Empties – September 2019

Alright you lot, bit of a funny Empties post this month… due to the amount of travelling I did (America for work, and then Italy the week after for pleasure), I have a load of random miniature travel empties, as well as your standard empty products I used at home. I was quite glad in a way to be done with these travel products, as they’re the kind that have been rumbling round my drawers at home for yeeeears and I was getting sick of the sight of them. Ready for this empties travel special? Here ya go…

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Total number of products used up: 26

Estimated retail value of products used up: £94.15

Total value of products used up this year already: £1405.93

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Miscellaneous Travel Items

(L-R: Complimentary Virgin toothpaste (hey, it still counts), Kristen Ess Signature Shampoo minis x 2, Garnier Micellar Water, Hawaiian Tropic Duo Defence Sun Lotion, Garnier Ultimate Blends Sleek Perfector Oil, Daiso Travel Lotion, Toner and Cleanser)

Complimentary Virgin toothpaste – 6/10 – I feel silly including this, but you know what, I used it up this month so it’s going in the post. Admittedly I only got the one use out of it but it was still used up. A nice flavour and handy when travelling. Can’t really elaborate on this one I’m afraid guys.

Kristen Ess Signature Shampoo – 5/10 – So this was meant to be some fancy shampoo sample that I picked up from Target in April… $10 per full-size bottle, and honestly, I don’t get the hype. It was perfectly fine, smelt nice and cleaned my hair as shampoo is meant to do, but it barely foamed up so each hairwash cost the $4 bottle, basically. I don’t quite have that much money that I can afford such an expense for some mediocre shampoo, unfortunately. Avoid unless you’re a millionaire and have a thing for wasting money.

Garnier Micellar Water – 10/10 – I’ve waxed lyrical about this makeup remover for the past ten months and don’t like repeating myself. Go get it!

Hawaiian Tropic Duo Defence Sun Lotion – 8/10 – This was a sample I saved for travel purposes (#nanaface) and used in Florida earlier in September. Smelt nice enough, but most importantly, gave me a very light tanmark with minimal burning. Good job Hawaiian Tropic!

Garnier Ultimate Blends Sleek Perfector Oil – 7/10 – Yet another travel sample – this smelt lovely and worked nicely, but was a very generous sample. I have very long, thick hair and even a third of this pack was too much – leaving a lot of oil left in an open sample packet, which, when you’re travelling, is a bit of a nightmare. I eventually had to ditch the packet after it fell over in the hotel bathroom and oil got all over my other toiletries. Boo. But nice smell and worked well.

Daiso Travel Lotion, Toner and Cleanser – 5/10 – I picked this up in Dubai when I ran out of skincare products on the road and, even though they were very handy, they REALLY stripped my skin whilst also being greasy. I don’t know how that happened, but it did, and my skin was left shiny but tight. It gets points for cuteness, usefulness and fragrance, but as for actual skincare? Nah.

(L-R: L’Oreal Elvive Fibrology Shampoo and Conditioner, Best Western Shower Gel)

L’Oreal Elvive Fibrology Shampoo and Conditioner – 8/10 – Despite being teeny weeny bottles that I picked up in Heathrow en route to Rome, I really liked these products. Made my hair very shiny and manageable, which is no mean feat when you’ve got notoriously tricky hair and manage to forget your hairdryer, straighteners and hairbrush in hot, humid Rome. I’d be curious to see how these hold up when I actually style my hair properly. Would buy again.

Best Western Shower Gel – 7/10 – Your bog-standard shower gel swiped from the airport hotel in Rome. Smelt nice, probably wouldn’t buy standalone.

Makeup

(L-R: Rimmel Clear Complexion Powder, Charlotte Tilbury Eyeliner, BH Cosmetics Liquid Lipstick in ‘Endora’)

Rimmel Clear Complexion Powder – 9/10 – This old chestnut. Excellent, cheap, and easily accessible from literally any supermarket or high street pharmacy in the UK. Will obviously buy again.

Charlotte Tilbury Eyeliner – 6/10 – This was fine… to start with. But because I wear a crapton of eyeshadow on the regular, any eyeliner has to be really resilient against it, and this one, well, wasn’t. It was insanely pigmented and lasted a long time on the eyelid, but it took on a lot of my eyeshadow with it over the weeks and eventually gave up the ghost. For £22, I’d expect better.

BH Cosmetics Liquid Lipstick in ‘Endora’ – 9/10 – Oh man, I loved this lipstick so much. Gorgeous colour, creamy, pigmented, cheap as hell, (I think I paid $5 for this?) and stayed for a long ass time. I’d prefer for it to stay a little longer, but for that price I’ll take 6 hours over 8, any day.

Hair Products

(Clairol Herbal Essences Conditioner)

Clairol Herbal Essences Conditioner – 9/10 – Just the one haircare product today (aside from the aforementioned travel products), and this one was lovely. Yes it’s cheap (although maybe not that cheap – when doing the price estimates for this post, I realised Boots is selling these for £6 each?!), but damn it smells bloody good, and it made my hair look great and feel soft as hell. Lovely. Would definitely repurchase.

Skincare

(L-R: Glossier Milky Jelly Cleanser, Formula 10.0.6 Deep Down Detox Ultra-Cleansing Mud Mask, St Ives Radiant Skin Scrub)

Glossier Milky Jelly Cleanser – 5/10 – I had high hopes for this cleanser due to the rave reviews it gets online, but… meh. It was very drying on my skin, which is normally a good thing as my skin is oh-so-oily, but it was very uncomfortable, almost. I also didn’t rate the texture or the smell, and for £18 it really should have been a bigger bottle. I’ll say it again – meh.

Formula 10.0.6 Deep Down Detox Ultra-Cleansing Mud Mask – 4/10 – Another ‘meh’ skincare product – this one not only made my skin kinda greasy, but it also ruined my muslin cloths which is IMO inexcusable. Who do you think you are, Detox Ultra-Cleansing Mud Mask?

St Ives Radiant Skin Scrub – 7/10 – I quite liked this, even though it wasn’t as scrubby as I’d have liked (I like my exfoliants rough as hell). It smelt lovely, very citrussy and fresh, and did feel nice on the skin. Would probably rebuy after my beloved Apricot Scrub runs out.

Miscellaneous

(L-R: Sylvain Delacourte Eau de Parfum Muscs, Sensodyne Pronamel Toothpaste, Colgate MaxWhite Toothpaste)

Sylvaine Delacourte Eau de Parfum Muscs – 8/10 – OK, this is where I confess to being a sucker for a Facebook advert. This was advertised while I was mindlessly browsing Facebook one night in front of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and I thought it’d be a good buy to take with me when I travel (I also bought the Vanilla ones which I’m working my way through at the moment). I wasn’t disappointed – these were lovely. Grown-up, classy and fancy (at the RRP for a bottle, they really should feel all of these things) – and very convenient when travelling. I got a lot of compliments with pretty much all of these samples (excluding the middle one which got a bit much after a while) – the only thing holding me back from full marks is the eye-watering price of a regular bottle. Eesh.

Sensodyne Pronamel Toothpaste – 5/10 – My mum got a load of toothpaste samples and gave me a metric ton of them for travel purposes (thanks Mum!). Unfortunately I didn’t like this one much. It served a purpose in that it cleaned my teeth, but the texture was oddly gritty – even thinking about it now makes me shiver, like nails down a chalkboard. I probably won’t buy the full size, but fortunately this was the only Sensodyne one she gave me.

Colgate MaxWhite Toothpaste – 8/10 – A much nicer toothpaste (I can’t believe that I’m now rating toothpastes, what’s my life become???). Not gritty, but nice and clean and smooth, with a nice flavour and these little weird fresh square gel things in the paste. Not sure the latter did much, but it made it relatively fun to brush my teeth I guess??

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Until next month! (Will we get over £1500 finally?!?!)

R x