Empties | Autumn 2015

Since it has taken me around one million years to get to this post, here are all the things I used up between September & mid-December...ish.  There isn't one sample included...I may have used things along the way & thrown them out. Oops.

Makeup

Maybelline Define-a-brow in medium brown
This is one of my favourite affordable eyebrow pencils.  It is super skinny & easy to use. It also matches my eyebrows really well! The little bitty comb on the end is quite useless, but otherwise a great little product!

Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner in West
This has been such a long time coming. I have been almost done this eyeliner for months, but just kept neglecting to use the end of it.  I hauled it out just the other day & literally had 2 days of wear left.  This is a dark, creamy brown – great for anyone who doesn’t want black!

Urban Decay All-Nighter makeup setting spray
This setting spray is my favourite. I’m glad this bottle is gone because it was getting quite old & I’ve heard some pretty gross stories about old bottles of these (mould anyone?).  I repurchased, but I grabbed a smaller bottle, so that I can use it up more efficiently.

Covergirl Lashblast Volume Mascara
This was a pretty great mascara. I don’t have anything mindblowing to say about it, but if I ever reached the end of my backstock of mascara, I would consider this one again.

Maybelline Dream Liquid Mousse foundation
I could not use this up quickly enough. Funny thing is, I used to love this foundation. This time I found it didn’t dry down & kind of looked weird on my skin. Non merci.

Physician’s Formula Mineral Wear Foundation
This stuff is the bomb.com.  My mother recommended this to me and I now recommend it to you folks.  If you are scared that a powder foundation will cling to weird dry patches, I’m here to tell you that this one will not.  What it will do for you, however, is make you look like you’ve got amazing, flawless skin. I’m down for that.

Maybelline Instant Age Rewind concealer
Everyone talks about this concealer. What they say is true – it’s pretty great. I’m half-way through another one of these babies.


Skincare

Dove Go Fresh Body Wash in Cucumber & Green Tea
This is a lovely, moisturizing and inexpensive body wash.  It is quite a nice smell, but there are others to choose from in the same range.

Purity Made Simple
This is quite a popular product from the Philosophy brand of skincare. While it does a nice job of washing the face, I am trying to find something a little bit less stripping, so after the next small bottle is gone, I won't be repurchasing for a while at least.

Simple Vital Vitamin moisturizer
Nice moisturizer, weird smell. After a while I couldn't put this on my face anymore because the smell bothered me so much. I finished the tub by using it on my elbows!

Lush Tea Tree Water
This toner is one that I almost always have one hand. I spritz it on my face after my shower every morning. It is refreshing and because of the tea tree, seems to help with the acne situation.

Degree Motion Sense Deodorant in Tropical Tango
This deodorant smelled nice & was on sale. It worked fine. Was I blown away? No.

Burt's Bees lip balm
I go through these fairly often. They are my holy grail lip balm for night time. I never go to sleep without this on my lips.  Some people find this a little bit too waxy, but I think they are magical, healing sticks of goodness.

Swisspers Cotton Rounds
Best cotton rounds going. This is a weird thing to review, but when I find these ones, I pick them up.  Oddly, they are hard to find in this dinky little town of mine. I'm using a different brand right now. Not as good. Find these.


Hair Care

Vidal Sassoon Color Preserving Conditioner
In late summer I used this box kit to dye my hair red.  I even wrote a review on the dye & the process. This is your typical box-dye conditioner. I use them once a week or so. They are moisturizing.

Live Clean Moisturizing Shampoo
This is my absolute favourite drugstore brand of shampoo & conditioner. They have all kinds, they aren't expensive and wow are they nice for your hair (& for the environment).

That's all for now folks...but never fear, I've already begun a new collection of used up products of all kinds. Hopefully I'll post another empties before it becomes this large again.
What have you been using up?

Cheers,
Kait 

Lush Christmas Haul #2 | December 2015

As promised, here is the second Lush Christmas haul of the season.  I really can't resist the Lush Christmas collection. Everything is just so yummy & sparkly & perfect.

Lord of Misrule Shower Cream - This stuff is amazing. If you like the smell of the Lord of Misrule Bath Bomb, you'll love this.  It lingers on the skin for hours, is super moisturizing AND is super duper green. Seriously great

Lord of Misrule Bath Bomb - I had one of these in the first Lush haul of the season. I used it and decided that one was not enough, so I picked up another. 

. 

Salt and Peppermint Bark - This is a body scrub and boy is it scrubby! It feels just right for this time of year, especially if you have some dry, wintery skin.  It also smells like candy canes!

Golden Wonder - This bath bomb has been around for a few years, but I've never tried it before!  It smells very citrusy and you can tell from mine (that got kinda dinged up in the mail) that there is turquoise in the middle!

Holly Golightly - Another product that definitely got abused in the mail is this beauty of a bubble bar.  This bubble bar smells like Christmas.  It smells like cinnamon and cloves, but also like a Christmas tree. It usually has pretty holly leaves on the top, but mine crumbled off. Sad day.  It is also the most glittery thing around, so be aware that you might get out of the tub looking like a disco ball.  The upside? If this sounds great to you, it's big enough for 3-4 baths! 

Snow Angel - This is a bath melt that packs a punch with golden glitter all over.  This smells very lightly of almonds and vanilla, to me this feels like a very warm scent.  Because this is a bath melt, Snow Angel is meant to be super moisturizing! Another one to be weary of if glittery after-bath skin isn't your thing (but I love it). 

Rosy Christmas - This little gift set includes Rose Jam shower gel (my absolute favourite) and a small pot of Ro's Argan Body Conditioner, which I have never tried. This is a great little gift for someone who has never tried Lush products! I purchased it to get my Rose Jam fix, whilst testing out a small size of the Body conditioner! Also, look at that wrap job! 

All in all, this has given me a fantastic stock of bath and body goodies to take me well into the cold winter months!

Cheers,
Kait

Makeup Purge 2015 | I've Moved!

So we bought a house! & we've moved! While it's all very exciting, we've been very busy on both ends, the cleaning out of our old place & the fixing of our new place. We've been cleaning out our apartment and getting rid of some things that have just collected over time.  I thought that since I'm doing it anyway, I might as well document the beauty portion of this event.

In the apartment, I had 3 locations with beauty-related items in them.  I had a dresser drawer in my bedroom containing my makeup, one bathroom drawer containing skincare & bath items and a drawer in my office that holds some miscellaneous items and extras (nail polish, extra soap/lotion, etc.). This is obviously because I had no physical way of having all of my beauty-related items together, seeing as our space was quite small. & I don't even really have that many things!

Drawer #1 (bedroom)

First, I'm giving the hard candy duo eyeshadow away to a friend, because I've only ever swatched it.  It came in a beauty box 5 when I was subscribed briefly.  The shadows are quite pigmented, I just don't wear those types of shades.  Secondly, the Skinn face illuminator.  This is so old, it smells weird (but always has) & has now developed clumps.  I've used it in the past, but it really did nothing for me...so to the trash!  Next up, Got2b body butter. This stuff literally looks & feels like butter. Which is kind of gross to me. It smells alright, but this is also really old. Trash!  Finally, Nivea moisturizer.  This used to be my go-to moisturizer. I've repurchased this so many times.  I noticed more recently that it was really greasing up the place, so I've decided to pass it on to a friend & use more combination skin friendly products.

Also in the bedroom, I had a few Lush things.  Here are two that I'm tossing. The Lust solid perfume. I love the smell of this & it was mostly used up, but it's now very old & Lush products generally don't keep for more than a year (this was probably pushing 3 years).  A sample of the Luster Dusting Powder.  I believe that this is a product that is now being discontinued, but it smells exactly like the Lust perfume - very jasmine-ish & sultry. It's very nice smelling, but this dusting powder always left a not-so-sexy yellow tint to my skin...not for me!

Drawer #2 (bathroom)

In the bathroom there were only a couple of things to toss...This Nair hair removal cream that smells like chemicals & feels like them too. As you can probably tell, the tube has had some use. I never used this on my face, I mostly used it on my legs.  The Simple light moisturizer is actually quite a lovely product! It is not greasy, which is pretty fantastic for something containing an SPF.  Unfortunately, this didn't all get used up before the aforementioned SPF expired. Bye Bye!

Drawer #3 (office)

The office drawers end up collecting things that aren't immediately being used, then they end up being forgotten. Here are a few forgotten products. Jergens Natural Glow was one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time, but turned out horribly. This was the old formula & it smelled terrible! Veet hair removal (I'm beginning to see a trend) does not work well for me. I've used about half of this & like the Jergens it smells BAD. The Avon sunscreen is simply past it's expiration date..thus not worth keeping. Finally, this weird hand lotion that smells like fake, plastic peaches & isn't moisturizing. At. All.

Some nail things I've found. The nail decorating kit was well loved when I had time to do fun designs. I'm also not that great at it. Even in this picture you can see that some of the colours are well used & kind of dried up. The salon effects thing was kind of used. I'm not much of a fan of these actually. They were fun to try, but I wouldn't buy any myself. The Artistry colour is quite bland & clumped. 'nuff said.

I'm mostly ridding myself of things that have gone bad. Otherwise items are being packed up & moved or given to a friend (if they are still good, but not used).

Have you purged anything lately?

Cheers,
Kait

Choice Makeup | July 2015

This month's favourite "makeup" is more of a mish-mash of products...& only three things. Because I've been moving house & thus cleaning, painting and all varieties of grubby work, makeup has been not so much on my mind this month.

These three things have been awesome this month. From the sunshine to the sweat to the crazy hair colour I've chosen, these things stood up for me.

First, the Urban Decay 24/7 liner in LSD. This is a mini from a Christmas set last year. I know that not everyone is a fan of these liners, but they really do work well for me! This one is navy with bright turquoise sparkles in it, but it's not overly sparkly in my opinion. It glimmers just the right amount between the two shades. This has definitely been my fun pop of colour this month & it really looks awesome with my bright red hair. Bonus? Although I got it in a Christmas set, this is a permanent colour!

This moisturizer with SPF was given to me by my mother. She used it a little bit & she couldn't anymore because the scent was choking her up.  That being said, my mother is extremely sensitive to smells of any kind.  I find this to be a lovely product. Not greasy at all, it's perfect to wear on it's own or under foundation! It offers a little hint of shimmer that is virtually undetectable on the skin & it's a really easy way to make sure I always have SPF on my face & neck!

Last but not least, this little gem from Lush! Vanilla Puff is a dusting powder (which I've heard is getting discontinued, boo) that smells delicious, but it's so much more than just a pretty scent! It's perfect for those hot & sweaty days working in or out of the house.  It keeps your skin silky and not sticky, which is why I love it! It also keeps you from smelling like sweat, which is inevitable if you're working hard in the dead of summer. Although this one won't be around the Lush shops forever, they do have other options for dusting powders & I will probably continue to be a fan.

What have you been loving this month?

Cheers,
Kait

Empties | May & June 2015

It has been a time since posting an empties write-up! I've used up a fair amount of products, still in my quest to downsize on samples, extras & general clutter in hopes of moving. Only now - I have a goal! That's right, we've bought a house! We're moving toward the end of July, thus I have fewer and fewer days left of my de-cluttering. This is also a brief explanation of why I've not posted in ages. Things have been crazy here! (Samples are marked with an asterisk <*> )

Makeup

Too Faced Primed & Poreless - This primer was alright. It took me ages to use completely & I think it's because of the texture, which was very silicone-y.  Instead of repurchasing this primer, I've purchased something different that I like much better.

Burt's Bees Lip Balm - I use this every single night before I go to sleep & I've already started in on a new tube of the stuff. It's awesome!

Urban Decay Primer Potion - This eye shadow primer is the bomb.  I could never figure out what was wrong with my eye shadows until I tried this product. Now I use it everyday & my shadows as well as my liner stays until I remove it. I've already repurchased ages ago!

Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes* - This was nice. I was NOT a fan at the beginning, but it grew on me. However the price point of this mascara is unappealing & therefore I would probably never purchase it on my own. However if another sample came my way, I would definitely use it!

Elizabeth & James Nirvana Black* - I love this so much! It's dark, spicy & right up my alley perfume-wise! I also liked the White (previous empties post), so I'm most likely going to buy the small rollerball set that comes with both!

Tom Ford Velvet Orchid* - Also delicious & spicy. I couldn't get enough of this one & am quite sad that it's gone. I would consider purchasing, but honestly I don't wear a ton of perfume so I feel like buying too many is a waste for me.

Dolce & Gabbana Dolce* -  This was just alright. It was fine while I was using it, but it didn't leave a lasting impression. I wouldn't purchase this.


Skincare

Lush Tea Tree Water - I wrote about this toner (& Angels, below) and how much I love it I a post at the very beginning of my blog (find it here). Thus when I run out I always tend to repurchase. Which I have done, even though it took a couple of months. So soothing!

Skintimate Moisturizing Cream Shave - This was a stocking stuffer, although it also happens to be my favourite shaving cream. It seems to be the only shave cream that actually kind of moisturizes my skin. & I say kind of, because it's still not fantastic, but much better than others. I will eventually buy it again!

Strawberry Yogurt Mask - This mask sample was given to me by a friend, fellow blogger & all around awesome person (find her HERE)  & I really enjoyed this! It smelled delicious & it left my skin feeling soft & moisturized. I would use this again - I actually have another package of it in my cabinet.

Live Clean Facial Towelettes - This was a part of my battle of the face wipes. & It won! That is because they smell so good, remove makeup without too much trouble & stay moist all the way to the bottom of the pack.  How can you go wrong?!

Pure Source Sea Kelp Sheet Mask - This is also a mask that the same friend from above gifted to me. It was my first sheet mask experience & it felt awesome! I loved that rather than heating up on my skin as most masks tend to do (at least a little bit), this actually kept my skin cool & happy. I am way less weirded out by sheet masks now & will totally be using them again.

Angels on Bare Skin - As with the Tea Tree Water, there is a post raving about the merits of this facial cleanser. It might be a bit strange, it might be a bit messy, but it makes my skin so happy! Although I don't currently have any to use, I will be repurchasing.

Jergens Shea Butter Lotion* - This was nice lotion. It smelled like shea butter (makes sense) & it worked as lotion should. If I was in need of lotion, I would consider buying this.


House

I don't generally keep trash relating to the house, but I loved these so much that I just wanted to write a bit about them.  These wax cubes are used in my wax warmer, which I prefer to candles when I have people over. This particular scent blew me away! It smells so fresh & spring-like that it's just so tantalizing. These also last SO long. I used them 3 cubes at a time & each time you can use them over & over & over.

What have you been using up?

Cheers,
Kait

Origins Make A Difference Plus+ Rejuvenating Moisturizer | Review

A couple of months ago I finally took the plunge into committing a bit more of my money into some higher end skincare. I usually purchase drugstore skincare (& I still do for most things) but I thought it might be time to test out a moisturizer with a few extra benefits. I also found that my makeup wasn't sitting very well on top of my current choice.

I spent a good few hours researching different moisturizer options available at Sephora. There are some very pricey products, some less pricey choices & a lot of different ingredients to wade through.  It also vastly depends on what your personal skincare needs are and your age.  I'm in my mid-twenties, I have combination skin & I don't have any particularly demanding skincare needs - just that whatever I use sits well under foundation.

I settled on the Origins Make A Difference Plus+ Rejuvenating Moisturizer ($51.00 CAD).  Now, $51 is a TON more than I've ever spent on a moisturizer - but it's not more than I've ever spent on a makeup product.  This moisturizer is touted as an AM-PM dual use moisturizer, but I prefer to use something a little bit thicker at night.

 I use this every morning after my toner but before my primer/foundation. I leave it to sit for 5-10 minutes before applying makeup (I use this time to make my lunch for work). It smells of fruit-loops & it feels light but effective on my skin. I do see significant shine on my skin, even after it has had time to soak in, which is generally resolved by my makeup.  If, per chance, I were to not wear makeup, I tend to not use this because I don't appreciate the shine factor.

Do I regret my decision to purchase an expensive moisturizer for my not-so-picky skin? Nope. I would recommend this as a good starter product for anyone delving into the world of higher-end skincare, especially if you are on the younger side.

Have you tried this or any Origins products?

Cheers,
Kait