Empties – March 2018

Hi there! It’s the 2nd of April, so it’s time for my March Empties post! As always, I used a couple of single-use face masks. I didn’t keep the empty sachets, but you can read about my latest face mask finds if you click here. Now onto the “real” empties!

1 My Little Pony Rarity Shampoo – this is a good quality shampoo. If Hasbro does another MLP toiletries set for Christmas this year, I can see myself picking it up!

2 The Body Shop Almond Milk & Honey Shower Cream – I think this shower cream was alright. I received it as part of a gift set, but I wouldn’t buy it for myself.

3 The Body Shop Vanilla Chai Shower Gel – my husband and I liked this shower gel a lot. So yes, I would buy it again. This one’s a shared empty.

4 Herbal Essences Rainforest Flowers Shimmering Colour Conditioner – one of the best conditioners ever. And yes, this product has been discontinued. I think I have one more Rainforest Flowers Shimmering Colour shampoo & conditioner combo in my stash

5 Boots Extracts Zingy Satsuma Body Wash – I really enjoyed this one. Too bad it was a limited edition!

6 Boots Extracts Zingy Satsuma Body Lotion – another lovely body lotion from Boots! And, unfortunately, another limited edition.

7 Superdrug Intensive Moisture Hand Cream – this is a decent hand cream, but I wouldn’t buy it again because (thanks to Poundland, Poundworld and the likes) there are better hand creams out there for the same price.

8 Superdrug Sweet Snuggles Hand Lotion – I really liked this hand lotion. I am fairly certain I have a back-up!

9 The Body Shop Vanilla Body Mist – I’m glad it’s gone, and I wouldn’t buy it again. If you’re looking for a nice and simple vanilla fragrance, don’t bother with this one!

10 Nina Ricci Ricci Ricci – I received this one as a present. Ages ago. I liked the fragrance, but I didn’t love it. So I wouldn’t purchase it again. And yes, the name of this fragrance is Nina Ricci Ricci Ricci (or Ricci Ricci by Nina Ricci).

11 Superdrug Cocoa Butter & Vanilla Body Scrub – this is a great body scrub. It’s effective and it smells lovely. I have 2 back-up tubs!

12 Bourjois UNE M18 Casual Matt Colour Lipstick M18 – this is the perfect lip colour for me. I’ve already repurchased this lipstick!

13 Boots Time Dimensions Nourishing Eye Cream – this is a decent eye cream. Hydrates nicely, plays well with make-up. It’s super old, and it’s not available anymore. But I do have a back-up!

14 NSPA Rich Body Butter With Moisturising Shea Butter – this is a really nice body butter. I’m sure I’ll buy it again!

This is everything I emptied in March. Not bad, eh? By the way, here’s a photo of what I do with every single moisturiser tube!

Once a tube’s almost empty, I cut it open. Yes, I do that with every single tube that contains a product that I can’t rinse out in the shower (so that’s basically everything that’s not a shower gel or a shampoo). This way I get to use every last drop of product. Some may say I’m overdoing it, but I like that I’m not being wasteful. By the way, I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager!

Now… have you tried any of the products I finished? If so, let me know your thoughs. And what have you finished last month? Please feel free to get in touch. And thanks for stopping by!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

 

Never Again – The Ultimate Beauty Duds – Part 1

Hi there! I’ve tried and tested countless products. Most of them were good, some were great, and some were disappointing. So I thought I’d share some of my least favourite products with you! 🙂

Naturtint Shampoo & Naturtint Nutrideep Multiplier Protective Cream

Naturtint… oh dear! The shampoo was tolerable, but the ‘protective cream’ was the worst thing that ever happened to my hair in all my life. Honestly, the ‘protective cream’ scared me big time. I thought it ruined my hair. Thanks to L’Oréal I managed to restore my hair to its pre-Naturtint state!

MUA Matte Lipstick Wild Berry

This is an awful matte lipstick from MUA. It feels waxy, sticky and drying. And it’s a nightmare to apply because of the thick and waxy texture. On top of that, the colour doesn’t transfer well onto lips. Rubbish.

Original Source Skin Quench Pineapple & Coconut Oil, Peach & Apricot Oil, Watermelon & Jojoba Oil

The Pineapple & Coconut Oil shower gel smelled like… almost nothing. It was very, very faint. But this shower gel didn’t smell great anyway, so I didn’t miss out on anything. The Peach & Apricot Oil shower gel was horrible. It smelled like furniture polish. I’m not surprised this one was discontinued quickly. The Watermelon & Jojoba Oil shower gel was the winner of the three – because it smelled OK. Still, the scent wasn’t special at all and it was very faint.

B. Pure Sensitive Micellar Cleansing Wipes

These micellar wipes from Superdrug made my face tingle in an unpleasant way, and they’re definitely not suitable for use around the eyes. Another thing that annoyed me was the sticky film these wipes left behind. Why Superdrug thinks these wipes could replace a face wash and a toner, I don’t know.

NYC Skin Matching Foundation 685 Fair &
Miss Sporty Morning Baby BB Cream 001 Nude Radiance

NYC’s foundation doesn’t blend. At all. Any attempt to blend it into your skin will cause the product to flake. I tried different moisturisers and different beauty tools, but this foundation was impossible to work with. No surprise it’s been discontinued.

Miss Sporty’s BB Cream didn’t cover up any skin imperfections. It highlighted them! Simple redness turned into shiny redness. Also, this BB cream made my skin look orange. And on top of that, it balled up!

Rimmel Colour Rush Trio Eye Shadow 760 Elements

This Rimmel eyeshadow compact disappointed me big time because the eyeshadows are incredibly poorly pigmented. I usually find Rimmel products excellent, but this compact is a joke. The swatch says it all. And yes, that almost unrecognisable thing on the right is a swatch.

Gliss Oil Nutritive Shampoo & Conditioner

These two Gliss products did smell amazing. But they made my hair feel and look greasy within hours after washing it. Not good. The conditioner is one of the worst I’ve ever had. It robbed my hair of its elasticity and flexibility, and I had to double-condition after each wash because detangling my hair was the new ‘Mission Impossible’. Fortunately the conditioner only lasted 7 days (yes, this means I emptied the bottle in 7 days).

Sweet Snuggles Chocolate Vanilla Hand Cream & FCUK Pure Bodyspray

I really hated this hand cream. I used it once and it moisturised my hands well. But it had the most sickly sweet vanilla scent I’ve ever had the misfortune of smelling.

The FCUK fragrance annoyed me just as much. The strong white pepper note reminded me too much of the raw meat smell at the butcher’s. And the drydown was all about violet and, again, sickly sweet vanilla. I just couldn’t stomach smelling these two products so they had to go.

This was the first edition of The Ultimate Beauty Duds! Part 2 is coming soon!

By the way, I’m not saying that no one could ever like these products (some of them are probably still around). So if you do like any of these products, that’s good for you.

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

The Perfect Stocking Fillers For £1 – Superdrug Sweet Snuggles Lip Balms and Hands & Nails Sets

Hi there! Today’s post is about Superdrug’s Sweet Snuggles Lip Balm Set and Superdrug’s Sweet Snuggles Hand & Nail Set. I bought these two sets last year – for £1 each. And since Superdrug is now selling two almost identical sets (the design is a little different – but everything else is the same), I thought I’d tell you if they’re any good.

Superdrug’s Sweet Snuggles Lip Balm Set consists of 3 lip balms. They’re vanilla-flavoured and they’re very nourishing. I also love the cute design – very fitting for the colder season! This year Superdrug is selling essentially the same lip balm set (as I said before, they chose a new design, but the name and the product are basically still the same) – and it’s available for £1. Considering the good quality of these lip balms, the set is a total steal!

Superdrug’s Sweet Snuggles Hand & Nail Set consists of a small 30ml hand lotion and a small emery board (= the perfect size for every cosmetic bag). I think the hand lotion is very nice. It’s wonderfully moisturising, but it’s not sticky at all. And it makes my hands feel so soft! I also like the delicious and sweet vanilla scent (it reminds me of Boots’ vanilla body butter). The emery board is nothing special – it does its job – like every other emery board. At the moment Superdrug does a near identical set (the emery board is the same, but this year’s hand lotion features a penguin image) wich is £1 only.

I would definitely recommend these little sets. They’re cute, they’re great stocking fillers, and the products are actually useful! I haven’t seen the new sets in store yet (online only), so I’m not sure about whether or not they carry the Leaping Bunny logo. My guess is that they do because last year’s sets were BUAV-approved, and they did carry the Leaping Bunny logo – and Superdrug’s own brand products are generally certified cruelty-free.

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

I wouldn’t recommend… Sweet Snuggles Chocolate Vanilla Hand Cream & FCUK Pure Bodyspray

Hi there! This is my first post about stuff I wouldn’t recommend. I’ve done a few posts about products I wouldn’t repurchase, but I’m thinking that I might make it clearer in the title from now on. Now, let’s get to the products! Meet Superdrug’s Sweet Snuggles Chocolate Vanilla Hand Cream and FCUK Pure Bodyspray.

Superdrug’s Sweet Snuggles Chocolate Vanilla Hand Cream is a product I found in the bargain bin at my local Superdrug store. Whilst this cream does a good job moisturising my hands, the sickly sweet vanilla scent annoys me big time.

FCUK’s Pure Bodyspray is another product I regret buying. The fragrance contains notes of violet, pepper and vanilla. In theory, this doesn’t sound bad at all. In reality, I find this fragrance obnoxious. I tell you why…

At first there’s a blast of old-fashioned violets, the next thing my nose picks up is the smell of butcher – the intensity of the white pepper in this fragrance is beyond words. After a minute or two the  pepper note is gone and what remains is the scent of dried violets with a hint of candy vanilla. Not pleasant. At all.

I’ll give the hand cream and the bodyspray to a teenage relative who’s always happy to take all kinds of unwanted stuff off my hands. She loves sickly sweet scents in everything, so she might actually like these two products.

Mrs Strawberry Blonde