Sweets for my sweet, sugar for my nose? (Papura Tissues)

Member Name: jo1976

Product:	Papura Tissues
Date:	21/05/09 (69 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Environmentally friendly, no chemicals, no chlorine bleach, inexpensive, thick

Disadvantages: Not particularly soft, difficult to dispense

My youngest son seems to have a constant cold and we are continually wiping his runny nose, poor thing. Using baby wipes on his face all the time can irritate his sensitive skin so I decided to pick up some tissues when I nipped into the supermarket the other week. Now, tissues are a pretty mundane, if functional, product to buy and I probably spent more time than I should have looking at all the different brands available. I wanted something soft for my toddler's face but I didn't want to pay over the odds for a box of tissues.

One product caught my eye because it was a range that I'd never heard of before. A box of Papura tissues stood out because, rather than the usual plain boxes, it was covered in bold lettering telling me all about the tissues. Information was printed in large letters on all sides of the box telling me that 'These tissues are made almost entirely from sugar cane. No chlorine bleach. No nasty chemicals. As soft and gentle on the environment as they are on you.' These certainly sounded a premium quality product and the claims about no chemicals and suchlike tempted me as these were destined to my used mainly on my child's face. What clinched the purchase was the price. At £1.49 for a box of 150 tissues (from Waitrose) these were actually a lot cheaper than most of the premium brands and that surprised me, as you usually pay over the odds for anything that can claim to be environmentally friendly.

I can't claim to know anything about the environmental issues surrounding making tissues from sugar cane but the 'sugar' element immediately made me expect these tissues to be very soft and delicate - as if they had been hand-crafted from icing sugar! The reality was that the tissues weren't particularly soft and gentle at all. They didn't cause any irritation on my son's face, fortunately, but I certainly don't think these deserve to be marketed as 'soft.' Most premium and even own brand ranges are at least as soft, if not much softer than these. They were, admittedly, quite strong, thick tissues. When I used them on my own nose, I didn't have any issues with my finger going through them or anything! The only additional minor complaint is that the tissues weren't that easy to dispense from the box. Rather than getting one tissue out at a time, you ended up pulling out a great bundle and then trying to shove them back in.

All in all, I suppose these are a bit of a novelty 'eco' buy. They claim to be an environmentally friendly alternative to paper based tissues but certainly aren't a great substitute for a nice fluffy Kleenex tissue.

Summary: I'll stick to sugar in my tea and Kleenex on my nose!