Gold-starred wipes at knockdown prices (Lidl Baby Wipes)

Member Name: worst_trip

Product:	Lidl Baby Wipes
Date:	24/09/09 (29 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent thick baby-wipes, available without frangrance or greasiness & properly wet in the packet

Disadvantages: The haunting question of what happens to all baby wipes after use?

Lidl baby wipes, from their 'Cien' brand in-house range of toiletries are so good that they're one of those rare products that personally, I'll make a designated shopping trip just to purchase from their stores. It's not an exaggeration to say that one of the main reasons I visit Lidl - and while I really like Lidl's slightly bizarre range of European groceries, and the 'pot luck' element you get when viewing their surprisingly reasonably-priced range of weekly 'specials' - is to buy their Cien baby wipes.

You get 80 wipes for just under a quid. They come fragranced (the ones in mainly sky-blue packaging) or unfragranced 'for sensitive skin' (in packaging that's white with a bit of pink ). The picture of the baby they've chosen for the front of the packet has a mildly alarming expression on his / her face, but then Lidl's marketing's probably aimed at the mainstream European market, where they may prefer things a bit different to here. It's a good, strong wrapper round the wraps though, that opens just via a sticky / restickably panel. Unlike some brands of wet wipes I've encountered, the outer wrapper isn't liable to ripping / splitting. Although there isn't a plastic 'lid' like you get on some wet-wipes to keep the contents moist, in practice the Lidl wipes don't really need one. One of their best points in my opinion is that they're good and wet in the packet already: when you get to the last few in the package, you can practically wring the moisture out, they're so generously soaked. (As I tend to bulk-buy them, in the cupboard I store mine upsided-down to redistribute the moisture down to the first wipes in the bale).

None of this 'I only buy them for my hands these days' nonsense; I started using these for wiping my sprog's bum when she was in nappies, but have continued with them for cleaning up afterwards now she's toilet-trained. I also keep a bale (with the seal re-stuck and upside down, given there's no lid) in the back of the car to mop up general smudges and melted ice-cream slicks etc. when we're out and about. Our car is black and gets very hot inside in summer, but despite the lack of a secondary seal, the Lidl wet-wipes there still seem to stay good and wet.

The wipes themselves are thick and really strong and whatever they've used to make them moist has been very generously applied and is of an excellent consistency - just like water. With the unfragranced brand there's no smell whatsoever - the wetness from the wipes feels much like water and leaves no nasty sticky / greasy residues on your hands.

The only slight downside I find to these baby-wipes - and it's common to most supermarket brands (unless of course you want to go to Waitrose and buy right-on biodegradable baby wipes at more than twice the price) is the question of what'll happen to them once you've used and binned them and they've gone to landfill. The material is so tough and strong - and, I suspect, synthetically-based - that I suspect it'll take a heck of a long time to break down - if indeed, it ever does.

If one were to be a 'confessional artist' along the likes of Tracey Emin, I suspect there could be a good, solid recycling option for post-use non-biodegradable baby-wipes....and I wonder that nobody's already considered stitching a load of soiled wipes together to make an attractively-patterned (if rather stinky) quilt-effect wall-hanging or comforter. Come on, give the 'work' a poncey enough title, 'Reflections on a post-millenium motherhood' or some such, and I bet the Tate Modern'd absolutely snap something like that up!

Cien baby wipes from Lidl. Bottom line, brilliant.

Summary: Best brand on the market bar none, in my opinion