Hazel you must have been sitting there just waiting for my note.
We agree, ketchup really doesn't sound very nice at all - we've never tried them either. Different strokes for different folks.
I use a push pin to puncture the end of the soft gel, and then just insert it back into it when I've finished squeezing out what I need. Then I put the rest of the soft gel into a very small egg cup sized or smaller container and put it into the frig till the next time. I prop up the gel with a small piece of tin foil in the egg cup, so it doesn't tip over.
All you can do is try the product you have on hand and see what happens.