Scoop Your Lip Balms

As the weather gets colder, I will definitely be relying on my lip balm. I have vivid memories of being in middle school and visiting my cousins during the winter. They lived in the northeast and it was cold. I didn't have anything to put on my lips and they were dry and cracked. It was a pretty brutal week. Overnight, they'd begin to heal, and then during the day with talking and eating, they'd crack again. 

Since then, I started to put something on my lips every night before bed, winter or not. This habit still continues today and I have a surplus of lip balms which I slowly work my way through.

Not sponsored by any of these companies.

Recently, I reached a point where I had three tubes of lip balm which were all "used" but I hadn't completely cleaned out yet. You see, once the lip balm is flat and can no longer be swiped across your lips, there is still a lot of balm left inside which you have to dig out or throw away. Having used up three sticks this way, I finally decided to grab a cotton swab and scoop out the remainder of the balms.  

If you've never seen how these lip balms are made, there is a plastic "cup" at the bottom that holds the stick of balm. They're all designed with some sort of built-in "stabilizer" inside to hold the stick together as you use it and twist it higher and higher. As a result, there is a lot of balm left inside of each tube once it is "flat". 

These are what my tubes look like once I've emptied them completely. 
Two have center rods and one has indents on the perimeter of the circle. 

It just worked out where I had an empty moisturizer container to deposit all my extra lip balm into. I use my finger to apply it now, but there has been plenty to last. I emptied my lip balm tubes on September 1st so we are just over two weeks since then. My guess is I will have enough to last me through the end of the month and maybe some more. 

It was satisfying to throw away these three tubes of lip balm. I couldn't bring myself to do it before scooping the remainder out because I knew how much product was still leftover. Once this surplus in my container is used up, I will be more than happy to bring out a new stick to start using and once again be able to swipe on my lips. 

Four years ago, I started cutting my lotion tubes in order to use up all the product there. Now, I scoop my lip balms.

Anyone else have their own creative ways of using every last bit of product before trashing?