Good To The Last Drop

When it comes to the end of a product, sometimes it's joy because you finally made it to the end of something you didn't quite like but forced yourself to use up and there's a sense of accomplishment. Other times it's sadness because you're down to the dregs of that high end or holy grail product-this is usually where I'm at. In the last week I hit the bottom of two products-my high end Hourglass Mineral Veil primer ($18 for .33 oz, $52 for 1 oz or $72 for 2 oz, Sephora.com) and, one of my favorite lotions, be Delectable Lemon & Cream hand cream ($10 for 4 oz or $14 for 4 x 2 oz variety pack kohls.com).
I have two things I do to make sure that I get absolutely every last bit of the product.

The first is to use a beauty spatula-I got mine from Sephora for $6 but you can also find them on various other sites such as Amazon or The Container Store. This is great for products that are in bottles, like the one my primer is in, because of the small, tapered end and thin scraping sides of the rubber head. The spatula has a long handle to reach all the crevices and to the bottom.

I had been using the straw part from the pump to try and scrape out the last bit of my Mineral Veil primer but it wasn't working very well. As you can can see, there was quite a bit left of the sides and near the top.

After using the beauty spatula, I was able to pull out a ton more of the primer, enough for six more days worth of product! Here you can see the after of the bottle and all the product I was able to pull out. Not bad, eh?

To get to the last bits of a product in tubes, the easiest way to get in there is to cut the tube in half. After that you can use the spatula to scrape out the remnants and put them into another container, OR you can use the top half to create a "lid" back on the bottom. I usually do this when I don't have another container or with products I keep on my counter/desk. This keeps the product from drying out and lets me clean it out before recycling.

Here's to show just how much was left in the tube that had become difficult and time consuming to get anything out of.

As you get to the bottom, for longer tubes, you can continue to cut off rings so you don't hurt yourself. The new lid you created will still fit inside the bottom.

 

Using these two methods, I make sure I get everything I paid for and buy myself a little more time until my next purchase.