Labelling on bathroom products

Exactly my feelings too. I always put the shampoo on the left and conditioner on the right!

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Been a bug bear of mine for years. I now just use a 2 in 1 shampoo/conditioner, solves the problem.

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Yes, that always works.

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It would definitely improve my bathroom language if i could tell which was the shampoo. Thanks for bringing this one up!

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Absolutely true! Maybe we need to settle for a combined shampoo/conditioner?

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This topic needs to be enlarged to include all types of labels. It has become trendy on a worldwide basis to use small text often on a coloured background which compounds the problem. As a retired artist/designer I was taught that text was meant to be read. I wonder if there is an international journal for creative directors, graphic designer etc where such a conversation/campaign could be pursued. This needs to be addressed on an international level because few of the labels we read are produced here.

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Talking about sizes on anything that has ingredients well to say mainly food why do they make it so hard to read especially on chocolate if you have bought cherry ripe they are the worst to read. its so small and tiny print. maybe not all chocolates are the same but i hate reading those cherry ripe bars.

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Keeping the food label subject alive, we had some dry pasta in the pantry. When I went to look at the ingredients, the words were in small black letters on transparent plastic with the pasta showing through behind it. Not a hope in hell of even being able to identify half a dozen letters in the whole panel. If the government has deregulated label laws then they need to bring the laws back into play to force companies to make sure everything is easy to read, because the companies themselves donā€™t really care about it.

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Colour coding for the bottles makes it a lot easier, the brand I use does just that and in large enough font

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I donā€™t have a scanning microscope!
but after getting my reading glasses out of my backpack on onto my face and still not being to read the label I resort to getting my mobile phone out and taking a photo of the label and then opening the photo in an app that lets me zoom in (or simply use a Magnifier app)

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Well I guess the shower is important because people donā€™t wear glasses when showering so you would think that manufacturers would take that on board and have a big S or C on the bottles. The other area that really bothers me is the very small size on the blister packs of paracetamol and Ibuprofen and similar pain relief. Rather than printing the name of the medicine in a reasonable size, the makers insist on printing Do not use if foil is broken about 10 times. The tinfoil label is harder to read where the label is attached to the plastic packet and sometimes the brand is larger than the product name. A much more thoughtful label is used on Panadol Rapid tablets. No superfluous details just ā€œPanadol Rapid Paracetamol 500mg Use only if foil is intactā€ White text on a strong green background which is much easier to read than most of the others. The product name is a reasonable size and the colour combination has been well thought out.

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I believe there is a set size for type for Australian packaging, but Iā€™m not too sure about overseas products. I check packaging for ingredients Iā€™m allergic to and some of the shampoo or conditioner typefaces are very difficult to read. In my shower I have the shampoo standing up & the conditioner upside down so I can tell them apart easily and avoids needing glasses in the shower.

I, too, have issues with the size of fonts on packaging. Approx 20 years ago I used to work in the Marketing Department of a large food manufacturer in Melbourne, and there were requirements then regarding minimum sizes and styles of fonts on packaging - at least on Australian packaging. These days I wonder if it isnā€™t overseas goods that provide the difficult reading, like too small print, with white fonts on pale colours on soft packaging like pasta, cereals, baking products.

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Yep - I use the same system. A dob of contrasting nail polish on one or the other would do the trick, too.

I put a thick elastic band around the shampoo bottle to distinguish it from the conditioner. Has the added advantage of helping to make it less slippery too.

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That sounds like a good idea, except my partnerā€™s allergic to anything thatā€™s rubbery. I suppose we could use something else. I have a scalp condition that means I have to be careful what products I use. I find QV is the safest brand, but the Mrs bought some the other day that has a different colour scheme to what we previously had. Small white text on a light peach background as opposed to the previous small white text on a blue background. Even with my glasses on Iā€™m having trouble reading which is which due to the peach and white colour combo, so thereā€™s no hope for me at all when Iā€™m in the shower and half blind. This brand doesnā€™t even have the conditioner bottles printed upside down. Apart from the barely legible print on the front that says shampoo or conditioner, the bottles look exactly the same. I have to make sure I position each bottle in a special location away from each other before I shower so I know which one to grab first.

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You can get silicone bands that avoid the rubber issue.

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I know we should not have to do this but what I do is to decant the conditioner into a square bottle upon purchase and leave the shampoo in a taller round container . It works for me but as mentioned it is an extra step we should not have to take .

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Whilst we are on the subject of reading labels, what about the mental challenge of sticking supermarket stickers over the very information customers are seeking to read such as ingredient list, directions for use, nutritional panel etc rather than in a less obstructive space? You canā€™t remove the sticker because it rips off the information you actually want! A lose lose for the customer.

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There is also Presbyopia which inflicts us all as we get older. Having writing on coloured backgrounds makes its reading even harder for those of us who are getting older.

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