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 26 Dec 2016 – 1 Jan 2017

Hi there! And Happy New Year! I haven’t found my new year spirit yet, so I don’t feel like giving a speech. So this post is only going to be a quick recap of what I’ve been up to on my blog this week.

Monday 26 Dec – Nail Of The Day
Tuesday 27 Dec – Superdrug Superfruits Clay Mask
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On Monday I showed you my Mrs Santa nails. Nice eh? Click here to read the post. And on Tuesday I reviewed Superdrug’s Superfruits Clay Mask – which is awesome, by the way. If you want to read the review, click here.

Wednesday 28 Dec – I Love Winter Shower Minis
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Wednesday’s post was about the second batch of I Love…’s mini shower gels. One was great, one was nice, and one was a stinker – literally! Click here to read the post.

Thursday 29 Dec – Boots Extracts Olive Body Butter
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I love my Boots Extracts Olive Body Butter. Why did Boots replace this one with a cheap smelling strawberry body butter? It boggles the mind… If you’d like to read my review, click here.

Friday 30 Dec – December Beauty Awards
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Friday’s post was about my December favourites. I liked quite a few products – but I loved Flower Pharm’s Orange Flower Body Butter the most. If you’ve missed the post, you can read it here.

This is it for this week! Again, Happy New Year! 🙂

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

I Love… Chocolates & Oranges, Iced Cookies, Mixed Berries Bath & Shower Crèmes

Hi there! About two months ago I told you that I found two cute I Love… gift sets at my local Asda. One of the gift sets contained summery shower gels, the other set contained winter-themed shower gels. Of the six summery shower gels only two were interesting (and new) to me.

However, I found four of the six winter-themed shower gels tempting. The two shower gels that I didn’t care for were Cherry Almond Sparkle (had it last year, it annoyed me half way through the bottle) and Spiced Cinnamon (I gave it a sniff and I knew I wouldn’t like it). I gave these two away with the four summery shower gels that I didn’t love.

And the four winter-themed shower gels I kept were I Love… Sugared Cranberries (which I’ve already reviewed), Chocolates & Oranges, Iced Cookie and Mixed Berries. Now let me tell you more…
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I Love… Chocolates & Oranges disappointed me. Yes, it smells somewhat chocolately, and yes, it also smells somewhat orangey, but it doesn’t smell delicious at all. It smells more like cheap dish soap. I’ll finish this shower gel (fortunately it’s only a 100ml bottle), but I have to say that it’s definitely one of my least favourite shower products ever.

I Love… Iced Cookie is very nice! It’s cookies and icing and Christmas… This shower gels reminds me of the extremely delicious soft and fluffy German gingerbread thingies (?) I stuffed my face with when we visited Cologne a few years ago. So yeah, this shower gel is awesome!

I Love… Mixed Berries is a decent shower gel. It doesn’t smell particularly christmassey but the fragrance is pleasant. It’s fruity, but it’s not a sugarbomb. Nice!

I found my two I Love… sets (6 different shower gels per set, 100ml per bottle) for £2.99 each at my local Asda. Unfortunately the majority of the fragrances in these sets aren’t part of I Love…’s permanent collection, so if you end up loving one (or several) of the shower gels, you won’t be able to buy a full-size bottle.

Mrs Strawberry Blonde