Hand Sanitizer Craze

I'm sure you are all familiar with the pocketbac craze that has been going on since last year or so. Thanks to Bath & Body Works, the multibillion dollar beauty industry has - once again -, successfully, turned a common daily, regular product called hand sanitizer into a fashion statement that everybody's gotta have. 

I first noted the craze on the internet, in the blogosphere and YouTube community. Some people even go so far as of collecting hundreds of the mini hand sanitizers from Bath & Body Works. I mean, hello, it's a hand sanitizer! You're supposed to use it for, like, when you are using the public toilet! But again, we women love to collect beautiful things, no matter how impractical or useless. And BBW hand sanitizers do come in pretty packaging and such lovely smells. Not to mention the cute holder that comes in so many great options. AND they are useful, too! AND how practical is that to hang a bottle of hand sanitizer on your bag for super easy access? So, even for a frugal gal like me, plunging in to this particular latest trend is somehow... justifiable, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, I was waiting for the craze to hit Asia, and it did, a couple of months ago. And as I was in a shopping ban, as I mentioned in this post here, plus I didn't have much time to stroll to the mall - being a mother of a super active eight months old baby and working full time - I did the second best. I went online and purchase some pink, strawberry flavored (flavored, hello?) Hello Kitty hand sanitizer with its pink silicone pocketbac holder. 

I paid with Paypal, and everything I bought on Paypal were not considered shopping, since the little amount I got there I earned from my blog, like paid post and stuff. So, yes, it's a justifiable purchase. No dent in our household budget. Besides, it's less than a dollar for each bottle. In total it's about a five dollar purchase. It's not that I have much in my Paypal account anyway!

I got four of them (minimum order), very cheap because they are from China, and terribly cute. They are not BBW, but hey, who cares? Plus, I can reuse the bottle and refill them with grocery store bought hand sanitizer. I received the package after about three weeks or so, and three out of the four were bad products. The Hello Kitty stickers were peeled off, and the sticker was what made them cute in the first place! Well, at least they're cheap.

This is what the good one looks like, hanging from my purse.

Despite my initial disappointment, I was quite happy with how useful this little thing is. Because it just hangs from my purse handle, I don't need to fish around my bag to find it, which is very useful when I'm in a hurry, and pretty convenient when I'm not in a hurry. ^__^  And since I'm a frugal gal, I decided not to waste anything and get creative with the other three.

For this one, I peeled off the Hello Kitty sticker completely, and wrap one side with this colorful glittery, colorful, checkered tape I've already got in my stationery collection. See how gorgeous it looks hanging from my purple sequined purse.

The other, again, I peeled off the Hello Kitty sticker and put on a little puffed up, cute yellow duck sticker here. Isn't it just adorable! I love!

I still have one more, but I decided to keep it for extra. You see, now I have three different models of hand sanitizer instead of just four similar Hello Kitty ones! And I can always peeled off the stickers and the tapes and change the cover with other themes! I'm going to have fun!

I decided to hang this one from my diaper bag. You always, always, always, can use hand sanitizer when you go out with a baby. Always.

Last but not least, while on ebay, I also got this pink and gold, alloy, rose shaped purse hanger for three dollars with free shipping, I think it's very handy and useful, because when going out, I don't like to put my bag on the floor. With this purse hanger, I can just hang my purse off the table so it won't get dirty. Not to mention that this little thing is just super cute! I purposedly choosed this kind of model with U shaped handle because you can hang your purse much better on the U hook, instead of just a rounded O shape.

This is how the hand sanitizer and purse hanger look together hanging from my mustard color bag. ^__^

What do you think of my mini online haul, Friends?