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.