Ikea Has The Answer To Messy Shampoo In Your Luggage (And It's Super Cheap)

When you find a shampoo that makes your hair and scalp happy, the natural next step is to buy a full-size version of it. While this makes things convenient for everyday life, traveling with your reliable formula packed inside a massive bottle is both inconvenient and comes with the invariable dread of leakage. It hardly matters if the spillage is contained to the zippable bag you put it in safely; your precious product still got wasted. The solution? The VAGN travel-sized bottles from Ikea that, at the time of this publication, retail for a budget-friendly price of $3.99 per pack of four.

Whether you're out for a long-haul international vacation, a beach break, or a weekend getaway, these bottles are compact, leakproof, and fit into any type of luggage. They are also transparent, allowing you to easily decant the product and also see how much is left in the bottle. A pack of four means you can accompany the shampoo with other hair care goods like conditioner or a mask, or skincare essentials like face wash or a sunscreen, for a complete routine setup wherever you are headed.

"I've bought & discarded most of my travel bottles except for my IKEA bottles!" a happy reviewer wrote. They even vouched for the product's tight seal and easy-to-squeeze qualities — making it a game-changing piece for transporting any liquid products.

If you've perfected the art of packing a carry-on for a week-long vacation or are simply following travel extraordinaire Rick Steves' advice to avoid checking a bag, you'd be happy to know that the VAGN bottles are designed with TSA standards in mind. According to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), all liquids, gels, aerosols, creams, or pastes must be in containers of 3.4 ounces or smaller, and these should then be placed in a quart-sized bag. Each individual is only allowed one such bag, hence the name "3-1-1 rule." Products like shampoo, conditioners, liquid foundations, mouthwash, toothpaste, and hair gels are all examples that need to comply with this standard. Checked-in luggage, however, is exempt from this litany of rules.

The VAGN bottles have a capacity of 3 ounces and should pass the TSA checkpoint with ease. Moreover, the squeeze bottle design with a flat cap allows them to stack easily in whatever resealable bag you choose. Another feature worth highlighting is that they're dishwasher safe, so you can toss them in the machine and have them squeaky clean for the next adventure.

Ultimately, the right travel-sized bottles are great for carrying a piece of home with you or bringing back hotel toiletries as a souvenir from your trip (since many popular tourist destinations are banning single-use plastic bottles at the moment). It also saves you money (plus time and drugstore trips) since you don't have to use the one-time travel-sized minis that many brands offer. For chronic overpackers, this simple hack can also save precious luggage space.