We always have a pack of plasters handy at home, as while I'm usually of the run it under the tap and leave it alone persuasion, now and then those cuts and scrapes can be of the 'dear god does than need stitches?' variety. Which then in my opinion qualifies them for a plaster. Recently I grated a knuckle with the cheddar and was mortified to find that there was only one plaster left, as I judged this culinary and finger related disaster to be of a several plaster healing time it was out to the shops to top up the first aid kit. I opted for the Tesco assorted Fabric Plasters which contains 3 sizes of plaster: 20 of 19x72mm 12 of 19x38mm and 8 of 25x76mm all rectangular. They cost at the time of writing £1 for 40.

I always opt for fabric plasters as I find them the best for stickability and flexibility. There is a decent size selection in this box, although there are none at the larger end of the scale so if your cut is bigger than about an inch long you would need to look for something else. They are individually sealed as most plasters are and open fairly easily. The plaster backing peels away easily and cleanly with no problems.

These are not the best fabric plasters I have bought, nor are they the worst. The do just fine for a not too disastrous cut or scrape but if you need a reliable plaster that is not going to budge through the day then these probably are not the ones to go for.

On my finger just above the knuckle so not on the constantly moving part of my finger one of these plasters often lasted all day to be changed the next morning, but they did sometimes start to peel off within half a day or so which is a nuisance if you are out and about and don't have spare plasters with you.

As my cut healed I did give one of the smallest plasters a try to try and eek out the mid sized plasters, but it didn't want to stick at all and peeled off pretty much immediately. Though I think these would work well for use on toes, or small fingers. These plasters seem to work best on curved body parts as the stickiness doesn't seem quite strong enough to do a good job on a 'flatter' body parts such as an arm or top surface of the hand. If they are wrapped around something, a finger for example they are able to overlap and seem to stick much better. They seem to stick better to themselves (and also to cat fur!) than to skin.

Used on my heel to help protect a blister they rolled up and off fairly quickly certainly before I could remove my shoes. Also as a blister protector I didn't find them particularly helpful the gauze pad is not huge and it is not very thick, so didn't pad the area against abrasion well. However (while the plasters remained in place) they were much better than bare blister against shoe and they did a comparable job with some more expensive (non blister specific) brands.

I have also noticed that these plasters have a tendency to fray (though not as badly as the cut yourself strip of the same brand) which makes them look far more tatty and grubbier than they actually are. This can also be annoying if you are faffing around with things such as feeding the birds, digging around in drawers etc as little bit of 'stuff' can get caught in or stuck to the frayed bits.

The lint pad of the plaster claims antiseptic properties and appears very dry, I had no issue with infection during use, and apart from cleaning with salt water before application of the plaster I added no additional antiseptic products. The lint section is not particularly well padded for protection or absorption. In fact although my cut was not a particularly bloody the first plaster did show staining on the outside surface fairly quickly. I would have liked the plaster to offer a slightly better buffer between the injury and the outer world. As the cut was on my dominant hand it was given quite a battering during my everyday activities; and I did find that on occasion when I experienced pressure on the area I did a double take thinking that the plaster had come off. As there seemed to be little softening of the contact pain.

On removal the plaster does leave a little of the stickiness behind but this comes off very easily and doesn't leave you scrubbing or picking at a tender area as some plasters can do.

Despite some little irritations these plasters don't do a terrible job and I will probably buy them again, though I have to admit that when funds allow I will probably go for a different named brand.