.
🗣️ When you're choosing health and beauty products, which of these factors is most important to you?
🔘 Cost 💰
🔘 Brand name 💅
🔘 Ingredients 🧪
🔘 Packaging 📦
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
Let's say you typically go through a tube of your favorite hair balm every month. That means you're buying (and throwing out) 12 tubes a year. By using this technique to stretch how much you get from each tube, you gain a few more weeks of use. If you multiply that over a few of your products, you're buying less overall each year, saving yourself money and keeping more plastic containers out of the trash.
And that's important because only 5–6% of plastic gets recycled in the U.S every year, even when you do your best to wash out your containers and put them in the recycling bin.
Seems like a simple win-win. And honestly? That little scraper seems pretty satisfying to use.
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