I’m not sure if this has happened to you before, but it happened to me very frequently, especially when I’m traveling. Any creams or lotions I have in tubes will burst out in abundance whenever I uncap/unscrew them either on the plane, or when I’m unpacking my toiletries bag. This happens too with handcreams in my purse. It’s not as though I didn’t cap or screw them on tightly; the stuff just explodes out of the spout. I’ve experienced this with hand creams, body lotions, and even lipgloss.

I remembered wiping down my tinted moisturiser, handcream and lipgloss on a flight back to Malaysia. Thank goodness I had enough wet wipes and tissues. Let’s just say that the passenger next to me was none too pleased with the amount of mess I made on the fold-down table 😛

Now what happened was that air pressure had built up in the tubes. This can happen when you’re at high altitudes, or even just moving the tubes a lot (e.g. a tube of hand cream can burst on you if it hasn’t been uncapped in a long time, and you’ve been moving your bag a lot).

What you can do to reduce that pressure build-up is:
1. Shake as much lotion/cream to the bottom of the tube as possible (away from the cap).
2. Uncap the tube.
3. Squeeze out some air from the tube with your index finger and thumb.
4. With your finger and thumb still holding the tube, put the cap back on.

The next time you uncap the tube, there will not be as much built up pressure, and the lotion will not burst out of the spout. Please note though that up till now, I’ve only experienced this problem with tubed products, not bottled ones.

A word of advice: never depot or decant your lotions to the max (not all the way to the top!). Leave some room for the pressure buildup, or by the time you reach your destination and uncap the tubes (even bottles), it will explode.