Although I personally prefer to use a Tippex mouse or the micro tape to cover up mistakes, in work they supply the old fashioned Tippex fluid bottles. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, or be generous enough to bring my own preferred option in, I succumb to their choice and use this in work.

The fluid comes in a little bottle, with a lid which contains either a brush or a foam pad to use as an applicator. I would rather use the brush myself, but the ones we have are the foam pad ones, which I find don't cover the intended writing particularly well, although it does allow a good amount of control over what it is you're covering.

Being a fluid, this stuff not only smells vile and draws attention to the fact you're using it "Look colleagues, I've made a mistake!", but it also takes a little while to dry fully to allow you to be able to write over it. This is a bit annoying for me, because most of the time my head is like a sieve, and I will frequently forget what it was I was going to write over the Tippex by the time it is dry.

The other issue with the fluid is that it tends to get a bit congealed and nasty towards the bottom of the bottle. You can get Tippex thinning solution, but as work supply these we just tend to use them until they either run out or get completely clogged up. For this reason, we try to just have a couple on the go at any one time, and encourage people to share, rather than everyone having a bottle on their desk and risking them all drying up through lack of use.

Overall, I find the Tippex fluid the least convenient way of covering up mistakes. It's messy, it smells, it takes an age to dry, and even then it isn't overly smooth to write on. Although it's good for emergencies, I much prefer the correction tape as it solves the problems I've just mentioned. I guess it is for this reason that the fluid Tippex is cheaper than the tape, costing around £1 for a bottle.

(Review may also appear on Ciao under the username Gingerkitty)