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So I’m walking through the security line at LaGuardia when a
guard holds up my quart-sized baggie and yells, “Whose is this?” Uh-oh, this spells TROUBLE.
It turns out that although all the bottles in my pitifully
small assortment of toiletries conform to the current regs,
I have committed a serious transgression (even though I can’t find it detailed
anywhere). Because my favorite facial
cleanser is not actually available for sale in a 3 oz size I have put some of
it into a generic small container that has NO LABEL. (I was supposed to create a label????)
Now I’m just a regular red-blooded American woman trying not
to check my bag for an overnight business trip – after all, if they lost my
luggage I wouldn’t have anything to wear, not to mention I find hanging by the
luggage carousel DREARY.
But now as this guy nonchalantly throws out my brand new,
unlabeled neat little container that is – I might mention again – 3 ounces – I
want to SCREAM:
Cosmetic companies of the world, hear my CRY. I’m just this ordinary chick who travels for
business and hates to check her bags – WHY AREN’T YOU HERE FOR ME?? (And, I might mention, looking around the
security lines, I don’t think I’m all that rare.)
But no one answers.
In fact, this spring when I went into the Kiehl’s store in Boston and asked about my FAVORITE product Crème with Silk Groom - which really does help tame frizz I might add – a haughty
sales clerk informed me the company had NO PLANS to make a 3 oz size. Although, she coughed, they had thought about
it.
All I know is that if I were a modern cosmetic company I’d
make a point of standing shoulder to shoulder with the female business traveler.
(I’ll say again, our numbers are pretty impressive). I’d start an Airline Survival product line
which would be carried everywhere from Barney’s to Target and I’d put up a
pop-up kiosk in every hub in America
to replace whatever got thrown away. I
might even start a 3 oz website which aggregated all the products a girl might
need on the road. And I would most
certainly begin the drive to donate the confiscated cosmetics to young women in
need – who knows where those things all end up.
I would stand for the inalienable right of women everywhere
to keep their bags and still look good the next morning.
In short, I’d be a professional girl’s best friend.
Wouldn’t you?
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I had apparently done it incorrectly (I won't lie, I wasn't completely aware of the rules), but they wanted to throw my stuff away. HELL NO! That bag had my Polo Blue, my array of hair products, my facial cleansers and moisturizers...you get the picture. The damage would have been devastating.
I stopped the security official from tossing my prized possessions and grudgingly checked the entire bag.
I think it's a brilliant idea for companies to produce in regulation-size containers.