Winter 2014-2015 Empties

Leave a comment March 26, 2015 Michaela

I’ve been meaning to do a Winter 2014/2015 Empties post for a little while now, especially since it’s now technically spring, and nearly the end of March. The days certainly feel lighter in the mornings and evenings, but it’s still not super warm – mostly because the winter we had here was really mild – in a good way – I don’t look forward to bad weather. My last empties post, which was finished in December 2014, covered the products finished/thrown out in the Autumn period of 2014. So this is everything that’s been used since then.

First is bathing empties:

The Yves Rocher Exfoliating Shower Gel in Vanilla was very nice, but as I said about the Strawberry flavour, it’s not nearly nice enough to warrant the rubbish customer service Yves Rocher are becoming known for – not when you can get equivalent items from Boots and The Body Shop. Currently I’m using the Lush shower gel Snow Fairy, which is my favourite Lush thing to pick up at Christmas, and since I have two of those (I got one as a present) it’ll take me a while to get to anything new.

And then we have my go to hair treatment – the Boots Ingredients line is a great compromise between results and price paid. Their coconut line in particular is my favourite. The Coconut & Almond Intensive Hair Mask comes in a big tub that lasts a fair while, and only costs a few pounds. I consistently rebuy this as it gives a reasonable amount of pampering to my hair and smells lovely.

Next up is facial skin care items:

The Simple Soothing Facial Toner is a consistent repurchase and it works well as a basic toner, the simple ones are good at removing bad excess oil before putting on my own moisturisers. They don’t dry the face out, and are on the right side of affordable. I’m currently using the Kueshi toner from the January GlossyBox, which seems nice so far. I’ve also been tempted recently by the Boots Rosewater toner.

Next up is the Simple Moisturising Facial Wash. This was a nice, uncomplicated facial wash, but I did feel like it didn’t clean just right enough (how Goldilocks of me), and have since switched to the Simple Oil Control Facial Wash. Like all Simple products it’s cheap enough and nice enough to recommend.

And finally the Simple Replenishing Rich Moisturiser, which I have since repurchased, and this is my daily moisturiser. I do find the rich one is a really good amount of moisture for me, especially since we’re still going through the colder months of the year. I do remember this moisturiser being an SPF as well as having a light version but it doesn’t seem to be now if it ever was. I love this moisturiser.

Next up is face masks, this month I mostly used up two tubes rather than a number of sachets:

First is the Boots Botanics Ionic Clay Mask. Unfortunately I have to give mixed feelings about this, when I used this tube my face did react a little, not unbearably – but my skin was warm and pink afterwards. And the strange thing is that the last time I did use this I didn’t react at all – so I don’t know if it’s just me being sensitive right now. Regardless, it is actually a nice clay face mask, my skin feels nice and clean afterwards. The Botanics line have lovely ingredients while still being pretty affordable, for face masks especially buying in tubes can be better value than sachets, and there’s less waste I guess.

And secondly I finally finished the Nuxe Creme Fraiche De Beaute mask from the October 2014 GlossyBox. This mask was lovely – a very moisturising non-clay style mask that is great for dry or sensitive skin. I loved using the whole thing, but I’d still say £19.50 is far too expensive for me personally to justify a repurchase.

Some regular moisturisers now:

First off is the Boots Extracts Coconut Body Butter, which was a lovely big tub of body butter at a nice enough price. The smell was lovely and it had a nice non-residue-y feel. I would say it didn’t wow me all that much, especially since it’s not that cheap for a Body Butter at £8, it’s more that it’s not expensive. I’m still trying to find my perfect body butter – I have used The Body Shop ones before and I find them personally a bit too oily, I’m currently using Soap & Glory’s Sugar Crush – mostly for the delicious smell – but at only £2 more for a bigger tub it’s a lot nicer.

And my usual go to body moisturiser, a nice big bottle of Nivea Body Moisturiser. This is a lovely moisturiser, thick and rich, but it does rub in with a little encouraging and doesn’t feel icky afterwards. I particularly like to use these on my legs and underarms after shaving, and the bigger bottles are such good value.

A few more make up items to be thrown out:

The nailgirls 3 in 1 base, topcoat, & nail strengthener was an item from my very first GlossyBox way back in June 2014. It was a lovely clear coat and very useful, but I did find that it thickened/dried out a bit quickly compared to other clear coats I’ve had before. I also found that the brush just did not properly reach the last portion of clear polish – so I didn’t really feel like I got to finish this item, and full size it would have cost £13.50 – so I can’t really say it’s swayed me over to buying a higher price clear coat when I could just get something from Rimmel or Barry M.

Next up is a Rimmel Crack Your Colour crackle effect top coat in silver which has actually just dried up solid in the bottle for some reason, not sure what’s up with that since the black one I bought first is still going strong. I like crack top coats though and the Rimmel ones are good.

On top is the Essence Cosmetics Nail Art Tattoo Pen. This was very disappointing in the end, sadly. The applicator didn’t work very well at all, it was hard and awkward to really draw what you want. The only consolation is that it was cheap. I’m not sure if I’ll try another art pen either simply because it was a bit awkward, and I’ve found nail stamping to be a much easier way to get a more impressive look.

And finally is a very old Urban Decay Big Fatty waterproof mascara which has been unused for a long time, but I’ve kept because I really loved the packaging – it’s super cute. As far as I can remember, and looking at the wand inside, it’s a pretty standard, more old fashioned style mascara (it doesn’t have one of those newer, interesting looking brushes), but I’m sure it was nice. Mostly it was cute, and I need the room now.

The final section here is a collection of smaller items, mostly deluxe samples from various GlossyBoxes:

First off is the Anatomicals Zap! Zap! Zap! Gets that Chap Day & Night Spot Stick. This suffered from very weak plastic in the end, and both ends snapped off leaving a lot of it unused. I was very disappointed since the actual product seemed to work very well, it just needs better packaging. It was pretty cheap for what it was and even more so since I got mine in a GlossyBox but it really only lasted a month or so before the whole thing broke. I’ve since bought the Boots Tea Tree and Witch Hazel double ended spot stick thing which looks the same and is priced comparably. The plastic is thankfully much stronger, especially since this is really a ‘carry with you’ style item, and the Anatomicals one wasn’t poorly treated at all but still broke.

The SkinPep Hydra Boost Pure Hyaluronic Acid Serum was nice but not that nice considering the price. From the same GlossyBox as the Zap Spot Stick.

The Figs & Rouge Mango & Mandarin Hand Cream from the August 2014 GlossyBox was lovely and rich, strong smelling but in a good way. Full sized the price isn’t terrible (£6.95), and I may consider buying more.

The H20+ Face Oasis Hydrating Treatment was a nicer but very similar product to the SkinPep’s Hydra Boost. It was nice, but again, not tempting for its price range.

And from the same box, the November 2014 one, was the Monu Skincare Refining Capri Facial Oil. I’m still undecided about this item, and facial oils in general. On the one hand my skin did feel very pampered and soft, but on the other I was also consistently more blemished while using this the whole time through – and I got a good number of weeks out of this bottle to really see if the blemish-ness would die down. It didn’t particularly, and while I’m sure the oil was good for my skin, I still prefer to be less blemished anyway I think.

The Lalique L’amor perfume sample was also from the August 2014 box (with the hand cream) and it honestly wasn’t all that, especially considering it has a very premium price.

Finally, a non GlossyBox item, in the Simple Soothing Eye Balm. This was my first foray into eye cream/balm/treatment territory as I haven’t really felt the need to use one really, but I’m experimenting. For the low cost, this was actually a lovely eye balm. It does feel soothing and calming rather than necessarily very moisturising, but I thought this was nice, since I do suffer from warm tired eyes more than anything over the course of the day.

So, this was all of my Winter 2014/2015 empty items. I think the Spring section might end up being smaller in terms of less tiny containers, as we’ve been getting a lot less of the little samples, and a lot less skin care items from GlossyBox, which has been a shame, as they’re nice to have. Until Next Time.

Let’s Play Life is Strange – Chrysalis Part 2

GlossyBox March 2015 Unboxing

1 Comment March 19, 2015 Michaela

Just a post of my video review/first impression/unboxing of the March 2015 UK GlossyBox! This is month 10 now that I’ve had it.

In a few weeks my more indepth impressions will be up. Also next in written posts will probably be my winter empties post if I can make myself stop procrastinating on that. Until next time.

GlossyBox February 2015 – Valentine’s Day Edition

Leave a comment March 6, 2015 Michaela

This month’s (or last month’s at this point) GlossyBox was the lovely limited edition packaged Valentine’s Day edition. It’s a lovely pink and white minimalist box with pretty text – I actually think this is one of my favourite box designs. It’s very cute. This month’s box contains five lovely full size products, and a sweet Valentine’s Day appropriate freebie in the form of a mini roll of Love Hearts – I saved mine ’til the day itself (I may have been looking forward to a free sweet from GlossyBox for a while). I did the unboxing video over on YouTube on the 11th of February.

First , we have a Wilkinson Sword Hydro Silk Razor. It feels a bit silly calling this a full sized product – it’s not like you can get a sample size razor – but go with it. The Hydro Silk is a fancy women’s razor with a big, smooth, ergonomic, slightly squishy handle, and a big, rotating head with five thin blades surrounded on either side by moisturising strips. The strips are supposed to provide hydration for up to two hours after shaving, and this is probably true, but I honestly don’t notice my legs being dry within two hours of bathing. I usually notice the next night. The important bits are that it’s easy to use and it does shave hair. If anything, I would say the moisturising strips are more of a hindrance while shaving, as the strip moistens the actual act of shaving feels smoother and smoother until it’s hard to feel if you’re actually getting all the hair – but a good swishy rinse gets rid of the smooth residue build up. The whole thing costs £9.99, which gets you one handle and one head. I won’t be buying a new one mostly because I don’t see the economy in buying these fancier razors that need to have their heads regularly replaced – it’s a nice shave, but it’s not worth it that much to me.

Next up, is the Marsk Mineral Eyeshadow in the shade ‘Fifty Shades’ – and to start off, yes it’s inspired by ‘that film’, and no I don’t care – I care if the eyeshadow is any good. It’s a small pot of loose mineral powder eyeshadow with a loose foundation style open top. It’s a graphite/pencil grey in colour with flecks of tiny glitter in lots of shades – grey, white, blue – the overall effect is actually quite pretty. Wearability wise it’s a very buildable eyeshadow, just a light wash and you get barely any of the grey solid colour and a little glitter, built up in layers and you get the deep shine grey pencil colour with the full range of glitter colours. As it’s a mineral based eyeshadow it’s packaging also adds that it’s talc, paraben, fragrance and GM free. Oh, and they don’t do animal testing, which is still a good thing to mention, even though I’m pretty sure the EU ban on animal tested cosmetics probably covers that. While I do think this eyeshadow is very pretty – the downside is that it’s proportionately the most expensive item in the whole box. The nondescript pot is just over a gram (1.2g specifically) and even if it is very cute in it’s smallness, it costs £14.49, which is an off putting price.

Our third item is another cutely small full-sized pot – the Royal Apothic Tinties – which is a tinted lip butter. Mine is in the shade ‘Coral’. This little pot feels premium just in the packaging – the box is cute and the little pot is glass with a metallic fancy lid. It’s an oily rather than a waxy formula, with shea butter and oils – and it does feel very good for your skin, and smells lovely too – like sweet almond or coconut. The colour is very subtle – definitely just a tint, but’s a very pretty colour, and the oils make it shiny and pretty on the lips. Like the mineral eyeshadow this item is more expensive for what it is – ten pound (or £9.16 to be specific) for 3.4g of tinted Lip butter is pretty steep – you can definitely get an equivalent item (without the fancy name and look) for just a few pounds. Again, it’s a case of it’s nice…but it’s not that nice.

We’ve got a So Susan item up next (our third item from this brand in a GlossyBox) and it’s the Rose Quartet Lip and Cheek Stain in the shade selection ‘Warm Rose’. This is a little black mini palette with four on the firm side cream tints – with a total weight of 4g, you get just 1g per shade, so it is a small amount – but these little squares are pigmented enough that a little goes a long way. In the Warm Rose palette you get a very “red” red, a bright pink, a coral, and a light baby pink – they’re all on the warm side. There’s enough of a range to suit most people in terms of lip colour and blush, and using the same colour for both gives you a very well put together look. In terms of practical wear for me, I’d say the firmness of the cream makes these a little impractical as a blush – they don’t blend as well as I’d like. Also, for all that it’s a small palette (suggesting it’s been designed as a hand bag item) and it’s not dirt cheap – it doesn’t have a mirror, which it needs, and it has a little brush, which it really doesn’t need. Like all So Susan items, one of the big selling points is that it’s free from lots of things (mineral oil, phthalates,triclosan, sulfates, fragrance), and it’s good for your skin (hypoallergenic and non-comedogenic). It’s £8 for this little palette, and honestly while it’s nice – I’m not as wowed as I think I could be by it – maybe if it had a mirror and lost the brush.

Our last item is from the SuperDrug brand B.Cosmetics – their Defined Eyebrow Kit in the shade ‘Dark’. This is a big compact style container with a wax for shaping the brows and catching/holding the colour, two different shades of brown to choose from, and a highlighting gel to finish the look. This pretty well thought out product has a double sided brush – an brow/shadow style end and a spoolie/mascara end – that is pretty usable, though I would say the brow/shadow brush is a touch too on the firm and plastic-y side. The other point in this kit’s favour is they’ve put in a great big mirror – so you can actually see to put this stuff on your face. Practicality wise, you could actually get away with using this little kit for a lot of things. I found the darker of the two brow shades is too dark for my brows but you can use it gently with the brush as a shadow eye liner to make your eyes more defined. The highlighting gel is a nice bonus, which you could use for both brows and general highlighting, though since there’s only one pan of this it would get used up quickly. Ingredients wise it has a much more standard ‘drug store’/’high street’ list of a fair few things. The brow kit is £9.99 for 3.32g of product, and I would probably consider buying it again.

The Love Hearts – as I said in my unboxing video – are worth about 12p for a small roll with about 6/8 sweets in it, if you want to add it’s value to the box. Mostly, it’s a cute and thoughtful treat.

The final box total, with five full sized items, comes to £51.63. This sits comfortably high on the value side – while it’s not the most expensive box I’ve ever gotten, it is up there – and there’s no question that the contents of my box are worth more than the £10 plus shipping I paid. My overall feeling of this box is actually very happy – all of the items could be used quite well together in a single Valentine’s Day look, and while not a lot of them are things I will re-buy personally (it’s fine to be honest about that), they’re all lovely things to try, and I will use all of them up. My favourite item/s are probably either the brow kit, because it’s so well thought out, or the Tinties lip butter, because it’s so lovely.

In March GlossyBox are selling both the regular box (which I think is just a regular regular box) and a limited edition Mother’s Day box, which I won’t be getting – I’m not really interested in. We’ve also already had a sneak peak for next month, one of the full sized items we will be getting is Naobay’s gently skin peeling facial milk – which sounds interesting. Until next time.

Let’s Play Life is Strange – Chrysalis Part 1

Month: March 2015