We’ve had an email from Sylvia in a similar vein to our “how to use the last of everything” post a few months ago:

I love Avon products but I can’t for the life of me figure out how to get all of the gel out of the bottle when I can’t shake any more out!! Any suggestions??

Back in the day, I used to use a straw to get the last of my (apparently frizz-easing) hair gel out of the narrow, tall bottle – that was pretty messy but got a lot of the sticky gunk off the sides of the jar.

Depending on the gel’s use, you might be able to do the old add-water-and-swoosh-around trick used for shampoo — it’ll make the gel a little more watery but that’ll be fine for some gels.

If you’re losing a lot of gel, and the bottle is plastic, you might want to see if you could swap to getting it in flexible tubes rather than bottles – that way you can cut open the tube and scrap out the stuff left on the sides.

Any other suggestions?

We’ve had an email from Sally:

Hi. My eldest collected lots of those gel awareness bracelets when they were all the rage a few years ago but now she says she doesn’t want them any more… What can I do with them?

I imagine like other rubber-ish items (like rubber gloves), they could be used to provide extra grip on sometimes slippery or cold surfaces – like metal handles of shovels.

Is there enough give in them to be able to use them as very strong elastic bands?

Any other suggestions?