Does nothing last???

I've been using fabric paints for decades and have accumulated 25 or 30 bottles of Setacolor, my favorite brand.  They never seemed to go bad, and have been my go-to stuff for printing my wood and metal type, either onto fabric or onto paper.  I haven't used any in years, but they're still there at the ready.  Last week I wanted to use some type in my daily calligraphy, and grabbed the first couple of bottles from my stash.

And much to my surprise, two out of the three bottles had broken apart in exactly the same way!

I can't imagine why this would happen.  If I had just screwed the tops on too tight, surely I would have noticed them breaking in my hands.  Maybe it was a gremlin.

I peeked inside and the paint still seems to be viscous; I will experiment to see if it's still usable.  Meanwhile the third bottle seemed a bit thicker in consistency than the paints were to begin with, but it worked just fine.

The two busted bottles didn't have dates, but the third one did -- 2003.  Here's a shout-out to the folks at Pebeo -- you make one long-lasting product!!!