I was quite delighted last night to be made aware of a wonderful product during an advert break.  I had to do a double check, and still this morning I can’t quite believe it.

Ever heard of “Murine” products as in “Murine Dry and Tired Eyes“?

Maybe I’ve been living in the dark, since I don’t wear contact lenses – but this does strike me as being a particularly bad name for a product.  Fine, so I spent years at the bench, a genuine ‘lab rat’ but I can’t imagine that I am the only person who thinks that murine means:

of or relating to a murid genus (Mus) or its subfamily (Murinae) which includes the common household rats and mice; also : of, relating to, or involving these rodents and especially the house mouse

I would love to know what rationale there was for not looking up the word ‘murine’ in a dictionary before naming your product.  Is it just another attempt by the cosmetics industry to make their products sound more…. scientific?

I also smirked at this entry in their Product FAQ, filed under “What ingredients are in Murine dry&tired:”

pH adjusted for comfort with sodium hydroxide or hyrdrochloric acid.

That just sounds so good.  We won’t even go into the spelling.