User-friendly packaging

Recently I received free samples of a cleanser. When I saw the package, I noticed the screw threads on the opening and thought to myself, "Nice, we can open and close the sample packet."

However, when I opened the package, the top snapped, and I thought, "Eh? It's supposed to break after all?"

For a while I didn't think of it any more...then last night while brushing my teeth, I was just looking at the package in front of me...and I thought again, what are those screw threads for then? It's not like it makes the package look better.

I had left the cap partially stuck on (instead of twisting the whole thing off), so I now twisted it off and rinsed it to see whether the cap was actually hollow and could be fitted onto the screw-threaded opening.

And that's when I noticed that even though the part of the cap that was attached to the package was flat, the other end was hollow! So we are supposed to snap the cap off, turn it over, and screw the cap on to close the package.

And voilà!

On the left is the unopened packet, and on the right is the one that has been opened, and closed back after using!

This makes me think of the other kind of cap that is used on ointment tubes. The kind of tube that has a sealed aluminium surface under its cap, that you need to poke through when you first use it. At first we used a knife or a screwdriver to poke through the foil, then one day I saw a package that had instructions on how to open it: Unscrew the cap, turn the cap over and prick the seal with the top of the cap. The cap of these tubes is always hollow with a pointy cone inside the hollow space, with the hollow space just the right size to fit over the tube opening, and therefore with the cone nicely-positioned to prick the seal! And the genius of that kind of design is that the pointy end will not prick your finger because your finger is not small enough to enter the hollow part!

I wonder how many people don't notice this kind of genius packaging...it's kinda a waste if they are not put to use!