Empties – December 2018

Hi there! Happy New Year, everyone! 🙂 Since it’s the 1st of the month, this post is about everything I finished last month. I’ve used a few single-use face masks. Whilst I don’t keep the empty sachets, you can read about my latest face mask finds if you click here. Onto the empty bottles, tubes and tubs!

1 Boots Extracts Cocoa Butter Body Butter – this is, without doubt, one of the best body butters I’ve ever tried. I have a few back-up tubs in my stash!

2 NYC Expert Last Nail Polish 138 Classy Glassy – this is a lovely clear polish. I love to use it as a top coat when I do foil manis. I have a few more bottles in my stash.

3 Orly Nail Lacquer Clear – this is the best quick-dry polish ever. I have 10+ back-up bottles.

4 Enliven Mango & Papaya Shower Gel – this is a nice shower gel that I can see myself buying again. My husband used this shower gel too, so it’s a shared empty.

5 Yves Rocher 3 Min. Cranberry Cooling Effect Mask – this is, without doubt, one of the most useless “beauty” products I’ve ever come across. It doesn’t do anything at all.

6 Boots Garden Collection Rose Body Wash (travel size) – this is a great little shower gel. I have one more bottle in my stash.

7 Max Factor Pan Stik 12 True Beige – my holy grail foundation!

8 Palmolive Aroma Moments So Vibrant Shower Gel – this is a fantastic shower gel that I would love to repurchase.

9 Herbal Essences Bio Renew Whipped Cocoa Butter Strength Conditioner – I thought this conditioner and the matching shampoo were not bad, but I’ve changed my mind. They were bad! For weeks, I thought my hair needed a trim, but I realised how incredibly flattening these 2 products were just after I had finished this conditioner (which was the day I passed the matching leftover shampoo on to my husband). I started a new shampoo and conditioner combo (Gliss), and those new products made my hair look big from day 1. Thank you Gliss! Goodbye and good riddance Herbal Essences Cocoa Butter products.

10 Boots Extracts Sweet Mango Body Spray – this stuff smells gorgeous! It’s the best mango fragrance out there! I have another bottle – which is already in use!

11 Enliven Pink Grapefruit Shower Gel – another great shower gel that I would like to repurchase. My husband helped with this one, so this one’s a shared empty.

12 Imperial Leather Thai Fusion Bath Moments – if this one hadn’t been discontinued, I’d buy it again.

13 Classics Nail Polish Remover – I will continue to buy this nail polish remover for as long as it’s made.

14 Simple Pleasures Winter Woodland Frosty Delight Body Lotion (travel size) – I found this half-empty bottle in my stash, so I made an effort to finish it. Success! This one was alright, but I wouldn’t buy anything from this brand again.

15 Garnier Pure Active Fruit Energy Daily Energising Gel Scrub – I liked this gentle scrub, but I didn’t love it. I don’t think that I’ll repurchase it.

16 Wonder Woman 2 In 1 Shampoo / Conditioner (travel size) – this is a nice shampoo. Very clarifying! But it doesn’t replace a conditioner. I might pick up another Wonder Woman toiletries set in the future.

17 Elizavecca Milky Piggy Kangsi Pack – this is another product that didn’t do anything for me. I won’t repurchase it.

18 Ciaté Amazing Gracie – another low quality polish from Ciaté that I am happy to say goodbye to.

19 Super Facialist By Una Brennan Vitamin C + Brighten Sleep & Reveal Night Cream  – this night cream isn’t the most suitable product for dry skin. And I think it didn’t do anything for my skin. I won’t buy it again.

20 Superdrug Treat Me Salted Caramel Shower & Bath Soak – this is a nice shower gel that I would repurchase. Since my husband used this shower gel too, this is another shared empty.

I did well again in December, didn’t I? I’m glad I finished all these shower and bath products. Some of them have been sitting by the shower – in various states of empty – for much, much longer than I’d care to admit. But (with a little help from my husband) I finished them – one by one. I’m actually a little proud of myself!

Since this is also the last Empties post for last year, I thought I’d let you know that I emptied 239 products in 2018. This figure includes the single-use face masks I’ve used. Whilst I don’t keep the empty sachets for my Empties posts, I do count them in my overall empties.

Again, Happy New Year! I hope it’s going to be a great year for everyone!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Never Again – The Ultimate Beauty Duds – Part 3

Hi there! Welcome to Part 3 of the Ultimate Beauty Duds. I’ve already done parts 1 and 2, and these posts were well received. So her’s part 3! 🙂

Neutrogena Hydro Boost Water Gel

This Neutrogena moisturiser made my skin feel terribly dry. But Olay saved the day (and my skin).

Dolly’s Mixtures Rainbow Sherbet & Strawberry Daiquiri

These 2 Dolly’s Mixtutes shower gels were disappointing. The fragrances are best described as fizzy plastic and random soapy nothingness.

Simple Pleasures Winter Woodland Body Mists
simple-pleasures-winter-woodland-set-1
The ultimate cheap body mist collection. These are the kind of body sprays you give to a young girl to experiment with – if you want her to dislike fragrances…

I Love… Chocolates & Orange Bath & Shower Crème, Refreshing Body Spritzer

I like quite a few I Love… toiletries, but the Chocolates & Oranges products smell like cheap dish soap. Yikes!

Paperchase Cherry, Strawberry & Blackcurrant Lip Balms

These Paperchase lip balms tasted like plastic. I binned them a long time ago.

I Love… Chocolate Truffle Bath Fizzer & Yves Rocher Cranberry Cooling Effect Mask

I Love…’s Chocolate Truffle products are excellent. However, there’s one stinker – the Bath Fizzer! It smells like cardboard with the faintest hint of cheap chocolate. Not pleasant at all.

Yves Rocher’s Cranberry Cooling Effect mask is pretty useless. It doesn’t do anything at all. This is, without doubt, one of Yves Rocher’s most disappointing products.

Accessorize Paradise Eyeshadow Palette
Accessorize Paradise 01
I think the Paradise palette is extremely pretty. But of 32 eyeshadows, 16 are so poorly pigmented that they’re essentially useless. Check out my original post which includes swatches of all 32 eyeshadows – you’ll be disappoited, no doubt.

This was part 3 of The Ultimate Beauty Duds! Whilst I’m not saying that no one could ever like any of these products (some of them are still around), I found these products to be rubbish. But if you do like any of these products, that’s good for you.

Feel free to get in touch if you want to. And thanks for reading!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Yves Rocher 3 Min. Cranberry Cooling Effect Mask

Yves Rocher Cooling MaskHi there! Today’s post is about Yves Rocher’s 3 Min. Cranberry Cooling Effect Mask.

You’re supposed to apply the mask, leave it on for 3 minutes, and wash it off. Yves Rocher recommends the mask be used once or twice a week.

This face mask promises to refresh skin (‘radiant freshness’) thanks to its cooling effect, and to leave skin looking radiant. Does this mask deliver on its promise?

No, not really. First of all, this mask isn’t cooling. I was hoping it would feel fresh or cool, but it didn’t. Ah well…

I also didn’t notice any other effect. My skin didn’t feel or look different, so I’m not convinced that this mask does anything at all.

I will continue to use this face mask on a weekly basis. If I notice any positive effects in the future, I will let you know. However, as of now (after 4 uses) I’d say that I wouldn’t buy this mask again.

Yves Rocher’s Cranberry Cooling Effect Mask is available as 50ml for £7.50. I got my mask for half price.

Mrs Strawberry Blonde