Top's not Tops

Every good day starts with a nice hot(tish) shower & shampoo.

These days, it doesn't take much shampoo, but I stick to the same pure & simple baby shampoo (Mixa-bébé) I have used for as long as I can remember.
Presumably from when we first had a baby & I had real hair.
I like the product, with no perfume, no colouring, no body-building, no nothing.


I also used to like the bottle, which was transparent so you could see how much was left, and had a particularly neat "rocker switch" cap.
The cap allowed simple one-finger opening & closing, had a not-too-large orifice for easy dosing, and allowed you to stand the bottle bottom-up when it was nearly empty, so you didn't need to waste time & hot water waiting for the last dregs to drain down.
The cap was so perfect that, logically, it should have become universal.


Instead, they apparently decided to standardize on another cap from the Garnier/L'Oréal parts bin.
Presumably it's cheaper.
It is a flip-top operated by a shallow-angled slippery blob which you can't open with wet hands.
Would you try to sell shampoo in a bottle you can't open with wet hands?
Nor me.

If you push really hard on the too-shallow angle of the slippery blob & you don't slip, it will sometimes open.
In that case, as likely as not, the sharp edge then uncovered will cut your thumb.

As if that wasn't enough, the same blob prevents the bottle being stood upside down.
Presumably to encourage you to throw away the dregs & buy a new bottle.
The same reasoning that leads to the over-large orifice so you usually end up with more shampoo than you need.

Until recently, we managed to keep several good old bottles & refill them from the nasty new ones, but they have gradually expired.
Now, every new bottle has to be attacked with nail clippers, to remove the shallow angle & sharp edge from the blob & leave a non-sharp lip which you can open with one hand & no blood.
This should not be necessary.



The latest bottle we just bought has added a little grippy tread pattern to the blob, so apparently they have at last noticed the problem.
I wait with bated breath & much scepticism, to see if it works.

Of course the bottle still will not stand upside down.

I tried several times to contact Mixa-bébé/LaScad/Garnier/L'Oréal about this, without finding any contact route.
While writing this post, I have at last found one, so will give it a try.
I will suggest that, if they can't re-introduce the old cap, they could at least take away the blob & replace it with a flat plate with blunt protruding lip, and maybe even use a smaller hole.
That would allow easy opening, safe opening, easier dosing & standing upside down – and should be a tiny cost saving too.

Somehow, I don't expect them to jump at it.

Parting thot: "Feedback: the breakfast of champions." - Ken Blanchard

P.S. Edit: After 7 months, still no answer from Mixa-Bébé.
As expected, the little grippy tread pattern did not help much & I am back to chopping the sharp lip off the blob...