A very kind friend of mine donated a couple of packets of these to me when I had that awful cold over Christmas which seemed to go on forever. I think she was probably sick of hearing me sniffle every time I went round to see her to be honest, but the thought was there and I did appreciate it as these tissues provided much needed comfort.

The tissues she gave me were in a small orange wrapper each containing about 6 to 8 tissues. She had a multipack at home which she'd picked up from Poundland for....£1 funnily enough! I had mentioned to her that I couldn't sleep well because I was congested and coughing, and she thought these might help to relieve my congestion. I was already using the Olbas Oil inhaler, but in times of need, I think the more you throw at the problem, the more chance you have of it disappearing.

The tissues are covered in tiny oil capsules, so that when you "crush" the tissue it releases the vapours and as you're blowing your nose you can breathe easier because the vapours are clearing your airways. The tissues immediately struck me as being high quality tissues. They are thick and strong, and look like they wouldn't rip or tear easily. I was a bit unsure about the "crushing" action as advised on the packaging, but they seemed to withstand some fairly rough handling. They are a perfectly adequate size (I didn't go to the extremes of measuring them, but they're a decent size), and they're stronger than your average tissue.

As for the menthol capabilities of this tissue, I was surprised at how strong the menthol vapours smelt. I could smell the menthol immediately and this got stronger as I used the tissue and activated the vapours. The smell lingered on my nose, my fingers, and in my coat pocket where I stored the tissue. This wasn't great as I felt like the smell was taking over a bit, and I was a bit conscious I might stink of menthol as I was walking round, so I tried to use these once then bin them rather than keeping them in my pocket.

When I had a cold, I found these tissues really comforting. They feel soft on the nose and almost like they're giving a layer of protection to avoid the Rudolph effect. Previously I had been using toilet or kitchen roll so these felt like heaven in comparison! The only slightly confusing thing was that I felt I wanted to sniff the tissue rather than blowing into it. I guess you could use them to sniff in the vapours more discreetly than using an inhaler, but generally you use tissues to blow your nose rather than breathing in. I found they still worked even when I was blowing my nose, they leave your nose coated so the smell stays with you for a while.

I guess the only downside of these tissues is that some people might not like the smell, and they are quite one-dimensional. They're not really useful for other uses such as mopping up spills, or if you cut yourself for example. It might be as well to keep these for those occasions you have a bad cold, and use other tissues which don't have the vapours the rest of the time, as it's a bit wasteful using these for general purposes.