Whilst I had a blog post go live yesterday, I’d had that written a few weeks and it only was published yesterday. I had last week off work, and whilst I was busy celebrating our wedding anniversary, and then decorating during the day when Ben was back at work, by the evening I was absolutely shattered as I was fighting through an cough and cold (and I still am unfortunately!) and it’s been about two weeks since I sat down and typed something up. In that time, the empties basket really started getting full, so over the weekend I thought I’d better make a dent in it… I did accidentally pick out eleven empties though (whoops!).
Haircare
Tigi Catwalk Honey and Oatmeal Shampoo and Conditioner
These have been my go-to all year as I’ve been trying to use bigger bottles to save on single use plastic. I find these very effective, they’re not my top favourites (Aussie still wins that!) but they do work well and my hair doesn’t seem to be getting fed up of them yet. You can pick up several of the Tigi line relatively cheaply at £6.99 a bottle at B&M, online you tend to be looking at around £12-20 depending if you can find a deal!
Repurchase? Yes
Co-Op Pink Blush Dry Shampoo
I picked this up as I was picking up a few emergency groceries as I’d been out of Dry Shampoo for a while, and this actually pleasantly surprised me, the scent was a nice light floral, and the formula worked and brushed out well, not leaving any visible white residue in my roots. The one downside I found was that the can is quite small and I only got 3, maybe 4 uses from it. It’s not expensive (I’m pretty sure it was only a quid!) but it’s frustrating to run out so quickly!
Repurchase? Maybe
Bodycare
Vatika Age Defying Pomegranate Body Lotion | Gifted
I was given this at an event a couple of years ago – I don’t get through Body Lotions very quickly at all and they mostly get used when Ben rubs my feet or my back. This one was a nice thin formula which sank in quickly – the pomegranate scent was pretty light and fruity.
Repurchase? Discontinued I think, I can’t find it online anywhere
The Body Shop Vineyard Peach Body Scrub
I picked this up at the start of the year – Vineyard Peach is my favourite fragrance from the Body Shop, but I believe this is an item which is now discontinued from their core line. This was a really creamy scrub, with soft peach shell shards, I didn’t find the scrub the most effective that I’ve tried from the Body Shop as it’s more cream than scrub, but I did enjoy using it because I liked the scent.
Repurchase? Discontinued, I think – I’d maybe be tempted if I found it at my local outlet
Makeup
Collection Primed & Ready HD Blur Setting Powder
This was probably the worst loose powder that I’ve ever tried, considering this is a “blurring” powder, this is dry and feels scratchy. It clung to areas I didn’t even know were dry. It looked horrible and didn’t perform well through the day.
Repurchase? I will avoid this at all costs. You should too.
Illamasqua Hydra Veil Primer | Review
Reviewed quite recently, so I won’t go into too much depth, I picked this up at a discount at TK Maxx a few months ago. It made some foundations I hated (see the Ordinary one in a second) perform better, but I whizzed through this pot extremely quickly – I finished the whole thing up in about six weeks. Primers normally last me around 2-3 months. Nice formula, worth the hype but pretty expensive.
Repurchase? No
WetnWild Photofocus Eyeshadow Primer | Review
This has been my daily eyeshadow primer that I’ve used since October, so I’ve got a good amount of use from this, it’s probably the best budget eye primer that I’ve tried, nice light formula, protects from staining on colourful shadows and pigments and I’ve found it really effective for blending and preventing creasing.
Repurchase? Yes, but trialling one from NYX next.
The Ordinary Serum Foundation | Review
Yay. I’m so glad that this is finished off. I was tryign to finish this off last year, but by the time Autumn hit it was too dark for me, so I needed to wait to catch a bit of sun in the sunny days we had in spring to make this useable again. I didn’t like this with any primer I’d tried and found the performance crap no matter what combo it was paired with, the Illamasqua Primer mentioned made this last a lot longer and made it bearable to finish up, but nevertheless, very happy to see the back of it.
Repurchase? No, I suspect suited a lot better for dry skins.
Skincare
Rata & Co Calming Aloe vera & Green Tea Sheet Mask Pack (x5)
Technically I didn’t finish all these myself, I was on face mask duty for my sisters wedding and went and applied these to Bridesmaids and my parents (I think my Dad secretly enjoyed it) the night before as well as one left over for myself! I picked these up from TK Maxx, it’s a New Zealand brand which I’ve not heard of before, they cost just over £1 each as a whole and for that price they were fine enough, I’ve had more effective sheet masks, but they wasn’t awful and they were a one size. These cost $15 NZD which works out at about nearly £8 – so they worked out as fairly good value from TK Maxx purchase.
Repurchase? Unlikely as I have so many sheet masks in my collection
Pixi Rose Cream Cleanser | Gifted
I haven’t gotten around to reviewing this yet, but I do have a review of the whole Pixi Rose line coming up hopefully sometime in the next week, it’s a lot to type up! This was lovely and has been my go to in the shower since it arrived. Not the best for removing stubborn makeup, but an excellent second cleanse that was nourishing on the skin. I loved the texture and it felt very luxurious – would definitely repurchase in future.
Repurchase? Yes!
My empties spreadsheet is filling up, I’ve got another Empties post brewing for next week already – but at this point I’ve just ticked over the £800 mark, that actually takes me a little higher to where I was expecting – we’re not quite halfway through the year and I was expecting that I’d be around the £1500 mark by the end of the year, so I’m over halfway to that already. One thing I am noticing is that I do have a lot less Extras this year, last years declutter on minis has made a huge difference to the little clutter I had hanging around, and I’m pretty much left with deluxe and full sizes only! Yay!
Have you tried any of these before?
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The pomegranate body lotion and Pixi Cream Cleanser sound nice! I haven’t tried anything from the peach line at The Body Shop, off to have a look online now out of curiosity haha!