Baco Scent...sations

Even as it was scanned at the checkout, I was beginning to wonder just why I had bought it. It must have seemed like a good idea when I saw it on the shelf: a neat little box of “20 fragranced vanity bin liners” for 79p, hardly likely to break the bank, but there again, hardly a necessary item either. With an unusual touch of the Hyacinth Bucket mentality I was attracted by the name “Scent…sations”, but I’ve since realised this was because of associations with entirely unrelated products: “Scentsations” candles, for example. Note these do not have the ellipsis(…) between the “Scent” and the “sations”.

Scent…sations (with its embedded ellipsis) is a trademark of Baco Consumer Products Ltd., of kitchen foil fame. Fragranced bin liners would appear to be a new line for them. There are 3 sizes: “Swing”, “Pedal” and “Vanity”. They come in boxes of 15, 25 and 20 respectively. This review is based primarily on the vanity bin liners, with reference to the other sizes where relevant.

On the box for the vanity bin liners it says that they are “ideal for bedroom or bathroom use”, and there is a simple picture of a lined bin with a few flowers to represent the scent. The box is well designed for dispensing the liners: a perforated oval shape can be removed and the liners come out singly in the same way that you would get paper tissues out of a box.

My first impressions of the liners themselves were that they were a lot thinner than I expected them to be; you could also see through them; and they were a lot larger than I expected. To be fair, the dimensions are printed on the box but I had not paid attention to them: The “length” of each liner is 46cm, and the rim measurement a massive 89cm. Well, at least there isn’t a problem getting it to fit over the rim as is sometimes the case with other manufacturers’ pedal bin liners! The pale mauve colour also came as a surprise although again, had I paid attention, I would have noticed that the picture actually shows this. For some reason I had assumed they would be white and opaque which I would have preferred.

The smell is not very strong and reminds me of fairly non-descript soap, not really what I’d like in my bedroom, and likely to be overpowered by other smells in a bathroom environment. However, it does seem to persist quite well without getting any weaker.

I was a bit surprised at first that the liners did not appear to open out fully at the base and I am still unsure whether this is by design or whether mine were faulty. The base of each liner was stuck so that the join was only a quarter of the rim length not a half as might be expected if for example it came like a normal plastic bag on a roll. Ignoring this, however, it still functioned as a bag and I found I could line a pedal bin with a “vanity”-size bin liner. It was too big for the small vanity bin I had had in mind when I bought it. There was also no means of closure. (Apparently the swing bin and pedal bin liners in the range do have a drawstring closure.)

Despite the thinness of the plastic, I have to report in its favour that it does appear to be quite strong. It stood the test of carrying a well-wrapped 1.5 kg bag of flour which is a lot heavier than a normal rubbish load, perhaps helped by the extra concentration of plastic at its base; it also held water (literally); it didn’t fare so well however when presented with any sharp items - anything like a toothpick would easily go straight through it, unless it was first wrapped in cotton wool!

All of which leads me to ponder just where I can use these to good effect, and suddenly I picture Hyacinth Bucket saying “No, Richard, don’t throw that in the bin, it will spoil the Baco Scent…sations vanity bin liner. I did tell you darling that I’d lined the bin with a Baco Scent…sations vanity bin liner, now, didn’t I? I remember I showed you the Rose and Daisy picture on the box. What’s that you say? You think there should be a Hyacinth on the box. Oh Richard, how nice of you to say so!”

And I start to ponder too on the number of plastic bags that enter and leave my household every week. I saw myself putting these inside other more opaque plastic bags on their way to the bin. The recycle symbol on the box might have led me to think that the contents were environmentally friendly, but in practice it referred to the box itself which has been made from recycled board. No comment is made about the degradability of the contents from which I must assume the worst.

I’m still not sure why I bought them! I don’t think I’ll be buying any more.

A lot of the ratings below don't really make sense.

For further information:

Consumer Services
Baco Consumer Products Ltd
Raans Road
Amersham
Bucks
HP6 6JY

Website: www.baco.co.uk