May Empties - only three weeks late

Beauty Without Cruelty Vitamin C Facial Cleanser
This is just a foaming facial cleanser I got from iHerb to use in the shower in the mornings. It doesn't do anything exciting, but unlike a lot of foaming cleansers it doesn't dry my skin out or make it feel tight, so I quite like it. And it's cheap. I'd probably buy it again if I were in need of a cleanser and doing an iHerb shop.

Sunsilk Addictive Brilliant Shine Shampoo and Conditioner
I am currently working my way through all the half used hair products in the house and these are two of them. I buy Sunsilk for Lily because she really likes it, but I don't use it all that often myself. It's okay for a supermarket shampoo but nothing special. I'll probably get it again for Lil if she still wants it when we've used everything else.

Palmolive Aromatherapy Shower Gel Anti-Stress
Didn't think much of this - I like the moisturising kind of body washes because I'm lazy. This one was a bit drying and I probably wouldn't buy it again.

Garnier Nutritioniste Skin Renew Post-Treatment Regenerating Moisturiser
This came in a duo with a scrub, and it's nothing special. It wasn't overly moisturising and I wouldn't bother with it again.

MAC Brush Cleanser
Good stuff, but I'm thinking of trying out some of the cheaper ones to see what they are like. I go through this really quickly because I'm a bit fussy about cleaning my brushes.

Beauty Without Cruelty Balancing Facial Toner
Bog standard toner - doesn't do anything special but I do like a toner and this one was cheap. Again, if I needed a toner and I was doing an iHerb haul I'd probably buy this again.

Al'chemy Ginkgo & Jojoba Intensive Moisture Vitamin Masque
Part of a birthday gift from Sabine at Echolife last year - I really liked this. Because my hair is so thin - and thinning - most hair masks are too heavy for it, but this one was light and fresh and didn't weigh my hair down. I used it about once a fortnight as my hair doesn't need any more than that. I'd buy it again for sure.

John Plunkett Essentials Anti-Ageing Multi-Vitamin Moisturiser
Very thick, reminded me of those old school kind of moisturisers like Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream. It didn't make my skin feel especially moisturised though. I wouldn't buy it again.

Lancome Advanced Genefique Youth Activating Concentrate
I feel that there's more than a whiff of the emperor's new clothes about Lancome. People rave about their skincare but I've been unimpressed with everything I've tried. I was sent this to try and I'm glad I didn't pay for it - it was a nice enough serum but it did pretty much nothing.

Pantene Clinicare Fullness-charge Revitalising Conditioner
How on earth do they come up with these names? Another one I was just using up - I think it came in a travel set free with a magazine. Meh. It's a conditioner. It doesn't do anything exciting and I doubt I'd buy it.

Paula's Choice Earth Sourced Purely Natural Toner, Cleanser, Moisturiser samples
I used to be all over Paula's Choice skincare a few years ago but then I moved on to natural stuff and got into Silk Naturals and using Echolife Rosehip Oil and whatnot. However, lately people have been raving about PC products again and I did like them a lot so I decided to get a few things when I'd run down enough existing products. I wanted to try the Earth Sourced range because Paula is famously dismissive of natural skincare and hates many plant-based ingredients, claiming they are little more than irritants. Reading the ingredient list, nothing sounds 'natural' in the sense that I understand it, but nonetheless, these are really nice products. I bought a few full size things as well as samples, but I think next time I'm going to go for the full sizes of these ones.

Ava Luxe Love's True Bluish Light
This is a perfume sample that Su sent me ages ago and I loved it so much I've been stingily ekeing it out forever. I finally got down to the very last drops and there's nothing more there so I think I am going to have to splash out on a full size. It's a gorgeous warm, creamy vanilla musk - nothing really unique, but a beautiful example of a very simple blend. Love it, love it, love it.

Empties March 2013

It's been a while since I did an empties post, because in the summer I rarely use up anything - in fact, most of that time I only use the very basics - soap, shampoo, deodorant. I don't even wear moisturiser on my face most days when it's hot. So this is not a month's worth of empties - it's more like 3 or 4 months, or from whenever I did my last empties post. I did have a bunch of chuckers as well as I had a bit of a clean up, but I forgot to keep them aside and actually chucked them. Now you will never know what they are. Try not to let it eat at you.

Coles Nail Polish Remover
Eh, it's nail polish remover. It does what it's supposed to do. Weirdly I think they have tried to make it smell nice - it's a strange toxic vanilla scent. Don't bother, Coles - no one expects nail polish remover to smell good. I'd buy it again - it's cheap, it does the job.

Puretopia Whisk Away Creamy Face Cleanser
This is my second tube, and I like it a lot. I don't think it's any better or worse than most other cream cleansers I've tried, but I'd buy it again.

Garnier Clean Sensitive 2 in 1 Gentle Makeup Remover and Gentle Eye Makeup Remover
I hated these at first, left them in the cupboard for ages, then pulled them out again when I had run out of everything else and quite liked them. However, by the time I got to the end of them I hated them again. They don't remove anything but the lightest amount of makeup - think tinted moisturiser and cream blush. The eye one is bloody useless with any kind of mascara. I don't know why I liked them at all, and I definitely won't buy either of them again.

Beauty Without Cruelty Facial Cleanser 3% AHA Complex
Just another foaming facial cleanser - I like to have one in the shower for cleaning my face in the morning. It's non-drying and doesn't do much of anything except refresh. I like it and it's cheap (I got it from iHerb - and no I'm not telling you my iHerb code), so I'd probably buy it again when I was doing an iHerb order.

Hugo Naturals Shower Gel Vanilla & Sweet Orange
I threw this in with my last iHerb order just to get to a certain amount where the shipping would be cheaper. It smells nice but it's not moisturising or anything, and since I'm too lazy to bother moisturising my body most of the time despite having a large collection of body butters and lotions, that's a necessity for me in a shower gel. I wouldn't buy it again.

Dove Triple Moisturising Deeply Nourishing Body Wash
See, now we're talking. This one is moisturising and I buy it pretty regularly - whenever it's on special. It's full of those nasties that hippies hate, but I don't care - one less step and count me in!

Imperial Leather Foamburst Foaming Shower Gel Passionflower & Jojoba
I bought this because people on YouTube and blogs rave about it all the time. It's shit. It's like washing yourself with shaving cream - super drying and not very foamy. I ended up using it to shave my legs because I couldn't stand it as a soap.

Al'chemy Ylang Ylang Colour Care Shampoo
I don't have coloured hair at the moment but I think this one was sent to me from Echolife. I like all the Al'chemy shampoos and I nearly always have one on the go (though at the moment I'm trying out one from iHerb). I'd buy any of them again, and probably will in the near future.

endota spa organic hand cream lavender & alpine pepper
This had a horrible smell - really herby and medicinal. It did bugger all as a moisturiser too. I can't remember whether someone gave me this or if it came in a monthly samples box, but I know I didn't buy it. And I wouldn't - it's craptacular.

Swisse Hand Cream with Vitamin F and Pomegranate
Another annoyingly non-moisturisy moisturiser. I think Jacquie gave me this from one of her monthly sample boxes. Again, crap - wouldn't buy it.

Ayelet Naturals Firming Organic Under Eye Nourishing Cream with Primrose
Every now and then I get into this healthifying kick where I start buying only natural products and swearing off parabens and chemicals and blah blah. Then I realise that pretty much everything in life has something in it that will kill you and there's not much point getting freaked out about it so I go running back to my nasties-laden commercial products. This was purchased during one of my organic greenie natural phases from an Etsy store called Ayelet Naturals. I liked it. It didn't do anything amazing but it was a nice eye cream. I'm not sure I'd buy it again, but I'd certainly not be averse to trying other products from the store.

Bourjois Liner Feutre Felt Tip Eyeliner
Sadly I didn't put the lid back on properly and this dried up. I would buy it again if I didn't already have eleventy million black eyeliners - I like the texta kind, as this one is.

December Empties and Chuckers

This is my 100th post. I should have thought of a more interesting topic for it. Oh well, just look at these empty bottles and jars and pretend it's art or something.

EMPTIES

Radox Cocoa Butter Shower Cream.
Eh, it's okay. Nothing bad but nothing great either - I just bought it at the supermarket because it was on special. I probably wouldn't buy it again.

Al'chemy Unscented Very Gentle Shampoo
I really like this stuff - it's about my 3rd or 4th bottle. I'm currently experimenting with using this and no conditioner, just a spritz of detangler. So far so good, but I've only been doing it for a week or so, so it's too early to tell whether it's helping anything yet. I might do a post about it when I've been at it a bit longer.

Aveda Invati Exfoliating Shampoo and Thickening Conditioner
I didn't want to say much about this last time I mentioned it in my empties because I was trialling it for a Beauty Heaven review and I hadn't submitted it yet. Well, now I have and I can tell you I hated it. It's supposed to be helpful for thinning hair, but I had a ton of hair fall out while I was using it and I am convinced that it was this that caused it, as I wasn't doing anything else differently. I actually used up two lots of this, thinking maybe I was just imagining it, but I am definitely not. My hair is considerably thinner than it was 3 months ago, and I will never touch this stuff again.

 

Nutri Synergy Natural NS-8 Heel Balm Complex
I have had this around for ages because I kept forgetting it was there. It works pretty well on rough feet when you remember to use it. I'd probably buy it again and then put it somewhere prominent to remind me about it.

Beauty Without Cruelty Balancing Facial Toner
Just a toner, nothing amazing but it feels nice and has a pleasant scent. It's also cheap as chips and doesn't have any nasties in it. I have already got another bottle on the go and both Noodles and I use it so we're ploughing through it.

Bioderma Crealine H2O
Good lord, is this stuff over-rated! I was given this by Jac as she got it in a Bellabox and wasn't interested in it. I was really excited to try it after all the raves I've heard. It stung my eyes (which are not particularly sensitive) and it didn't clean my mascara or foundation off properly. Frankly, I thought it was crap. So glad I didn't give in to the temptation to spring for a bottle of this on eBay.

Ayelet Naturals Under Eye Cream with Zinc and Green Coffee Extract (sample)
This was a good size sample - I got about 2.5 weeks out of it, using it every morning. It's one of my Etsy skin care sample purchases, as I've been picking up small things here and there from Etsy stores to try them out. It's a nice eye cream but nothing amazing. I probably wouldn't buy a full size.

Pure Luxe Luxurious Facial Mask (sample)
It's spelled 'Luxurios' on the little container, which annoys me no end. This is a clay based mask that is quite nice, but I probably wouldn't buy a full size because I have a couple of huge Queen Helene masks that are going to last for ages.

Sigma Travel Size Blending Brush (#224 dupe)
Another Sigma brush bites the dust. I haven't bought any of their brushes for a couple of years now, and given my history with them, I'm not likely to any time soon.

CHUCKERS

Silk Naturals French Lavender Lotion
Yesterday I was looking through my bathroom cupboards to see if I happened to have an unscented body lotion (I don't) I could use to moisturise so my perfume would last longer. I did, however, find a few others that were a bit past it, like this one. It smells weird so it's going. I never liked it all that much anyway, which is why I have had this little tube for well over a year and only used half of it.

Arbonne Ultra Hydrating Hand Cream
Another one with a funky smell, and there's only a tiny bit left so out it goes. I never liked the smell of this - it was strong and herby and hung around forever - so I wouldn't repurchase it.

Haus of Gloi Depravity and Olde Cider Haus
These still smell like they're okay but I hate the scents of both (as does Noodles), so they never get used. I had them hanging around thinking I would find something to do with them, but - eh. They're only minis, they were probably about $4 each, they can go.

LA Color Craze Nail Polish
The formula of this is streaky and horrible and no matter how many coats I apply it looks like crap, so it's going.

NYX Powder Blush in Natural
I dropped this on the bathroom floor the other day and I was a bit devo as it's one of my favourite blushes - certainly one of my most-used. I know I could press it back together, but I can't be bothered. I'll just pick up another one when Cherry Culture or Nonpareil has one of their 20% off sales.

(Fairly) Recent Shopping

Despite having been using Silk Naturals skin care for quite a long time and really liking it, I'm a fickle soul and no matter how good something is I want to try different things, so I have been picking up some other skin care products here and there over the last couple of months to see what else I might like. I've also bought a few perfume samples, despite swearing not to buy any more perfume in the forseeable pretty-much-ever, but tell me - how am I expected to go on Etsy and not look at perfume? Huh?

(Again, I must apologise profusely for the photo quality - I think I'm going to have to actually lash out when I have some cash to splash and buy a camera. Ben loaned mine his to his mother. Rude!)

iHerb
I have checked out skin care products on this site eleventy billion times, but aside from the cult brands like Queen Helene, a lot of the brands seem fairly obscure and it's hard to find reviews of them. Eventually I figured I'd just try some Beauty Without Cruelty cleansers and toner, since they were cheap as chips anyway and they'd get used up eventually even if I didn't love them. the Queen Helene Mud Pack Masque and Oatmeal and Honey scrub were just thrown in to make shipping worthwhile (this is before they brought in free international shipping for orders over $40) and are more for Noodles than me.

I bought the BWC 3% AHA Complex cleanser, the Vitamin C with CoQ10 cleanser, and the Balancing Facial Toner. I meant to buy one foaming cleanser for the shower in the morning and one cream one for double cleansing at night, but accidentally got two foaming ones. Slightly annoying, but on the plus side neither of them are drying, as foaming cleansers can be. Still leaves me short a cream one though. I quite like the toner - it's nothing fancy but it does what toners are supposed to do, and it's a nice big bottle so you get your money's worth.

Luxe Organics
I found this shop while I was trawling Etsy for natural skin care products. I decided to check it out since they had sample sets, and at the time there was a sale with 20% off everything (which appears to still be going). Shipping took a while on this one, but my mail generally has been really slow so I suspect a lot of stuff is getting held up in customs. I decided to try one of each sample set available - the Youth Collection and Antioxidant Collection for me, and the Clarity Collection for Noodles. Each of these comes with four samples of skin care products. The only one I've tried so far is the Youth Collection, which I've been using for a week or so, and really enjoying. That one comes with a cream cleanser, cream exfoliant, toner and serum. It's a bit annoying that they are all in little jars - even the toner - but let's face it, who among us doesn't have little empty cosmetic bottles around? I just decanted it into an old serum bottle that I cleaned out first.

Since I've been using them my skin has felt really soft, and you get a good amount to try out properly. The full price for each set was about $10AUD (and I got the 20% off - score!), and shipping all up for the 3 was $8.50. They come packaged beautifully in little boxes wrapped with string, and I also received a free sample jar of Hemp Lotion, but I haven't quite worked out what to do with that yet.

Blushie
I was sucked in by the description of The Cake Is A Lie, and that turned out to be one of my least favourite of these perfumes. They're a bit hit and miss as far as longevity and scent. A couple of them smell quite generic - the Vanilla Cupcake smells like every other Vanilla Cupcake scent on Etsy, the Caramel Latte has that caramel note that veers way too close to vomit, Pink Frosting is pretty but very sweet and sugary (and to be fair, that's exactly how it's described) and much more suited to a teenager than an old codger like myself - but a couple of them are really lovely. I liked True Rose a lot, and I really loved Gypsy Woods, a woody, musky, unisex fragrance that would be perfect for cold weather, or slathering all over Ryan Gosling. I'll be getting a full size of that one some time in the near future. The order came with a little sample of soap and that was really lovely - and I'm not generally a fan of bar soap. It smelled divine too.

Overall, if you're into smelly things that tend toward the foodie side and a few florals, I think this shop is worth checking out. You can get perfume samples in sets of 3 or 6 (your choice of scents), and soap samples in sets of 6 or 12 for pretty reasonable prices. I paid about $12AUD for the samples and $4.60 for shipping.

The Garden Bath
I mentioned this shop recently on my Etsy Lerve post, and I was in like a shot buying as soon as the owner reopened. Although I know I will definitely be getting a full size bottle of Chocolate Passion and Fresh Roses, which are two of my old favourites, I wanted to get some samples first and check out what else I might like to get my mitts on. I haven't tried all of these out yet, though from what I have played with, I definitely want a bottle or two of Vanilla Nutmeg, a limited edition on sale until the end of the year. It's one of those gorgeous warm, wintery vanillas with a delicious spice note. I cannot stop smelling myself when I am wearing it. So good! Caramel Apple didn't work on me at all - it was very sharp and sickly and I had to scrub it off after about 20 minutes.

The longevity varies - Fresh Oranges disappeared on me fairly quickly, but I put Vanilla Nutmeg on at about 4 in the afternoon (let's be real - the moment I ripped that package open), and I could still smell traces of it on my wrists the next morning. You can get sets of 6 samples for about $9AUD, either a particular collection or choose your own, and postage to Australia for samples is about $4.