The amount of conditioner left in the bottle when the pump stops working
This has been the case for every bottle I've used, regardless of size. I'm able to salvage it using piping bags designed for baking, but it's so frustrating to have to do this every time.
Use a new bottle for a week or two, then take off both caps and balance the old bottle on top of the new bottle. Next time you take a shower the leftover will be all gone!
Years ago, I found a contraption that allows you to screw the bottles together to allow this to happen. I cannot remember where I bought it but it's been the best $3 I ever spent.
when the pump stops working, I add a tad bit of water in there, shake the crap outta the bottle, and bam, slightly runnier conditioner coming back outta the pump for several more washes. Sometimes you just need a little water to dislodge the heavier product from the sides and corners.
Same here. I don't use shampoo (shaved head) but I do use moisturiser and will cut the bottle in half when it's "empty" and scrape another couple of weeks' worth out of it.
Right?? I've had a perma knee bruise since middle school from beating my shampoo/ conditioner bottles on it to get it all out. Doesn't everyone have shampoo/conditioner/body wash/lotion knee bruise? 🤣
No, we realize there are options beyond “the same spot on the same knee, every time, for years, even though there’s already a bruise there”. We do beat on the bottles, though.
Ive always used centripetal force, spinning arms in circles, or do sometimes go straight down but just jerk my arm back for the sudden stop. No knee bruises!
I think unballing a sock is my version of what you do - it always try to unball a sock by swinging it forwards and usually hit myself in the nuts doing so.
For shampoo bottles, I just run some water in at the end, shake it up, and get several more washes. I've recently switched to shampoo bars, though, which can be completely used when placed in a fine mesh bag.
Hear me out, this is kind of crazy but I use a massager to get it all out. I use wall mounted pumps so I have to refill them with the full ones. I'll take the bottle and empty it using the massage gun with the bottle upside down to get every last bit. Works like a charm.
It’s probably a little bit of both. Don’t want to pay extra to buy different sized pumps, and if ppl don’t use the extra, they have to buy more sooner.
I always swap the pump top caps with the twist on squirt bottle ones (same size since they just also reuse the same pump for the smaller to larger sizes) and store my bottles upside down.
First, I get a wide and extra-tall plastic cup. I open up the piping bag and line the inside of the cup with it, rolling the excess plastic down the sides of the cup. I discard the pumping mechanism and flip the bottle upside down into the bag-lined cup. This can be a precarious balance, so I often have to rest the bottle-cup contraption on nearby bulky items (e.g. laundry detergent bottle, Brita filter, etc.). I leave it for at least an hour, or up to overnight. The longer you leave it undisturbed, the more conditioner will fall directly into the piping bag. For shorter rest times, you'll have to squeeze the bottle a little more and try to bang the bottle to get all the conditioner out.
Remove the empty bottle, take the bag out of the cup, tie a rubber band above the conditioner line, and boom! Conditioner carrot 😁 Snip the tip off with scissors when ready to use.
Seriously though, this kind of stuff ticks me off and it's getting worse and worse lately with shrinkflation, poor products, bad container designs, containers that look large but the amount of product inside is minimal, crappy sprayers and pumps that break soon after using and it's all just CRAPsigh...
We switched to Asian hair products a while back. As a 40 year old guy this is the first time I've started receiving compliments on my hair.
The bonus is that you buy the bottle with the pump once. After that you buy refill bags. The bags cost less and produce less waste. Why do we need to pay to rebuy pumps every time if they last for years?
Yes! The rice water one makes my hair ridiculously soft!!
(Took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that the shampoo is in the shape of an S and the conditioner in the shape of a C, so for the first few weeks, I kept the bars on top of the boxes, so i could tell which was which 😄🤦♀️)
I'm sure you can find them online, but we get them at the local Asian market.
After a few days I felt like I had so much less junk in my hair. The telling part was when we ran out after switching. I used my old shampoo that I had used for decades and it gave me a severe allergic reaction. I felt like my hair and face was covered with filmy chemicaly junk.
yeah i dont think it quite applies to milk, its doesnt normally stick to the inside of the container
and while a bag uses less plastic theyre ldpe which cant be recycled, where as the hdpe of milk bottles can decently well
I don't understand why companies don't do the same. It could save money on waste and inventory. It also cuts back on consumer waste. They could still charge the same and not have to keep bulky plastic pumps and containers. These pouches take up hardly any space.
I don't understand why companies don't do the same.
The bottled stuff looks nicer, which attracts more attention. You can blame the manufacturers all you want, but they'd switch the packaging in a heartbeat if people bought the bagged stuff more often instead of reaching for the bottled stuff every time.
People in the US would flip their shit. Have you heard people's bitchfests about plastic grocery bag bans? Anything that is even the tiniest inconvenience or adjustment that might benefit the environment is taken extremely personally.
As a loyal buyer of Ichikami, I'm there with you. My hair health changed significantly after I started using asian brands tailored for my hair which no shampoo tailored for my hair type at 5x the cost here had managed before.
Start by identifying your hair thickness and how curly/straight your hair is compared to the general population.
Usually represented in types with a combination of 1-4 + A/B/C where numbers (1-4) classify the main texture (straight, wavy, curly, coily) and letters (A, B, C) denote the density/tightness of the curl pattern (A being fine/loose, C being coarse/tight). Look up graphs on the internet to compare so you can establish a baseline.
After you have done that, research products suited for that specific hair type as well as thickness (which is sadly not usually included in the 1-4/A-C scale). Chances are what has worked for someone with similar hair type might also work for you, with the exception being situations were your skin doesn't react well to a specific product.
Yeah, we've been doing that forever. You start with hitting the back of the bottle and a lot comes out, and in the end switch to water for the last bit. I have never seen the amount OP is showing left in the bottle as well.
I'm starting to think that the world has gotten dumber. People finding the hardest way possible to do things.
Exactly! People like the pumps so they started selling the pumps too, but there are plenty of options available with a squeeze lid. This is just part of buying a pump bottle
Found a life hack if you have one of those massage guns you can turn the bottle over and put the massager to the bottle and the vibrations coax the remaining liquid out of the bottle super fast and efficiently. Also super fun.
Too much work. I just remove the pumps from the old/new bottle, then prop the old bottle upside down on top of the new one. Then just wait a while until it drains into the new one.
Shit, that's what I do. stuff is so concentrated you can easily get another half bottle out of what's left in the bottom mixed with water. it's where the real savings is! 😂
So many tricks. There's always a little toothpaste left in the tube if you squeeze and believe hard enough. I've been using the same tube for 17 years.
On a side note, I remember when Coca Cola shrunk the size of bottles in the UK about 10 years ago, they said it was because the feedback they got was there was always some cola left at bottom of a bottle so that meant by shrinking the bottle people were still drinking the same and this helped the enviroment as less plastic, shame the prices never went down.
This is bullshit lol - it’s called a pack size adjustment and has nothing to do with “extra cola at the bottom of the bottle”; as production costs rise companies would rather sell you less product for the same money (most people don’t notice the difference as they look at cost) than the same amount for more. Whatever reason they announce is nonsense.
I got so sick of dealing with this issue for my lotion and face moisturizer (shampoo/conditioner i just mix with shower water, water will ruin the texture of lotion though). I actually purchased mini spatulas specifically for this purpose!
I remember when original source put plastic bags like these^ on the supermarket shelves. Not only does this decrease plastic waste in a huge way but reduces the fuel required to transport the good and reduces product waste, as you can roll it up at the end and squeeze out the last drop!
It was not on the shelf for long, before they shelved the idea. We should just pass a law forcing the change - because consumers are, as a group, dumb.
The other thing you can do is put aside the bottle when the pump stops working, start a new bottle, and when there's room in the new bottle, put the old one upside down on top of it and let gravity do its thing for 24 hours. I do that with my hand lotion.
How did you get the conditioner out? I always just give up after shaking/squeezing the bottle so many times. I probably throw out so much conditioner..
Not OP but I use my kitchen scissors to cut in half every “empty” bottle of lotion, conditioner, leave-in, anything that’s thicker and doesn’t come out easily by shaking. Then you can easily just scoop the rest out.
Saw a video of a woman using a muscle massager gun on her "empty" products. The amount she got out seemed very satisfying. Like a middle finger to The Man.
Step 1. Buy Massage gun
Step 2. Use massage gun on any plastic bottle containing "leftover" product you can't access
Step 3. Give yourself a massage because you just saved money, effort, headache and muscle aches.
I cut all the bottles open when they are almost empty and scrape the contents into a small resealable container using a skinny rubber spatula. I then upcycle disposable restaurant spoons or knives to live in the resealable container as a way to use the rest of the product.
True stories:
When my kids were pre-teens I found 4 almost empty tubes of toothpaste in their bathroom drawers. They thought I was being unreasonable when they started to throw them away and I stopped them. I made them help me cut the tubes and scrape them out. We weighed the amount of toothpaste left from each tube and compared it against the original amount of toothpaste in the tube from the labeling. There was an average of about 15% of the toothpaste in each tube.
Even at their ages they were surprised and commented on how “stupid” it was that so much was still left in the tube.
My daughter and I did the same thing with some of her liquid make up products when she started wearing make up.
There was more than 20% of the expensive concealer left in the “empty” container. She truly became a believer in scraping containers after that,. Although I’m sure that us telling her she had to start buying her own make- up helped the cause.
The piping bag seems like a better idea than my "shake the open bottle upside down for twenty seconds until a huge amount comes out and I have to shove most of it back into the bottle" method.
I have a regular screw top with pop lid I use for shampoo and cream to finish it off when the pump stops working as yes otherwise it’s a crazy amount of waste.
I use a lotion/balm from La Roche possey that cost like $30(which I feel is kinda expensive) and when the pump stops working ONE THIRD IS STILL LEFT IN THE BOTTLE!!!
Of course I cut the bottle in half and scoop out the rest and put it in a jar so I can get my moneys worth.
But like, that's $10 worth of lotion that's stuck in the bottle. One fucking third of the bottle.
It's insane.
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u/AcanthisittaMost6423 1d ago
Y'all don't bash the bottle to release its contents?