Empties Nov/Dec 2012

Confession – this isn’t even all the empty things I have! I think everything just came to an end this month. I’ll save some of the others for next month.

Bastiste Dry Shampoo for Brown Hair was pretty good. It didn’t have the white powder effect that the normal stuff has so that was pretty good. I liked the smell, too. I don’t think I’ll buy it again, however, because I’m using a different brand right now which I much prefer.

I really thought I’d blogged before about Nude Magique BB Cream from L’Oreal but it seems I didn’t. I bought this after using the sample which I fell in love with instantly. It comes out as a white cream but blends to your skin tone as you rub the slightly gritty cream in. I really liked this, but I think I got the wrong shade as I had a few comments that this was too dark for me from a few people. I’ll have to get some in England this time and check that I have the right kind. I’d buy it again for sure – it gives a great coverage and doesn’t make my skin greasy at all.

You can check out my review of Bourjois Magic Nail Varnish Remover here, but towards the end it got a bit yucky… the black foam inside kind of broke away when I used it. I probably would buy it again, though.

I don’t like Benefit that much, but I did like their Get Even face powder. It was long lasting and pretty pigmented. Though I’m not sure it was worth the price tag… I don’t think I’d buy it again.

I got Taaj Eau Micellaire de l’Himalaya in a beauty box a while back. It’s a nice make up removing water which smells lovely. If I could describe it in one adjective, I would say that it smells exotic. Like some kind of eastern themed spa. I’ve never seen this brand before, but if I saw it in a shop, I would buy it again. The thing with these beauty box things is that often I want to buy them again, but I don’t want to go chasing them down on the internet to get them. I want them to be available to me in shops so I can just pick it up again.

The Marvis classic strong toothpaste was also from a beauty box. A bit of a strange thing to put in one, but let’s just roll with it. It’s pretty expensive if you buy it for real, and since it wasn’t anything special at all and no different to any other toothpaste, I won’t buy it again.

SAMPLE TASTIC!

I’ve always wondered about Kerastase products, so when my salon gave me some samples, I was pretty happy. But I didn’t really think much of this anti-frizz mask as it didn’t really do much… I used it with the oil shampoo (which I’m still using up) which really is bad for my hair so maybe if I’d have used this with another shampoo it would have been better. But as it stands, I’m not compelled to buy it.

This Jane Iredale BB cream was really thick. It made me break out. You only need a tiny bit, so maybe if I’d had known that I wouldn’t have any problems with it. But it’s pretty expensive to buy, so I think I’ll stick to L’Oreal’s BB cream instead. I also have my eye on the Body Shop BB cream too. Something to think about ready for when the weather starts to warm up again, as I’m all about foundation right now.

Estee Lauder’s Double Wear foundation was really nice. The coverage was really good and it didn’t make my skin feel yucky. I would buy it for real, but not just yet as I have a few to use up first.

I’ve already bought and blogged about Lancome’s Teint Miracle but in all these different face make up samples it really did bring back home to me how food this foundation is. I said before that it wasn’t miraculous but I think that now I’ve used some other things I can see just how good it is, and I think I would buy it again. But still, when I’m particularly rich.

Lastly, I was given a sample of L’Occitane Serum Fabuleux which I did find to be pretty fabulous. It made my skin feel fresher and more awake. And I used it on a snow day and my skin stayed nice all day, without it drying out or becoming yucky in any way.

Let me know in the comments if you’ve used any of the products mentioned!

Oct/Nov Empties!

It’s that time again, kiddies! Empties!! I have a lot more than normal this month – or at least, my box filled up a lot quicker. Before it overflows, I’d better do a post!!

First up is this Fekkai Protein Rx shampoo and conditioner. I bought these from Douglas almost a year ago, when I had really horrible hair and I wanted something to tame it. These cost something like 20 euros each, which is ridiculous money. They are good products, but I just don’t think they are worth the price tag, and I don’t think they made a difference to my hair at all. The smell is pretty nice, though… a kind of sweet marshmallow smell.

Next up is Clearasil Ultra. I bought this a looooong time ago as well. Mainly because I needed a face wash and it had English on it so I knew what to do with it. I used it as a mask (you can also use it as a wash) about twice a week, and my face was always really soft afterwards. Did it help combat spots? I don’t think so. My spots are usually hormone or stress related so nothing like this can help me. I’d buy it again, though.

Lancome Teint Miracle foundation was the first super expensive makeup I ever bought. At around 30 euros, I thought I’d spend out just once to see how these expensive things work. This does work really well, and covered up any marks on my face. It did last longer than most foundations, but not until the end of the day. It made my skin look good, but nothing miraculous, I think. I’d like to try a load of other, cheaper foundations, but I may come back to this one… maybe around bonus time…

I was given a tint weeny tube of Clarins Fluide Hydrantant Matifiant when I bought another Clarins product. Despite being tiny, it lasted at least a week. I think it’s one of those moisturisers that make you break out before they start working, because this made my skin pretty bad. I think I’ll stick to my rose moisturisers.

Rimmel Sexy Curves mascara is something I’ve blogged about before. I liked it. I think it’s not perfect by itself, but it’s pretty good. I used it on my Japanese flatmate and it made her Asian eyes so pretty. I’d buy it again, once I’m all out of the ones I have right now.

Garnier Mineral UltraDry deodorant. I am a lady who… perspires… more than most. I go through lots of brands of deodorant to find the strongest ones – and this would be one of them. It was pretty good. Even on days when I went to the gym, I wasn’t that smelly. The only complaint I’d have is that it didn’t seem to contain much, and it ran out within a few weeks. I’d buy it again, though.

Have you tried any of these products? If so, let me know!

Empties August/September

 

I’ve been meaning to do this for ages. I have a box of ALL THE EMPTIES. So, let’s DO THIS! As a price guide I’m going to use both Boots and Douglas for British and German prices.

 

Let’s start with two dry shampoos.

Paul Smith Dry Clean Revitalising Dry Shampoo (Not found online)

This was a sample with my JolieBox last month, which I didn’t blog about because I was in London. I must say, even though this was a small sample, it really didn’t last very long. I think I got about 5 or 6 uses out of it before it ran out. But it smells really nice. If it’s available in Frankfurt and isn’t more expensive than my normal stuff, then I would buy it again.

Batiste Dry Shampoo in Floral & Flirty Blush £2.50 for 200ml at Boots, € 1,79 for 50 ml at Douglas

This is my regular dry shampoo and I usually wait until I’m back home before I buy it as it’s ridiculously expensive here. The scent was really nice and it kept my hair nice. It lasts quite a long time as well. I will still continue to use this unless there is a truly amazing product that comes on the market.

Frizz-Ease Daily Miracle Treatment £5.89 at Boots, € 9,95 at Douglas (I paid much less than this at DM)

I bought this a loooooong time ago, when I was looking for a spray to heat protect my hair. It was the only thing that I could work out in German to have it, but I have actually only just realised that it’s a leave in conditioner, when I looked it up on the Boots website. Knowing that it’s something that’s meant to be as “strong” as a leave in conditioner, I’m even more disappointed because this did absolutely nothing for me. It just smelt ok on my hair, that’s all. I wouldn’t buy this again for sure.

I Love Vanilla & Ice Cream Shower Gel € 5,95 at Douglas

I have used the handcreams from this Douglas brand before and they smell really nice. The shower gel also smells heavenly, though very artificial. It is exfoliating and has little bits of sand and stuff in it too. It was nice on my skin, but the scent didn’t last so long. I would buy some again but I have SO much shower soaps to use up that I don’t think it’ll be for a long while yet.

L’Oreal Perfect Clean Facewash € 5,95 at Douglas (not found at Boots)

This is really yucky because it’s been sat around for a long time. I bought this as a quick face wash almost a year ago now. I love the little scrubbing pad that comes with it, but the soap itself felt cheap and I don’t know if it did my face any help at all. I’m going to use the pad with other soaps but this wouldn’t be a repurchase for me.

Alessandro Pedix Feet Heel Rescue Balm € 14,95 at Douglas

This was a sample in a GlossyBox a while back. My feet are pretty minging so I was excited to use this. It was ok. Just ok. The smell is a bit clinical and it did moisturise my feet a bit. But certainly not enough to justify spending 15 euros on it! I wouldn’t go and buy this at all.

Armani Maestro Eye Liner 1 € 31,95 at Douglas 

Yeah I know. Re-donk-ulously expensive. This was back when I didn’t know why my eyeliner kept on ending up on my upper lid and so I tried some more high end eye liners to try and fix it. It didn’t work, of course. It’s a good eyeliner though. Not worth the price tag, especially as there are plenty of brands who do stuff just as good for less than half the price. If I had a spare 30 euros laying about I might give it another go though. It was very easy to use, and had the perfect thickness to it.

ALL THE SAMPLES

Dr Bronner’s Magic All-One Shower Gel Various Prices on Amazon – Link 1 – Link 2

These are the two colourful packets on the right. They came with my JolieBox and are apparently the soup choice of the stars. Hmm… I don’t see why. They smelt really nice (one is citrus and the other peppermint) but the scent didn’t last that long. Also, it made my skin feel squeaky afterwards. It wasn’t nice. They were nice to use as samples but I wouldn’t pay out for them.

Dermasea Spa Face Mask Around 3 euros on Amazon

This was pretty nice. It had a strange smell to it, though… almost like salad cream. It made my skin feel pretty nice though. I’d buy it again as a filler when buying something else online, I think.

L’Occitane Hair Mask for coloured hair 27,50 €

This was given to me by a friend. After I used it, that day my hair was nothing special. The next day, however, my hair was probably the nicest it’s been in a long, long time. It was so shiny and smooth and lovely. It’s a lot more expensive than I thought It’d be, but I think it’s really worth it. I will go and get some when my other hair masks run out for sure.

Wow, what a post. That took ages. And I’ve been pretty negative throughout it… I’m sure I’ll have some better products next time!

July/Aug Empties

 

This is going to be a pretty huge post, so I’ll try to keep descriptions short…

Some of my favourite videos to watch on Youtube are the empties ones – where people review things they have finished. By reviewing things at the end of their usage, you can guarantee that the review will be solid. I’d say 80% of what I buy now is influenced on things I have seen in these videos.

So, let’s get cracking!

 

Ahhh Essence… I get a lot of hits every day from people searching what cosmetics to buy when they are in Germany – the answer is always Essence stuff. Their stuff works and doesn’t cost very much at all.

I bought this Essence Anti-Spot Toner from their Pure Skin range a few months ago, purely because I wanted a toner and this was the only bottle that said toner in English on it. I used it every night after cleansing, and it really sorted out my greasy skin and stopped me from being so spotty. I have a slightly more up-market toner right now, but I would definitely buy this again.

 

I got this tiny little sample of Chanel Hydra Beauty Creme from Douglas a while ago. Their website says -

At the heart of the HYDRA BEAUTY range: Camellia Alba PFA*, an active ingredient that promotes optimal moisture retention within skin cells. When combined with an improved, more powerful version of Blue Ginger PFA, a vital antioxidant, the perfect synergy of ultimate hydration and protection is created. The Crème, with added shea butter and canola oil derivatives, will quench the driest, thirstiest skin. Ideal for normal-to-dry skin.

You know, I didn’t think much of this. It was ok, but so are lots of other, cheaper creams. It smelt lovely and the texture was really nice too, but otherwise it was really bog standard.

 

This L’Occitane Almond Shower Oil was part of a set I got for Christmas. It was probably my favourite from the set. Not only does this smell lovely, and make my skin super soft, but it’s also REALLY good if used when shaving my legs. It made them so soft and kept me smelling sweet all day long. I’d really like to buy the full size of this next time I’m in need of more shower goodies.

 

In my very first JolieBox I got this Body Shop Rainforest Radiance Hair Butter. I was like “… hair butter?” but it’s actually pretty good! I didn’t realise that it should be used as a treatment, and instead used it as a conditioner. You comb it through your wet hair and leave it in for a bit before rinsing. It made my hair really nice and soft – I was a fan after first use! Not only did I go and buy a replacement, but I also bought the whole set. It’s sat waiting for me to start using it all but I have so many shampoos and conditioners to use up first… #firstworldproblems

 

More freebies from Douglas! This time it was Clarins Daily Energizer Cleansing Gel and Cream. Clarins say -

Clarins Daily Energizers has an innovative cocktail of four natural ingredients.  The first is an energy boosting shot of Vitamin C that stimulates the skin’s natural defences to keep it looking fresh all day,  because young skin has lots of vitality it uses up energy so quickly that it does suffer from periods of fatigue and dull skin tone.  The second is Turmeric or Indian saffron, a powerful antioxidant that strengthens this action. The third ingredient is purifying Alchemilla, an astringent plant extract that regulates sebum production to keep pores and the complexion clear.  And finally, radiance-boosting Ginkgo biloba, to improve the skin’s uptake of oxygen so it looks brighter and healthier and to strengthen the walls of the skin’s super-fine network of blood capillaries.  

Using them both together, my skin really improved – became a lot brighter and clearer, too. I only had to use a tiny bit of both of them every day so even though they were tiny samples, they lasted almost 2 weeks. I’m not sure if I’d buy them in full… but I would consider it if my skin started getting worse again.

 

A tiny bit of a boring on here. Micro Cell Nail Repair Remover was something I bought after deciding to upgrade from using cheap nail varnish removers all the time. It seems to be a German company so I didn’t know anything about it, but it was around 10 euros if I remember rightly, so I thought it might work a little better. It didn’t, really. It made my nails really dry and didn’t seem to ‘repair’ anything at all. I wouldn’t buy it again. And I wouldn’t recommend it, either. Just say no!

 

Lastly I have Pantene Pro-V Repair and Care Conditioner.

I bought this a looong time ago, then switched to fancy department store hair care so forgot about it. Thinking I should use up all my old stuff before buying new products, I picked up this 1/3 full bottle again and started using it. My hair was SO soft. I don’t know why I didn’t notice how good this was before! Maybe I had to have a hair cut to get bad ends off, or maybe with the shampoo I’m using now it worked better… either way, this stuff is amazing. Equal, if not better than the fancy stuff I buy these days.

Like I said before, I have so many hair care products to use, so when they are all finished, I will be buying this again for sure. It just goes to show, you don’t need expensive products to get good results!

I’m hoping to make Empties posts every 2 months, and I quite enjoyed actively looking out things I need to use up to review – which saves money too! I hope you enjoyed this post too. If you’ve used any of these products, please let me know!

Empties!

I’m going to hop on this bandwagon and join all the people blogging and vlogging about things they have used up. It’s one thing to review a product when you’ve just opened it, but once you’ve finished the whole lot of it you can really give an informed review.

Neutrogena Visibly Clear Pink Grapefruit Daily Scrub 

One of the annoying things about living in Japan is that they don’t really do face scrubs so now I’m in Germany I like to make sure I have some in my daily routine.

This is what Neutrogena has to say -

“An uplifting daily facial scrub with powerful MicroClear® technology and exfoliating micro-beads, the formula unclogs pores to clean deeply and help eliminate spots and blemishes. The refreshing scrub gently purifies the skin without overdrying, while a wave of pink grapefruit uplifts the senses with a burst of invigorating freshness.”

I’ve had quite problem skin for quite some time and this actually helped a little. The smell is really nice and the scrub beads are teeny tiny so they can reach places like the side of my nostrils easily.

As a face wash, it was pretty nice. It left my skin feeling nice and soft and it didn’t dry my skin out too much at all (I have combination to oily skin). If it wasn’t for the fact that the face wash that I bought after this has a scrubbing element to it, I would buy this again for sure.

L’Occitane Cherry Blossom Bath and Shower Gel

I got this little bottle in a set for Christmas. It’s the second to last one I have left (the last being the almond oil one), and I finished the others long before I had the idea to review stuff on here… I remember the lavender oil shower gel was really amazing, though.

This is what L’Occitane has to say -

“This shower gel gently cleanses the skin, leaving it delicately perfumed. Used as a foaming bath, it transforms into a rich and smooth foam, realising the delicate and captivating Cherry Blossom fragrance.”

The funny thing about cherry blossom is that it never smells or tastes like cherry blossoms (yes, I have eaten them before. An ex of mine once told me that it’s possible to eat the blossoms so he ate one and then I tried it too. It tastes a little like honey, I guess..) This just smelled of… pink flowers. It’s not such a strong smell, not like the oil based shower toiletries in the set.

There’s not much I can really say about this product. It wasn’t any better than the bog standard shower gel you can get in drugstores, the smell was just ok and the texture was bog standard as well. I wouldn’t buy the full size.

My old flatmate gave me a bunch of these chocolate scented bathroom sachets for my birthday a long time ago… I only just got round to using them. They are sold at the German Boots-type-shop DM.

The top sachet was powder for a bath. It was loooooovely. And the scent lasted on my skin til morning. The bottom was body cream and that as well had a gorgeous scent that lasted all day. I think it’s good for a once in a while body treat though as I wouldn’t want to smell like chocolate all day, every day!

Dr Hauschka Lemongrass Body Moistuiser

This is a sample I was given when I went to visit my friend’s natural cosmetics shop a few weeks ago. I’d never had any Dr Hauschka products before so I wasn’t sure what to expect.

Dr Hauschka says  that this moisturiser-

• invigorates and refreshes your skin
• leaves your skin feeling tighter and firmer
• maintains and balances natural moisture levels
• is quickly absorbed for immediate nourishment

I don’t like lemongrass in my food as there’s something off about it but the smell of this was SO good. It lasted all day long as well. Loads of people said that I smelt really nice at work so that alone made it a real winner for me. My skin felt so good afterwards as well.

Due to the shop being open for sales only at irregular times, I’m not able to just pop in there like I would a normal shop, but when I can find the time I will definitely go back and buy the full size of this.

And last but not least -

Georgia Armani Eyes to Kill Mascara

I bought this quite a while ago and finished it a few months ago too… it’s been sat there with me not wanting to throw it away since it was pretty pricey…

This mascara is meant to -

“Dress the eye with powerful, plush, voluminous lashes. Fine, fluid Microfil technology creates intensely captivating lash texture. Micro-waxes combined with a fineness agent allow for smooth and easy application, revealing weightless volume and length.”

Yeah, can you tell by the way I introduced this – I wasn’t impressed. I spent a lot of money on this and it was average at best. It just coated and then enhanced my eyelashes slightly. I wouldn’t buy this again at all – drugstore mascaras for a 10th of the price would do as good a job as this!

 

So that’s it for now! I’m trying to use up more things before I go out and spend more money buying more toiletries and cosmetics so hopefully I can do another one of these posts again soon! Do let me know if you have tried any of the products I mentioned!