There are the beauty products you try once or twice before they end up gathering dust on a shelf, and then there are the beauty products you slather on every day, getting through a tub of the stuff a week. It feels like a no-brainer, then, for brands to super-size their most popular products, reducing waste, saving you money and ensuring you’re always stocked up on your faves.
With Christmas coming, Susanne Kaufmann has launched a 500ml bottle of her cult Winter Oil Bath. For those of us that pour a perhaps too-generous glug into every bath, this can only be good news – plus the glass bottle is fully recyclable, making it a guilt-free purchase. Admittedly it doesn’t come cheap at £134, but is that not what festive gift lists are for? (Speaking of gift lists, Diptyque’s limited-edition 1.5kg Feu de Bois candle, in its glitzy metallic pot, is the ultimate gold-ticket item.)
In terms of skin, mega-sized bottles of your daily cleanser make perfect sense, cutting down on your packaging use and saving on waste. Garnier’s cult Micellar Cleansing Water now comes in a hefty 700ml bottle, promising an impressive 350 uses, whilst model favourite Bioderma offers its own micellar water in a 500ml pump bottle often called upon by make-up artists backstage. Toners, acid exfoliators and essences are in on the action too, with sustainability-conscious brand Ren selling its Ready Steady Glow Daily AHA Tonic in a 500ml size and Pixi’s bestselling Glow Tonic also available as a 500ml bottle.
Super-sized beauty products often come with super-sized price tags, but over time they can actually work out more economically. One arena in which buying big works well is hair, where jumbo pump bottles not only ensure you spend less money over time, but also give your bathroom salon-chic vibes. Aveda’s shampoos and conditioners come in mega litre-sized bottles (if in doubt, try Shampure – we’d buy it for the smell alone), whilst the Bumble and Bumble website has a specific section for “value sizes” with a one-litre bottle of its Gentle Shampoo priced at £67.50, whilst the 250ml bottle comes in at £22.50 (you do the beauty maths).
And if you’re on a mission to cut back on your use of single-use plastics, look to this smart solution from bath and body brand Bramley. Rather than repeat-buying bottles of the brand’s herbal-scented Hand Wash, invest in a mega five-litre version, which comes with two empty glass pump bottles for different sinks in your home. Simply refill them any time you’re running low, and rest safe in the knowledge that 100 per cent of packaging is recycled, recyclable or biodegradable.
Convinced? There’s no excuse to run out of your favourite products again.