Pretty packaging

I'm mildly obsessed with well-packaged products. Regardless of what's on the inside, I often find myself buying things that look good on the outside for no other reason than that they are aesthetically joyful. 

It's what's on the outside that matters (above) some well packaged products, clockwise from bottom left:

• Titus sardines, 97p from Africa One Stop Shop
• Original 1950s and 60s paperclip and drawing pin collection, around £6 each, from Present & Correct
• Penguin Great Food collection includes slim volumes of gastronomic wisdom inside beautiful covers. Here, A Taste of the Sun, Elizabeth David, Notes from Madras, Colonel Wyvern Wyvern and Recipes and Lessons from a Delicious Cooking Revolution, Alice Waters, £6.99 each. Or buy the whole set, £140 (but a fraction of that price at The Book People)
• Lavender Water, first made in Portugal in 1887, £20 from Labour & Wait
• Old Czech matchbox labels, £6 (to create your own pristine packaging), from Present & Correct
• 1930s  Portuguese toothpaste, £2.50, from Labour & Wait (not original 1930s...).

The inspiration to post about packaging came after my friend Abi returned from Lisbon with the gift of a little book, all about the joys of some of Portugal's most iconically packaged products (below; the title translates as Genuine and touching products of original Portuguese creation). It's nice isn't it? 

And here are some gratuitous shots of packaging I've magpied away over the years.