Ten Empties #13 & Recap of Progress

If you saw my post yesterday you will have seen I had a really good run on finishing things up over 10 days and ended up with two posts worth of empties ready to go. There was a natural split over the two days of ten and ten, so yesterday was Makeup and Haircare, today it’s General Consumables, Skincare and Fragrance. Let’s jump in.

General Consumables

Enlighten Evo White Toothpaste
I was sent this toothpaste for an instagram ad and I must admit I was a bit dubious before it arrived. This is by far the best whitening toothpaste that I’ve ever used, at £13 a tube I had to question whether it was worth it but I have to say that it definitely is. There’s an offer running on their website at 3 for £30 and I’m going to be ordering that once I’m close to finishing the other toothpaste I currently have on the go.
Repurchase? Yes

Nutmeg Square Cotton Pads x 3
I had way too many of these on the go at once – I had one in my travel bag and two nestled within my vanity. Spoke about these a lot best budget cotton pads I’ve found and for 60p a pack you can’t go wrong.
Repurchase? Yaaaaaas, already have

Fragrance

Zoella Blissful Mistful Body Spritz
This was a mini-ish size of Zoella’s first fragrance and has been the one in my handbag for when I’ve needed to freshen up since Christmas. I liked this and would get these teeny-tiny bottles again if they had these sets at Christmas again as I don’t have to worry about losing it as they’re so affordable.
Repurchase? Minis yes, full size no.

Skincare

Bomb Cosmetics Strawberry Daquiri Lip Balm
I put this in my Products I’m trying to use up and it was surprisingly easy to get through! I really loved the texture of this and found that it was really nice and balmy. Whilst it was a budget friendly product on the surface (£1.99) I found you really didn’t get too much inside and went through it faster than I would have expected.
Repurchase? Unlikely

Chulip Paris Lip Balm (review)
I decided to take this to work with me to keep on my desk as it was close-ish to being finished and within a week I’d managed to get it used up an gone! I purchased this in Kuala Lumpur whilst on my honeymoon after hunting high and low for it and it was a lovely balm. If I was to reorder it now it would mean going on eBay and purchasing and whilst I liked it it’s just not worth the wait or hassle. If you can get your hands on it easily it’s worth a try though!
Repurchase? Also Unlikely

Kiehls Creamy Avocado Eye Treatment (review)
Yay! Over two years old and finally finished! Never will I buy two eye creams in Kiehl’s at the same time again and this has been one I’ve been working solidly on for the past 6-7 weeks. Not as good as the Midnight Recovery Concerntrate for me, whilst still a very nice eye cream. If you’re very young I’d recommend for something ulta light, anyone 20+ I think you’ll find other things a bit better.
Repurchase? Probably not but would happily use again if it was gifted.

Mario Badescu Facial Spray with Rosewater, Herbs & Aloe (review)
I’ve had a deluxe sized version of this lingering in my skincare cupboard for over a year and finally started putting it to use about a month ago after discovering I do actually enjoy a spray toner! I loved the scent of this one in particular and found it nice and calming on my skin, I’ve tried others that I’ve found more hydrating, but it’s not bad. Groundbreaking? No. Nice? Yes.
Repurchase? I’d me more likely to try something else, but I would recommend if you like spray toners.

Pure Instant Radiance Hot Cloth Cleanser (review)
The first of three sample sized cleansers I finished off – I did really enjoy this hot cloth cleanser. In fact I declared that I thought it might be better than cult favourite Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish. Read review for full deets.
Repurchase? Yes in future, but I have a lot of cleanser I’m trying to get used up!

Elemis Superfood Gel Cleanser (review)
I really enjoyed the moisturiser from this line so I had high hopes for the cleanser. Whilst it had the same deliciously good smell sadly it didn’t meet my expectations. I just couldn’t pinpoint what it was this was doing for me.
Repurchase? No

Murad AHA BHA Cleanser
Lastly this was similar to the Elemis in that I couldn’t tell what it did for me. I think I would have needed to have this for longer for me to see what it would do for my skin and this wasn’t enough to go to that point. Even if I could see effects from it I wouldn’t purchase, the fact that this has really fine scrubby particles means it’s not friendly for the eyes. And the fact it’s got AHA BHA it’s not friendly for the eyes. I don’t want to have to use two separate cleansers for my routine – CBA, on, off done is what I need.
Repurchase? No

Extras

Salon Professional Colour Save Shampoo – Too small for me to tell whether this was worth the cash or not. Gut feeling was that no it wasn’t.
eco.friend Nourishing Hair Wash – Used to clean makeup brushes and sponges.
Eco Boutique Shower Gel x 2 – Finally finished up the shower gel minis stash! Woooooop
La Roche Posay Redermic C10 – Hated the smell of this and also it looked disgusting. Would not spend money on this if I had all the money in the world.
The Body Shop Vit C Peel – I got this in a goodie bag at an event and I’d been debating buying and I’m so glad I didn’t as I hated the texture it was so bizarre. You rub it into your skin and then it all balls up and you have to dry rub it off. I don’t think this was big enough sample to see what it did for my skin, but 3 tries of this was enough to convince me that I hated the texture.
Novotel Fair Trade Cane Sugar Shower Gel – Same as the other shower gel product comments. WoOoOoPaaaaaaah.

6 months of Ten Empties Progress Report

So with these two empties one after the other I’m almost at £1,000 finished value (£975.43) – given these were written and my empties box…. emptied at the weekend there’s already a few extra products in the pile and by the end of the month I will be at that £1,000 mark easily (another £20 eye cream finished and a £34 serum). I thought by the end of the year I would have finished around 400 products including my extras but from now on that extras pile is really going to slow down. I’ve finished pretty much every sachet sampler I’ve had of skincare and every hotel acquired shampoo, conditioner and shower gel is now pretty much finished too – so I expect those ‘extras’ piles will get smaller and smaller as the rest of the year roll through.

I must say I’m really pleased at how much space I can see that I’ve cleared so far this year and I can see where I’m depleting my collection, the fact I’d finished all eye creams in my stash (3 full sizes and a deluxe sampler) since the start of the year was great and the smaller I can get that pile ready for when we move  the better (which fingers crossed won’t be too long – we have found a house but the offer on ours has fell through so we’re keeping everything crossed it will still be there once we’ve resold!).

On the format of these empties I’m still really enjoying doing them this way. They feel much less cumbersome to write up and it also stops there being a large pile of rubbish under my dressing table at all times. I’m averaging around one of these every two weeks at the moment and it also helps me feel like I’m making really good progress too – I find doing empties posts are very motivating for me, when I can I have a pile of products that have been completely finished it makes me think – what can I find next to get decluttered too.

What have you finished up lately?

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