I travel everywhere with one bag. Partly to avoid the hassle of checking my bag and rolling suitcases. I also pack light and don’t care too much about fashion. But most importantly, I find it fun to optimize shit that doesn’t need optimizing.
The most recent victim was deodorant. I don’t like buying travel-size anything if a normal version exists. It’s more expensive and worse for the environment, and goes against my principles. TSA doesn’t regulate solids, so I can bring a full-size stick anyways, but it’s bulky.
And yesterday I was bored and feeling nostalgic about the science experiments we used to do in school.
So I had an idea.
The idea
The idea was simple:
- Empty my lip balm tube
- Slice off a chunk of my existing deodorant
- Microwave
- Pour
- Wait
- Profit
What could go wrong?
What went wrong
I chopped a slab off the top of my deodorant stick with a butter knife, diced it, dropped the chunks into a small porcelain bowl, and popped it in the microwave for 10 seconds.
I checked on it, but it still wasn’t fully liquified, so I added another 10 seconds.
About 8 seconds in, the bowl exploded.
Not dramatically; it just separated into two clean halves, straight down the middle, as if someone had cleaved it with a razor-thin axe.
I stood there for a moment trying to process what had happened. The bowl was supposed to be microwave-safe. I had microwaved food in it many times. I looked up the product listing later: "Dishwasher-, freezer-, microwave- and oven-safe to 350°F."
My best guess is that there was a pre-existing microfracture or something. A secondary suspect is that the deodorant doesn’t have enough water to evenly distribute heat, so one spot got way hotter than the rest, which might not happen with most food.
Round two
I did some research this time, and glass seemed to be a good candidate material. I grabbed a Pyrex container, and chopped fresh chunks off the deodorant stick just in case the leftover wax from the broken bowl had bits of porcelain in it.
Here is the setup I had going.
I melted this down in about 30 seconds, and then carefully poured out the liquid from one of the corners of the glass directly into the tube. In hindsight I should have used something smaller (lost some deodorant here to residue).
While this was setting, I quickly cleaned the bowl and hid half of the evidence as decor (still looking for a use for the other half).
Aftermath
Once it set, I was able to fully extend the tube -- it seems usable! I am excited to try this on my upcoming trips. By my measurements, this fits 4g of deodorant, which is enough for about a week. In theory if I use less than the full stick, I can still just refill it by repeating the experiment with a smaller amount of deodorant. I do have some small concerns about the surface area and the practicality of application; I’ll report back on this.