I have used this Japanese Nivea “water gel” sunscreen for a few years. It usually costs about $13 to $16 on Amazon for 140 g. I like the water gel sunscreens (Biore also has a good one, albeit it tends to be slightly more expensive) because they go on very smoothly. While I am not the best sunscreen/sunblock test case (I am not particular burn prone – save for one incident at a golf tournament more than 10 years ago – especially compared to some 2D people I have covered on site), I have had no sunburn incidents while using it.
I ordinarily buy a new bottle when I run out. However, when I was previously shopping for a new one, I noticed that the prices from various sellers (I hope all legit) had gone up slightly. The best deal was a refill pouch, so I went with that along with a bottle from a different brand called “Skin Aqua” (still have not tested).
The pouch arrived without any delivery horror stories. Because my previous bottle of Nivea water gel was not totally empty, the pouch remained unopened for a few weeks. However, yesterday morning, I ran out of Nivea water gel. I was about to go outside. The time was right to open the refill.
It had vaguely occurred to me when I bought the refill that pouring the contents of the refill pouch into my empty sunscreen bottle could be beyond me. My fine motor skills are not the greatest for all things other than for creating beautiful art. But behold, the following picture displays my triumph.
There you see the now-full bottle of Nivea water gel and an empty refill pouch. Significantly, there were no incidents of wasted water gel other than a few drops on the side of the bottle. I do not like to brag other than to regale you with stories of rescued trash cans and pigeons as sell as with broken link reports, but I my efforts here were objectively praiseworthy.
How did I do it? The “people” want to know.
Credit goes to Nivea for making the refill easy – even though I could not read the instructions because the instructions were in Japanese. The top left of the pouch indicates where you need to tear it to begin pouring. It tore very neatly and easily. When I started pouring the gel into the empty bottle, the gel came out in a neat stream, making it easy to avoid spilling. I was curious about how it worked – my investigation revealed a tiny “straw” where I tore the pouch which functioned to direct the water gel sunscreen in a neat way.
Had you asked me a month or two ago whether I would have an easier time setting up a new universal remote with my TV and soundbar or refilling a bottle of sunscreen from a pouch, I would have guessed the former would be easier. This was not so. Similarly, if you asked me whether it would be easier to make ONScripter-EN visual novels with MIDI sound work properly on Linux or refilling the sunscreen bottle, I would have guessed the former. This, too, was not so. The Nivea water gel process greatly surpassed my expectations for ease-of-refill. Would (will?) buy again.