Empties – August 2018

Hi there! Today’s post is about all the products I finished in August. I’ve used a number of single-use face masks, but I didn’t keep the sachets. If you’re interested, click here to read about my latest face mask finds. Now, let me show you the big bottles, tubes and tubs I said goodbye to in August. 🙂

1 Boots Extracts Luscious Vanilla Body Scrub (travel size) – this is an average scrub, but it has Boots’ lovely vanilla fragrance. I’m pretty sure I have 1 or 2 back-up tubes.

2 My Little Pony Body Mist – this is one of the most fleeting “fragrances” ever. However, this body mist turned out to be pretty awesome! It contains glycerin, and it feels hydrating, so I’ve been spraying it down my back. It made my skin super soft! I’d like to buy it again, but I haven’t seen it in a while… 😦

3 Superdrug Calm Skin Refreshing Facial Spritz – this is awesome for dry and moody skin. I’ll repurchase it soon!

4 Herbal Essences Fruit Fusions Moisture Splash Conditioner – this is one of the best conditioners ever! For the past 2+ years I’ve been using it to double condition my hair when random Pantene or Garnier (or whatever) conditioners weren’t good enough. I’m sad this product has been discontinued. But I have one more bottle!

5 NSPA Luscious Fresh Clementine Shower & Bath Gel – this is another nice shower gel from NSPA. I’d repurchase it if it hadn’t been discontinued.

6 Boots Extracts Luscious Vanilla Body Butter (x2, travel size) – this is a lovely body butter. I have a few more tubs in my stash!

7 Olay Anti-Wrinkle Instant Hydration Eye Cream – this is a really nice eye cream. I would buy it again, but I think it’s been discontinued.

8 Boots Botanics Nourishing Body Butter – I’ve had this in my stash for a very long time. Whilst there was no issue with the product, I decided to use it as a foot butter. And it did a great job! Since my husband used this product too, this is a shared empty. I have one more tub in my stash.

9 L’Oréal Elvive Fibrology Air Volumising Thickening Conditioner – this is an awful product. Good riddance!

10 Rimmel Lycra Pro 421 Clearly Clear – one of my favourite clear polishes. I have several of bottles!

11 NYC Expert Last Polish 138 Classy Glassy – this is another great clear polish. Yes, I have several bottles!

12 Montagne Jeunesse Buriti Fruit Body Smoothie – this is a lovely product. It served me well this summer. I would buy it again, but I believe this product has been discontinued.

13 Scinic Aqua All In One Ampoule – this is a disappointing product that did nothing for my skin at all. This ampoule made my skin feel dry. On a positive note, it gave me the chance to use richer (greasy even) face products. This ampoule lasted me for 9 months! I wouldn’t buy it again.

14 Imperial Leather Indulgence Precious Body Wash – this is a wonderful shower gel. It seems to have been discontinued, so I need to check if I can still find it at a bargain store.

15 My Little Pony Fluttershy Bath Bubbles (travel size) – I used this raspberry-scented bath gel as a shower gel. I really enjoyed the fragrance. I can definitely see myself picking up another MLP toiletries set!

I’m pleased I managed to empty 2 more clear polishes, as well as a number of travel-sized products. And I’m glad the terrible Fibrology Air (anti-)conditioner is gone. Have you tried any of these products? Or would you like any of these products? What have you emptied this month? Feel free to comment. And thanks for reading!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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. 🙂

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