Empties – January 2017

Hi there! As it’s the 1st of the month, today’s post is about the products I emptied last month. So let me show you what I’ve used up in January. As always, I’ve used several face masks, and whilst I didn’t keep the empty sachets, you can read about my latest face mask finds here. Now let’s get to the (more or less) bulky stuff – the ‘real’ empties!
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1 Olay Complete Day Cream – this is a wonderful face cream. I started to use this cream last winter, then I neglected it… but over the past few months I’ve made an effort to use up all my part-used skin care products – and now I’ve finished this one! I’ll buy this cream again, no doubt!

2 Rival De Loop Black Eyeliner Pencil – this is the eyeliner pencil I finished in December. I thought I’d lost it, but it turned out that I did keep it safe! I just forgot where it was and I found it by accident the other day. 😀

3 Olay Anti-Wrinkle Instant Hydration Day Serum – this is one of my favourite face serums. I’ll buy it again for sure!

4 Superdrug Naturally Radiant Glycolic Overnight Peel – this is a very effective product that doesn’t trouble my sensitive skin at all. I love it! I’ve already repurchased it.
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5 Boots Extracts Vanilla Body Butter – this body butter is a real treat. It makes my skin feel incredibly soft and it smells… delicious. The vanilla fragrance in this body butter is one of the purest and most authentic vanilla fragrances out there. This body butter has been repackaged but I have several ‘old’ tubs left.

6 I Love… Iced Cookie Bath & Shower Crème – this shower cream was perfect for the time around Christmas. The fragrance is simply delicious. I can’t repurchase this item because it was only available as part of a winter-themed limited edition gift set.
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7 I Love… Mixed Berries Bath & Shower Crème – a decent shower product. I did like it but it was nothing special. I don’t think I’d repurchase it, but if it happened to be in I Love…’s next Christmas set, I wouldn’t be disappointed.

8 Boots Botanics Firming Body Gel – this is an oldie that I found in my stash. I didn’t find this gel particularly moisturising, and I didn’t love the sticky feel, but I liked the fragrance. Very ‘spa’! This product has been discontinued. But I don’t think I’d repurchase it anyway.

9 I Love… Chocolate & Oranges Bath & Shower Crème – this stuff smells like cheap dish soap and I’m glad it’s gone.
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10 Superdrug Vitamin E Skin Care Intensive All Over Body Cream – great stuff. I really like this body cream. It’s quite nourishing and it smells lovely. I have another tub.

11 Alberto Balsam Sun Kissed Raspberry Conditioner – a decent conditioner. It detangles my hair with ease and it smells really good. I think most berry-scented toiletries smell a little off – but this one smells great. I will buy this conditioner again, no doubt!

12 Yardley Invigorating Blue Orchid Moisturising Body Wash – not a favourite. I started to use this shower gel in October – and I’ve only managed to finish it now. I wouldn’t buy it again.
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13 Superdrug Naturally Radiant Brightening Micro Polish – this is one of my favourite skin care products ever. Try it! I’ve used this micro polish scrub once a week (every Tuesday) and this tube has lasted me six months. Great stuff! I have two back-up tubes. 🙂

14 L’Oréal Elvive Fibrology Thickening Conditioner – not the most suitable conditioner for long and curly / wavy hair – that’s if you use the matching shampoo too. I think L’Oréal’s Fibrology products are probably great for people with thin hair. However, I don’t see myself repurchasing the shampoo and the conditioner any time soon. Saying this, I still have the matching hair mask which I’ll try as soon as my current deep conditioner is finished.

15 Positively Fruity Smells Like Tropical Showers Body Lotion – cute bottle, so-so contents. Because of this my husband and I used this body lotion as foot lotion. So this one is a shared empty. I wouldn’t repurchase this product.

This is what emptied in January – not bad, eh? If you’re wondering why there are two conditioners and no shampoos – I use more conditioner than shampoo. And every time I finish a conditioner, the matching shampoo is instantly (more or less) ‘useless’ to me, so I’ll pass it on to my husband who’ll use it up. 🙂

February is a short month, but I think it’ll be another good month for empties because I still have lots of part-used toiletries and skin care products that I’m working on.

Oh, by the way, I’ve officially run out of storage – you might remember those boxes under the bed… well, that was so last year! Now I’m talking about boxes next to the bed and next to the sock drawer. Because of this I’ve implemented a 1-in-3-out policy earlier this month. Yes, this means that I can buy one item (make-up, skin care, toiletries – whatever) for every three products I finish.

The only exceptions are essentials such as… toothpaste, hand soap, “special” skin care creams (I’m talking about creams like Savlon, Sudocrem, Daktacort…), beauty basics like cotton buds and cosmetic pads, and the original Herbal Essences hair products when they’re on special (Yeah, I mean it!) because I can’t have these products cut into my rewards. 😉

Oh, and something else happened… some of you may have noticed that I haven’t been the best blogging buddy over the past 2 weeks. That’s because I had to slay the tax demon. And I did it! In the UK you have to submit your tax return by 31 January – otherwise they’ll slap you with a fine – no ifs, no buts. I submitted my tax return just before 19:00 yesterday – just in time! So yeah, I slayed the tax demon! This means I have 11 months and 2 weeks of freedom – until next year’s tax demon rears its ugly head!

Feel free to comment if you want to. And thanks for reading!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Weekly Recap 16 – 22 Jan 2017

Hi there! And welcome to this week’s recap! If you’ve missed a post that you would have wanted to read, this is your chance to catch up. 🙂

Monday 16 Jan – NYC Metro Quartet Eye Shadow 796B Queens Boulevard
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On Monday I swatched and reviewed this NYC eye palette. If you’d like to read the post, click here.

Tuesday 17 Jan – Making Products Work For Me – L’Oreal Fibrology & Alberto Balsam
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On Tuesday I told you that I found another L’Oréal Fibrology shampoo and conditioner combo in my stash. I didn’t love these products the first time around because they aren’t the most suitable ones for long and curly hair (by the way, my hair is transitioning from curly to wavy – I think it’s because of its length). But I had a spare Albert Balsam Mandarin & Papaya shampoo and a spare Alberto Balsam Raspberry conditioner, so I matched up the L’Oréal products with the Alberto Balsam products. If you’d like to know how it worked out, click here to read Tuesday’s post.

Wednesday 18 Jan – Empties 2016 Summary 
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Wednesday’s post was about the stuff I emptied in 2016. I know the summary was a little late, but I’m glad I did it anyway. Click here to read the post. Thanks (again) for the inspiration, Stashy!

Thursday 19 Jan – Nail Of The Day
Friday 20 Jan – Nivea Q10 Firming Body Lotion
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Thursday’s post was another Nail Of The Day post. If you’d like to read it, click here. Friday’s post was about Nivea’s Q10 Firming Body Lotion. Click here to read my review.

This is it for this week. Thanks for reading. And I hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend. 🙂

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Making Products Work For Me – L’Oreal Fibrology & Alberto Balsam

Hi there! It’s been a while since I used L’Oréal’s Fibrology hair products. Back then I had to say that these products weren’t right for my hair type. In summary, the Fibrology shampoo turned my hair into a tangled mess. And the Fibrology conditioner (I think it’s too thick) wasn’t good enough to detangle my hair – and it took a lot of time, effort and product to tame my mane.

Because of this I thought it was unlikely that I’d buy the Fibrology hair products again. However, not too long ago I went through my stash and I found another set of Fibrology products. Ah, the joys of beauty & toiletries hoarding!

But since I had a spare Alberto Balsam Mandarin & Papaya shampoo and a spare Sunkissed Raspberry conditioner (they were 50p each at Sainsbury’s, and these two were the only ones left – so I just bought them), I thought I’d see whether they’d work with the Fibrology products. I’ve been using the two L’Oréal and Alberto Balsam combos in a rota for a few weeks now. Read on if you’d like to know how it’s going!
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L’Oréal’s Fibrology Shampoo is definitely unique. It expands – almost like builder’s foam! Whilst I love this effect, this is the reason why my hair gets tangled up. And, as I said before, the Fibrology conditioner isn’t good enough to undo the damage.

So for the past few weeks I’ve been using the Fibrology shampoo with Alberto Balsam’s Sunkissed Raspberry Conditioner. And this combo really works! I had my doubts because the conditioner doesn’t look very conditioning, and it’s quite thin. However, it detangles my hair with ease. I’m really surprised that these two products work so well together – and I’m certainly not complaining. 🙂
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Even though L’Oréal’s Fibrology Conditioner didn’t really play well with the Fibrology shampoo, I didn’t think it was lost cause. So I’ve now teamed up the Fibrology conditioner with Alberto Balsam’s Mandarin & Papaya Shampoo.

This shampoo is wonderful. It’s clarifying, but it’s not harsh at all, and it smells lovely! In addition, it doesn’t turn my hair into a rat’s nest! This in turn also means that it’s much easier to detangle my hair with conditioner – and the Fibrology conditioner does a great job! So yes, these products are great together!

Whilst I usually don’t like to ‘mix’ shampoos and conditioners from different collections, let alone different brands, I must say that I’m very happy with these two L’Oréal + Alberto Balsam combos. I went from “Oh dear, I gotta use this stuff!” to “Yay, this is fantastic!” in a matter of days.

Do you like to mix things up in the hair care department? Feel free to comment. And thanks for stopping by! 🙂

Mrs Strawberry Blonde