August-September 2013 Empties

Success, ladies: not only is my blogging laptop outfitted with a new screen and up and running, but I also have some overdue empties to show you today - woohoo! I was quite determined to use up as many products as possible before moving with the aim of having less beauty clutter in the new space... and, as it turns out, there's also definitely less space to clutter with beauty products now anyway. Will this mean more motivation to get rid of all the cosmetic excess? We'll see...

First up, body care items. I'd been trying to use up this massive 500ml L'Occitane Almond Shower Oil for a better part of the year, and it's just now been finished. I did like the delicate sweet floral scent of this shower oil and I found it left my skin soft and moisturized but I also think it's a bit of an overpriced treat; I might actually investigate drugstore shower oil options at some point in time. The Bath & Body Works Coconut Lime Breeze travel shower gel was ok - a bit drying and I found the scent bothersome after a couple uses, but I did like the cedarwood, patchouli & vetiver fragrance of the Elemis Spa @ Home Tranquil Touch Bath Elixir. For the price, I found the Pirouette Honey Jasmine bar soap pleasant but not outstanding; I had very high hopes for the fragrance but didn't find any discernible honey notes in it. I enjoyed using Yves Rocher Tiare Self-Tanner Moisturizing Lotion Face & Body but probably won't repurchase, and the Ahava Hand Cream (discontinued? I preferred the mineral one anyway) wasn't my favorite. The only product I will repurchase from this group is the CeraVe Moisturizing Lotion - it's amazingly hydrating and soothing for sensitive, eczema-prone skin on my hands, yet sinks in quickly without leaving a sticky residue. You may remember that I also enjoyed using their facial cream for PM; so far this brand gets a big thumbs up from me.

In the haircare department, two solid products I may repurchase at some point in the future: Enjoy Sulfate-Free Hydrating Shampoo is fantastic for slightly dry to normal color-treated hair, and the TIGI Rockaholic Dirty Secret Dry Shampoo is the best one I've tried so far (but I haven't tried that many): not too white, easily to work into hair, quite pleasant, grapefruity scent and it doesn't give a lot of product feel. The one product I wasn't super impressed with was Alterna Bamboo Style Boho Waves Tousled Texture Mist; I've tried a lot of different texturizing sprays over the past year (a separate post is in the works!) and this one was probably my least favorite.

 As usual, some more skincare samples: I've spoken about how much I like the DDF Amplifying Elixir in this post - I suspect that my skin enjoys niacinamine, a key ingredient in this product, very much indeed - I'm testing another serum that contains it at the moment and I'm loving the results. A product that featured another ingredient my skin adores right now, Murad Complete Reform serum with glycolic acid, helped to refine my pores as well as minimized breakouts, but most importantly, led me to purchase another product with AHAs that I believe is an absolute game changer - review soon to come. I didn't like Tsukika's Lotion (well, a moisturizing toner, really) and the YSL Forever Youth Liberator Eye Cream was nice; but I have so many eye cream samples to go through!

Some make-up: Clinique High Impact, Lancome Hypnose Star and Bobbi Brown Everything mascaras; my favorite of the bunch was definitely the latter. I also completely used up my mini of Fresh Sugar Rose lip balm and I MUST. REPURCHASE., maybe in a different shade. I also finally tossed L'Oreal HiP Cream Eyeliner in Midnight Blue (click here for a crazy look featuring this liner) as it was completely dried out, as well as The Body Shop lip & cheek stain - I think there are other brands out there that do very similar products in a better formulation, so I won't be buying those again.

 Lastly, the obligatory perfume samples: the Kate Walsh Boyfriend is a good introductory musk/incense scent with its notes of benzoin, myrrh, skin musk, amber and woods, but a bit too sweet and run-of-the-mill for me. The Paco Rabanne Lady Million, a slightly ambery floral with notes of neroli, jasmine and gardenia was also quite uninteresting - but maybe I'm not a fan of grand florals. Lastly, I found this half-forgotten sample of Annick Goutal Ninfeo Mio from Nordstrom - and I like the scent very much indeed because after trying it on the skin last year, I promptly purchased the full size and it's still one of my favorite perfumes (click here for my review).

Phew, that was a lot! I'm glad to finally see some progress in various beauty cupboards and drawers and it feels nice to let go of so many stockpiled back-ups. As for purchasing new products, I'm still (mostly) sticking to my rule of only two new products per month, and actually this month I really had an intense internal battle over buying a couple of pretties; on one hand, I love trying new things and reviewing them for you guys, on the other, it feels really good to be restrained and not buy any beauty products for a while. How do you juggle your love for make-up with the zen feeling of self-restraint?