April is here, which means it's time to share all the products I used up in March. I've been doing really well so far this year, and I'm really excited to share my progress with you all!
For skincare, I used up a Bliss Fabulous Foaming Face Wash. I used to really like this stuff, but I realized it doesn't do anything for my skin.
The Algenist Overnight Restorative Cream was really freaking amazing, and I want the full size at some point. This made my skin look and feel so nice!
I wasn't able to use up the Neocorium Derma Carrier and EGF & Stem Cell Concentrate before it expired. It's a shame because this duo was pretty nice, and it's super expensive.
I really wasn't a fan of the Derma-Nu Blueberry Cranberry Oxygen Facial Scrub. It smelled nice, but felt way too harsh on my skin.
Montagne Jeunesse is a brand I'm unsure of, but I did like their Creamy Coconut Hydrating single use mask. It made my skin feel really soft and supple. Four more packets of the Dickinson's Oil Controlling Towelettes done, and just a few more to go.
I usually don't wear perfumes or body sprays, so this Victoria's Secret Pure Seduction Body Splash took years to get through. I have different scents hanging around, so I'll try to use them more.
I have another Philosophy Cranberry Medley hand cream used up, which I do like. I think I mentioned before, but this doesn't work very well if my hands are extra dry and cracked, but for a little moisture, it works just fine.
I really enjoy Serious lip balms, and I used up a Peppermint one. I loved this so much. It makes my lips feel soft, and the peppermint scent is really nice.
I have little samples of the Exuviance Evening Restorative Complex and the Caudalie Eye and Lip Cream. The Exuviance was nice, but felt maybe too hydrating at times, and I really enjoyed the Caudalie eye cream as well. It felt like a balm, but wasn't too heavy so I used it during the day.
I had a deluxe sample of the Tom's of Maine Rapid Relief Sensitive toothpaste, so I used this up quickly. I didn't care for it much as it didn't help the sensitivity I have.
I finally have some makeup! The Miss Mona Lisa Eyebrow Pencil was all dried out, and it fell out of the packaging, so I had to throw it away. I've been a fan of The Body Shop's Lightening Touch pen in shade 01 for ages now. I honestly am not sure if they still make this, but I may have a backup to use. I LOVE the Rimmel Match Perfection concealer in shade Fair. It's such a nice color for my under eyes, and blends in like a dream.
Products used up: 19
total for the year: 57
I truly am so proud of myself right now! I never thought I could use up this many products so early into the year. I'm not sure how April will go, but I may focus a bit more on using up deluxe and foil packet samples. I have a ton of those to go through and really need to start using them up.
What have you used up recently?
Hello everyone! This is my last empties post from 2014! I used up a good amount of products in December, so lets see what I have!
The first product that was used up is the Silkience 2-in-1 Shampoo & Conditioner. I bought this at Big Lots for I think around $3 when my husband ran out of his shampoo. I didn't want to spend too much money, so he said to get whatever, he's not picky. After he used it a few times, he said he hated it, so I decided to try it out myself. It really is not a good shampoo. It didn't clean well, and didn't feel good rinsing out of my hair either. It felt like I still had product in my hair after using it. My husband has lots of curly, thick hair so for him it was really bad. We used it up though since we don't like wasting, but we will never repurchase!
It wouldn't be an empties post if I didn't have a can of Batiste dry shampoo! This is the Sassy & Daring Wild version, and I think this is my new favorite scent. I typically love the Tropical scent, but I can never find it in stores, and the last time I tried ordering it online from Drugstore.com, my package was lost in the mail, so I had to call and get my money back. So I'm either going to start buying it in-store at Ulta, or on the Ulta website.
I used up the Nature Made Multi For Her vitamins and this brand of vitamins is definitely my favorite. They're always on sale somewhere, and they're a good price to begin with. Will always repurchase this.
This perfume is so old! It's from the Victoria's Secret Pink line, and this was called Wish Pink. I remember first seeing these in store and thinking how cute the packaging was. This particular one smelled the least offensive to me, it's sweet with just a hint of floral. I honestly rarely used this as actual perfume. I used it mainly as an air freshener! If I felt like maybe the trash was starting to smell funky, or I just wanted the air to smell nice, I'd do a few spritzes of this, and everything smelled good again. They discontinued this line so long ago, I don't even remember when.
I was glad to finish up the Bath & Body Works shower gel in the Vanilla Tini scent. I'm pretty sure I've said before that these shower gels aren't my favorite. The scents are nice, but I don't feel like they clean very well, and they make my skin feel drier than the Sahara. I have a few more of these to use up, but I'll never repurchase any.
This Clarins Hand and Nail Treatment Cream sat in my stash for ages! Once the weather got really cold, I decided to finally use it up. I now know why it sat for so long. The scent is overbearing and it actually made my hands burn and feel more dry. I'm so glad this is finally used up.
I also used up the two lip balms I was rotating through. The first one is the Badger lip balm in the scent Vanilla Madagascar. I love Badger lip balms and typically buy a few when I see them. I have such a large stash of lip balms though so I don't need to repurchase any for a long time. I used this one mainly during the day as it was easy to just take off the lid and swipe it onto my lips. The second one I used up, I used at night and it's the Rosebud Strawberry lip balm. Oh my heavens, does this smell amazing! I love how this applies to the lips, and it gives a nice sheen where it makes your lips look so full and healthy. I usually loaded up on this stuff because my lips dry out alot overnight, but this helps a ton with that.
I have finally used up the Biore Deep Cleansing Pore Strips that I've had since before my husband and I met. I always heard these were so bad for your skin, but they really cleaned out the pores on my nose and made them look so small. I typically used one after I washed my face, then I would use a deep cleansing mask afterwards, and it was a match made in heaven. I probably won't go out and repurchase right away (spending ban time!), but eventually I will.
I used up the little jar of the Ole Henriksen Walnut Complexion Scrub. I was using this for ages because you only need the tiniest amount to get the job done. I could've sworn I had a review of this, but I actually don't. I do have the larger size jar to use up as well, so I may review it sometime soon! I really am a fan of this scrub. It makes my skin feel so soft and smooth, and the grains are the perfect size and not too irritating.
I had a little sample size tube of the Sephora Instant Moisturizer hiding in my closet and decided to use it up. I have mixed feelings about this. I love how it spreads evenly on the skin and it makes it feel really soft at first. As the day goes on however, my skin turns into a big greaseball. The scent is also a little overwhelming, it's very floral-y. I probably will not repurchase.
I also used up the Valentia Even Glow Serum, which I reviewed here. This serum is amazing! It felt so lovely on my skin, it sinks right in, it smells like oranges, and it helped brighten up my complexion when it was looking really dull and tired. I'm tempted to buy this, but with the massive amount of skincare I have in my stash, and it being $35, I'm going to pass on it for now.
I've been trying to use up alot of the samples I have, and I wanted to try the Lancome Visionnaire Advanced Skin Corrector. This product is no joke guys! I know the bottle is really tiny, but I noticed a difference in my skin the next morning after using this. This is supposed to help with wrinkles, pores and evenness, and I swear to you, my pores were almost invisible when I used this. I do have another one of these little bottles to use, but I won't buy the the full size. A 1 ounce bottle costs $79, and the 1.7 ounce costs a whopping $115!
The last product I have used up is the Korres Wild Rose moisturizer. I didn't like this really. It felt heavy on my skin, even with it being so cold out, and the rose scent was too strong for my liking. I do think I have another one of these small tubes to use up, so I'll probably use it up soon before it starts to get warm, otherwise I'll be an oily mess after using it.
Well that's everything I used up in December! I have to say, I was curious to see how many products I had used up this past year, so I went through all my empties posts and counted the products. From January through December, I have used up 181 products! I can't believe that! I was in shock when I saw that. But hey, that just leaves room to buy more products to try and use up, after my spending ban of course! ;)
What did you use up in December? Did you count how many products you went through?
As you can probably tell by the title of this post, I failed horribly with my spending ban and bought alot of some things.
Anyways, I made purchases from Sephora, Amazon, two from Walgreen's and Victoria's Secret. Lets see what trouble I got into!
I'll start off with Sephora. I had made this purchase when Ebates, a site that gives you cash back to your Paypal account, was having their 15th anniversary. Certain websites had 15% cash back and Sephora was one of them. I was looking through all the new skincare on the site and came across the Philosophy Purity Made Simple Mask. It's supposed to be a deep cleaning mask, but you only leave it on for 1 minute. I was intrigued with how it works in just a minute, so in my shopping cart it went. This costs $25 so hopefully it works well.
Last thing from Sephora is a 4 pack of Clarisonic Sensitive Brush Heads. I had never seen a 4 pack before and at $75 for the package, I wasn't sure if I wanted to get this because of the steep price. Buying just one brush head costs $27. I remember it used to be $25, but I guess the price went up since I last purchased some. If I bought three individual brush heads, I'd be spending $81. After I did all the math, I figured buying the 4 pack was way better because I'm basically getting one free! Also, I don't use my Clarisonic everyday, maybe three times a week. They recommend changing out the brush head every three months, but I'm assuming that's with daily use. So, for me personally, I'll change mine out every 5-ish months. This package will last me quite a while, plus I did find other backups in my closet! Oops :)
Next up we have one lone little product I purchased from Amazon. This may be a weird product, but I have a short story. I hate shaving, plain and simple. I always cut myself and usually have irritation from shaving, especially on my underarms, which is where this product comes in handy! It's the Nads gel in the Sangria Punch Scent. I had used the original Nads years and years ago, and was typically pleased with the results. I haven't used this yet, as I found a backup of what I used to use in my closet, but I really like this stuff. It's not really a wax, more of a sugaring gel that you can warm up a bit, and use a muslin cloth to remove hair. It does hurt when you rip out the hair, but I don't have any irritation from this and hair regrowth is alot lighter and sparser.
Next up is Walgreen's! When I heard that their clearance sale was starting, I definitely wanted to see what they had marked down. I went early on in the sale, so I didn't see much in my store. Covergirl had alot of markdowns and I went a little mascara crazy, like I normally do. The one in the red tube is called the Professional Super Thick Lash in the Very Black color. The one on the blue tube is called the Professional All-In-One also in the Very Black color. These babies only cost me $2.99 each and the lady ringing me up scanned a $2 off coupon for buying two Covergirl mascaras. The last mascara I found marked down was the Exacteyelights Eye Brightening Mascara in the color Black Pearl. This mascara is meant for brown eyes, and mine are a hazel, a mix of brown and green This mascara cost me $4.89.
The Covergirl Clean Sensitive Skin Pressed Powders were all marked down and I was able to find a decent shade match with Creamy Natural. This cost me $4.19. I've never tried Covergirl powders before so I hope I like this.
The last product from this shopping trip is the Milani Baked Blush in the shade Corallina. I have only one other baked blush by Milani in Dolce Pink, which I really love. I haven't tried this one yet, but it looks really pretty in the packaging!
Now this is my most recent Walgreen's purchase. I had heard that they were marking down some of the Maybelline Color Tattoos and I figured I should get what I wanted while they were still on the shelves at a lower price. I guess they're getting rid of some colors to make room for new ones? Who knows, but I ended up buying Pomegranate Punk, Gold Rush and Audacious Asphalt. These were on sale for $3.49 plus I had a $1 off coupon on each of them, so $2.49 for each is not too shabby.
I also noticed when I was there that quite a few of the Color Whispers were marked down to $3.79 each so I picked up Who Wore It Red-er and Mad For Magenta. I already have a couple of these and really like them alot. I'm glad I found more at a good price!
Victoria's Secret was having their Semi Annual Sale and all of their makeup was 50% off. I read somewhere that VS is no longer going to be carrying makeup, which is kind of a bummer because they have some nice products. I ended up with two Metallized Eyeshadows, the first being Petal to the Metal and the second one is called Gold Card. I have some of their other eyeshadows and I really do like them. These only cost me $6 each so that wasn't too bad.
Well that's my haul! I did do some damage, especially at Sephora but hey, a girl loves her beauty products! What did you purchase recently?
Hey everyone! Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Work has been kicking my butt and I barely have a day off to myself. Last Saturday was my birthday and I did actually have off the whole weekend but I got busy and couldn't post my birthday haul until now. Please forgive me! I went birthday shopping on Sunday after my birthday so lets get on with what I got!
Note: It's probably gonna sound weird but I didn't really ask for anything for my birthday so I purchased these things with my own money. For some reason I don't like asking for gifts like this. I prefer gift cards honestly.
If you read my birthday wishlist post here, than you know how much I wanted the Tarte Carried Away Collector's Set. Sephora was my first stop of the day and I was determined to find this, and I'm so happy I did! They only had two left and one girl who worked there told me they were the last two they had in the whole store because they don't have it online anymore either. I'm still in shock that I have this. It was $54 but I had my $20 off a $50 purchase VIB coupon so I only spent $34, plus tax. I mean really, you get 24 full sized Amazonian clay eyeshadows, 8 maracuja lip glosses, 1 Amazonian clay blush in the color Adventurous, a blush brush, a Lights, Camera, Lashes 4-in-1 mascara AND an Amazonian clay finishing powder. Can you say good deal?! A 10 shade eyeshadow palette from Tarte typically costs at least $40, so all these extras are really incredible. This is the only picture I took and I haven't gotten around to playing with it yet, but if you guys want a full review on it, please let me know! I'd be more than happy to do one once the holidays are over and my work schedule goes back to normal. This is the most exciting thing I purchased that day too! I also did redeem my birthday gift which was a little Fresh lip balm thing with two lip balms. Sorry it's not pictured.
I then went to The Body Shop because I had to redeem my $10 birthday gift, plus they were having a sale where you buy 2 items, you get 2 free and buy 3 items, get 3 free. I decided on the buy 2, get 2. I picked up two more of the Aloe Calming toner, because you all know how much I love this stuff! I go through alot in the late fall and winter because it's pretty much all I use during that time. These are the two things I bought. My two free items were the Elderflower Eye Gel and the Honey Bronze Lip Nectar lip gloss in the shade Honey Bunch. They had a honey beige color, but this one's a bit more coral-y so I thought it would go better with my skintone. I've never tried the eye gel before and I probably should've checked the ingredients before I bought it because it has denatured alcohol in it, which is usually very drying. I'll still try it out because I don't have issues with dry skin around my eyes, but I'll do a review on it when I start using it. My birthday gift was the Almond Hand & Nail Cream. Their hand creams are usually $20 but they had a separate sale of 50% off. I mostly use their Hemp Hand Cream, but my fiance starts sneezing when I put it on so I figured I'll try this and see if it irritates him.
Next I went to Bath & Body Works because I had a $10 off a $30 purchase coupon. I saw their 3-wick candles were 2 for $22 (not 2 for $20 like their normal sale) so I picked up Twisted Peppermint and Peppermint Mocha. I swear, these candles are the best! I probably have said before that alot of smells irritate me and make me sneeze, but these candles smell so good! I just have to stay away from perfume-y smelling candles. Those set me off. Then to make my purchase qualify for the coupon, I saw this little I <3 Twisted Peppermint lip gloss set. It comes with a Twisted Peppermint, Twisted Peppermint Berry and Twisted Peppermint Cocoa. I've never tried these lip glosses before, but from what I read on the package, they must be flavored. I might give this as a gift too because it's such a cute set! (Or keep it for myself. We'll see...)
One of my last stops was Victoria's Secret. I had one of those secret rewards coupon things (mine was only $10) and a $10 birthday gift card so I picked up two of their soft, comfy v-neck t-shirts that are 2 for $28. I only have this blue one pictured, because I already wore the other bright hot pink one I got so it's in the laundry hamper. I was also pretty shocked because they took both coupons for the transaction. Every time I have more than one coupon, they usually tell me I can't combine them, so I only paid $8 for both of them!
I did also go to Aerie, American Eagle and H&M but didn't find anything. My fiance wanted to stop at Gamestop because he's a video game nerd, but he surprised me and bought me a Nintendo DS Lite and Pokemon Heart Gold! (Sorry, I'm a total and complete nerd when it comes to Pokemon. I admit it!) I was actually pretty excited for that. On Saturday, I went out to lunch with my mommy and we just hung out for the day. She also got me a huge slice of German chocolate cake, which is pretty much my favorite and some fudge. My fiance took me out for dinner that night too at Outback Steakhouse. I was a major fatty that day, and I totally didn't care! I had a pretty fun weekend so it was awesome :)
Anyways, that's everything I got for my birthday! Like I said before, if you want a full review of the Tarte set I got, please, please, please let me know! Sometimes I totally forget to review things, so I need to be reminded, especially if it's something as awesome as this whole Tarte set! I'll talk to everyone again later!
-Katy
