Last Winter 2016 Empties

 

Hi guys and gals, l am coming at you with my trash again, oh, sorry, empties post ☺ I don't know what about you, but l feel if I finished the product to the last bit of it, it means I can give proper review of it, you know what I mean? For years I used not to finish anything at all, it rather expired on me, because I liked to “have” lots of beautiful things on my shelves, rather than “use” stuff. Now I changed my way of thinking and applied “one in one out” rule, in order to minimize the amount of things I own. It is nowhere near as minimalistic as I aspire to be, but I am trying to hone things to my perfect capsule collection.

So without further ado, let’s jump right in, shall we?

100%Pure Pink Grapefruit body lotion, samples x3

This came with my recent order from the company, I used all three packs at once and was short for full body application. What can l say? Nice smell, great ingredients apart Japanese Honeysuckle, sinks in really fast. I probably won't be repurchasing this or any other body creams for one reason- it ships from US (yes, all the orders from 100% Pure ship from US no matter if you order from EU, UK or other sites) so not only I risk getting charged extra because of the customs (it really sucks!) but also l don't want my products clocking up so many air miles. We as consumers should be thinking about things like these. But if 100% Pure were local to me and had a store in Dublin, I would totally get all their products. In fact, I would move in there ☺

100% Pure French Lavender Hand Buttercream - sample x1

See above, nice ingredients, not buying for the reasons l just listed.

100% Pure Coconut Nourishing body cream - sample x1

Not buying, same reason, see above, plus I don't like the smell, sickly sweet! I have a huge tub of scrub in this scent, not going as fast as l would like to, purely because of the smell again.

100% Pure Coffee Bean Eye Cream 

I had three samples of it, used up just one, and even halfway and binning the rest - this did zero things to my undereyes, zilch. Nada. Did not do anything to my dark undereye circles, nothing for the fine lines, it might have moisturised the skin, but not to the point that I would noticed. What it did give me was milia (I forgot about that problem since I switched to oils) and now it's back, and that is exactly the reason I am binning it. I had two more packets of it and gave it away to other blogger in a swap, hopefully she will get more benefits from it? From what I have read about it, people seem to be 50/50 about it, many love it, but many don't see any benefits from it, including me. One thing I have to give it - it lasts for absolutely ages! My 2ml sample lasted for more than 2 months and there's still plenty of it left, so if you will get it in full size, go for travel size, because the full size will expire on you before you will be able to finish it. 

100% Pure Caffeine Sheet Mask
All I can say is AMAZING!! Working on a review on it! All natural ingredients, and this mask truly does amazing things to the skin. This is something I will always want to have, 2015 was the year I got into masks, and not one compares to this, to me it is the best!

My own DIY whipped body butter

This lasted me about a year, totally making more of it, because not only I know what went into it to the last ingredient, but I saved a ton of money by DIY-ing it. You can find the recipe here.

Cold Pressed Oils pure shea butter 

This is hands down the best quality shea butter I have used, it helped me so much with my dermatitis! I am really due a review about it and the small family owned business, but at the moment I am testing another product of theirs, so l want to give myself some time to properly use the second oil I got from them and then put together a blog post.

Repurchase? Already have!

Jason 84% aloe vera conditioner

This is more than a year old and I am tossing it as it didn't work for me in the slightest and also has ingredients in it I no longer use. I left it in the most visible/accessible place in the bathroom hoping that my family members might use it, but those little devils keep using my good stuff instead and do not touch it either.

Repurchase? No.

Burts Bees shampoo x3

It is a staple in my house, l talked a million times about it before, so if you want, please feel free to peruse my older posts. This is what my hubby and princesses use, I don't, so that's why it's three empties in one post and none in the next - it's because we have several half empty bottles at any given moment. It drives me nuts, but that's how my hubby rolls. #familylife

Repurchase? Yes.

Madara Micellar Water - samples x3

I collected three samples via Naturisimo orders, and as l was excited to try it (heard many bloggers rave about it) I wasn't impressed, it is not that good at removing make up plus it dried out my skin! my trusty old rose water or orange flower water does way better job, not to mention it is many times more cheaper.

A purchase? No. I’ll stick to my rosewater, thank you very much!

Neal's Yard Remedies Thyme and Honey Cough Syrup

This is a miracle product and I am stocking up like a mad woman next time I am doing NYR order! Let me explain - not only it is the gentlest and pleasant tasting syrup ever, but it also works like a charm too, completely eliminating any type of a coughs in just a couple of days! I hope they never discontinue this, l promise to be a faithful buyer! and did l mention it's organic? It is a smidge more expensive than your regular cough syrup at the drugstore, but it pays over a million times, as cheap as l am, l am prepared to pay up where it pays to do so, esp when it comes to organic products! Whereas the regular cough syrups never work, you are bombarded with a million options, they have side effects and ingredients l don't want to use, last time l bought children's Sootha cough syrup in a rush (aren’t we always in a rush when your child is sick) without checking the ingredients (mainly because l used different product from that brand before) and was horrified to see parabens in the ingredient list!! I mean are you kidding me, parabens in babies medicine? Ugh!

Anyways, let’s get back to NYR one - it has good ingredients, reminds me of the cough syrup that l used when l myself was a child, it is organic AND it works brilliantly! Guess where l am going with this?

A repurchase? Yes a million times over!

Melvita argan oil samples x2

Has good ingredients, worked fine to tame my frizz. One little tip, always double check the ingredients list and if you find a long list of ingredients, put it back and back away! This usually happens with cheaper stuff, so don't be fooled by “argan oil” on the front of the bottle - you want pure oil, not all those fillers and silicones.

Am l purchasing full size of it? Not sure, l still have more than a half bottle of raw argan oil from other brand, and by the time l will be finished with it, l may be swayed by something else? Us bloggers are finicky bunch, haha!

Himalayan salt (not pictured here) but you can see it in my IG post here.

This is food grade salt that l used for a detox bath along with some essential oils (lavender, roman camomile and carrot seed if you want to know). This cost me less than a euro, and l don't think l will ever splash out on a fancy jar of detox salts, l am yet to be convinced they work any better. If you want to drop a pretty penny please be my guest and by all means treat yourself, but this is one area where l tend to save and DIY instead and spend my hard earned cash elsewhere.

A repurchase? Yes.

Deep steep hand wash in Sugar Plum

I got it in TKMaxx for a fiver, which is a good deal considering you get almost half a litre of product. Ingredients are pretty clean and Deep Steep is a good and affordable natural brand. This lasted me two months, and the only thing l didn't like about it is the pump, it dispenses way too much product and you spend ages rinsing it off. I think it's done on purpose so you would run out and be back for more pretty soon? But it is miles better than your regular liquid soap in the stores, and l will be picking it up once l will come across it in TKMaxx again. I haven't seen it in any other stored in Dublin, if you happen to know where these are sold, let me know! Oh, did l mention that the Sugar Plum scent is amazing?

A repurchase? Yes.

Dermalex

This is by all means not a natural product (but leaning toward it, the marking is blue, which is miles better than black) and it contains natural extract!!!!

Anyways, this l used to treat my dermatitis, it is sort of new treatment that does not contain any steroids. I personally can vouch for it’s effectiveness, it truly works at healing and calming the inflamed skin and it somewhat soothes the itchiness too. I recommended this along with other products in my dermatitis post, you can check it out here.

A repurchase? Already have.

English Mineral Makeup Company foundation in light neutral & warm light, samples x2

This l own in full size and have reviewed already (check it out here). Truly clean and effective make up that l really enjoy using and will be sad when it's finished. Pricy though, so l hope Santa will see this and will take hints ☺

A repurchase? Not sure or should l say not straight away! I am working my way though the samples of other brands, so l might find a cheaper alternative, and l really am dying to try Alima Pure foundation.

100% Pure Maracuja mascara (Not pictured as I forgot to include it, doh!)

By now this become my favourite mascara, even to the point of me moving it to Holy Grail category! At first l wasn't sure about the steep price point, but now I justify it by getting good deals or by going without something else I want but not necessarily need. This mascara has amazing ingredients and it doubles up as a lash treatment conditioning your lashes, so it's money well spent l would say. It gives you length and volume and you can really build it up, which you can't do with their original Black Tea mascara (that one did nothing for my lashes) and did l mention it is gluten free? It also made my lashes grow, and l know it's this, because l am not using any lash serums or castor oil, nuffink! Oh gosh, l sound like a sales person, don't I? Well, at least you will know how much l love it ☺

A repurchase? Already have. Btw, follow me on Instagram, l will alert you about their deals, because otherwise their prices are steep!

Avalon Organics Baby Shampoo & Body Wash 

Despite good ingredients I am not repurchasing, purely because it didn't work for us, as a shampoo it is too drying and not that good that I would want to go out and repurchase, there are way better products at that price point, and to use it as a body wash it is simply not economical, there are better products at the cheaper price point too. But it might be your perfect product, you never know?

Solgar Liquid Vitamin D3 2500iu 

This played a crucial role in my healing from dermatitis, as l was (and most of us are) deficient in this vitamin - please do your own research and test yourself if you think you are deficient, but l highly suggest that do you so, it is not just babies who need to supplement with it - we don't make nowhere near enough from the sun as we are lead to believe.

So that is it for now, I know this is rather plain stuff that I used up, I promise my next empties post will be way more exciting with plenty of make up 😊

What did you guys used up? See any favourites here? Please let me know.

That is all, ta ta for now!

Lots of Love,

Renata.