Half the year has gone by and I think this is only my second empties post of the year. So brace yourselves – my July empties is really a culmination of empties from the previous months and might be a tad long.
A seemingly recurring feature in my empties recently. I really like the Hempz moisturizers. This would be my 5th or so bottle of moisturizer. I always find these for cheaper at TJ Maxx. So that’s where I always get mine from. These are super moisturizing but not sticky whatsoever. My skin is very very dry, so I always have to moisturize as soon as I get out of the shower. So I moisturize when my skin is damp and I have to get dressed immediately after that. If moisturizers are sticky, that wouldn’t be ideal for me. I have tried several scents of this line. Vanilla Plum and this Creamy Papaya are probably my favorite so far. And I’m someone who hates papayas as food and as fragrance. Yet, in this moisturizer, this scent is gorgeous. Would I repurchase? Already have. In a different scent.
Miscellaneous: Retails for $23.00 originally. Can be found at Ulta and for a lower price at TJ Maxx.
This was a really good body wash. I never know what to say in body washes. They lather, they clean. And they smell good. As long as they check those boxes, it’s a good wash in my opinion. And this one does that. It also lasted a good long while so no complaints there.
Miscellaneous: These retail for $19.00 originally and can be found at Ulta, or at TJ Maxx for cheaper than regular retail.
This is where the bulk of the empties reside.
Finally! I had so many backups of these, it was getting kind of ridiculous. This is the last one of them. What a satisfaction in finishing this last bottle. I really like this micellar water. It doesn’t irritate my skin at all, it doesn’t smell heavily of anything, it cleans well and doesn’t leave a sticky or filmy residue after. One of the best and most affordable micellar waters on the market. Micellar waters are mostly meant to clean light makeup or just the first layer of makeup. These shouldn’t be used as the sole makeup remover. How I use it is : first cleanse at night followed by a proper cleanser; or just by itself in the morning when skin doesn’t have anything on it and just needs a light cleanse. I have loved this for years and will take a small break, but will certainly repurchase. Currently I’m using Bioderma.
Miscellaneous: Can be found any and all drugstores as well as Target. Retails for approx $5 depending on where you buy it from.
Oooh this is a good one. This is one of the best commercial acne treating masks I’ve found. I’m not talking about severe cystic type acne. That kind needs a doctor. I’m talking about regular everyday life acne and the products you use to treat them. This is one of the best for that. The most unique part about this mask is that it’s a sulfur based clay type mask, yet it doesn’t dry out the skin whatsoever. You can leave it on for an hour and you won’t have the dry tight feeling across the skin. I have found this to be very effective. Every time I’ve eaten an excess of oily potato chips, my skin thanks me the next morning with an eruption of bumps and acne. Then I use this sulfur mask twice in a row and my skin immediately goes back to normal in three ish days. Highly recommend. Would I repurchase? I would. However, a MUCH cheaper dupe for this is the Tea Tree Skin Clearing Clay Mask from The Body Shop that I did a full review on. That mask basically does the exact same thing for me that the Sunday Riley one does. In fact, if you had to choose between the two, I’d suggest the Body Shop one. For two reasons.
The Sunday Riley one does smell of sulfur aka rotten eggs. I don’t smell it when I put it on so much as I smell it more when I start washing it off. The Body shop smells good. And secondly, quite obviously, the Sunday Riley one is much more expensive.
The only time you’d want to consider the SR one is if tea tree doesn’t work for you and if sulfur does.
Miscellaneous: The Sunday Riley Saturn Mask retails for $55 for 2 oz. and can be found at Sephora, Macy’s and other retailers.
I am looking at reviews online and they are so glowing. Everyone seems to be raving about this product. And I had a completely different reaction. I wasn’t sure if it was the fact that I bought this from TJ Maxx, but I found that these were so so dry. Like there wasn’t any product saturating the pads whatsoever. Oh if I didn’t clarify, these are exfoliating pads which are supposed to be saturated in solution. But mine were so dry I feel like I must have gotten a dud. The kind that may have been left open at TJ Maxx. While those stores have great discounts, they also don’t have the best track record for having properly sealed and sometimes even have highly used products. Anyway, so that’s really the review. These were ineffective perhaps because of under-saturation. I did end up finishing them all to the end and didn’t have any bad experience though.
Miscellaneous: These retail for $15.00 and only seem to be available on their website currently.
As soon as I finished using this and started using other sunscreens, I started having skin issues – brown spots and other things. That should be a testament to how effective this sunscreen is. Beyond that, this is one of the loveliest sunscreens I have ever used. The texture is so lovely. A perfect texture that is not oily nor matte. Just the type that every company tries to emulate and fails. Just because I wanted a change I bought other sunscreens. However, I have been having such intense pilling issues with them that I am certainly going to repurchase this one. It’s just that I now have 3 sunscreens that I should finish before I buy another one. Excellent example of well made Korean skincare. Oh and the Farmacy Green Screen that I am now using is working out fantastically for me. So my top two sunscreen recs would be that one and this Apieu one.
Miscellaneous: One of the best parts is how affordable this sunscreen is. It retails for less than $10 but varies in price wherever you buy it.
I don’t know why people feel like they have to apologize for featuring recurring things in their favorites and stuff. It’s the best kind of testament when something is a favorite/an empty time and time again. So if my July empties have recurring products from previous empties, please don’t be bored by that haha. This mist is one of those. You will almost always find at least one if not more bottles of these Pearlessence facial mists in my current collection. These are just foolproof. They come in gorgeous glass packaging. They are affordable. They have good ingredients. They do a good job of hydrating the skin. If I had to find one fault it would be that the mist mechanism isn’t the best. But for this particular product and price point, I am more than willing to let it slide. This particular scent is exactly what it sounds – a delicious concoction of Rose and Coconut.
Miscellaneous: One major fault actually is that this product/brand is not easily available. In fact, the only place I’ve ever found it at is TJ Maxx. It retails for about $7 for an 8 oz bottle.
This product was an Allure Best of Beauty winner of 2016. I have also done an in depth standalone review on this product. This is my absolute holy grail balm type cleanser. But unlike other balm type cleansers I own, I don’t use this for cleansing my makeup off – I used to use it for actually cleansing the skin – like a second cleanser. I love the consistency of this – you squeeze a little product out into the hand and massage it all over the face by adding just a little bit of water. Sometimes I would let it sit on the skin for a few minutes to act like a quick nourishing mask. I would love removing it with a steamy towel and converting it into the world’s quickest facial. The coconut really nourishes the skin and feels luxurious. This is one of those cleansers I used almost every day. Every time you think your skin is problematic and acting up and you just need a basic no nonsense cleanser with good ingredients – this is your guy. This is to me what the Glossier Milky Jelly cleanser seems to be for a lot of people.
Miscellaneous: This is ultra affordable. This one tube lasted me well over a year. Okay UPDATE. I don’t know why brands do this – I can’t find this product online anywhere. You used to be able to get this in every single drugstore online and in store in the country and also Ulta. Now I can’t find it in any of these regular stores. A classic indication that this product is discontinued or is hopefully going to be relaunched in some new shape or form. Sigh. Why oh why.
This line of lip balms/treatments from Fresh is one of the cult classics of the brand. I got this in the shade Rose tint and I got it a couple years ago in a Sephora favorites box. It’s hard to go through lip balms because you end up collecting so many at a time one way or another. However, I did finally finish it and I have to say, I enjoyed it. I liked the rose tint and I liked how it helped my skin not chap. I would always put this on in my car in the morning on my way to work. As a way to reap the SPF benefits. And the tint and moisture it gave was lovely. Would I repurchase? Nope. Unless I have it in a another future box or something, I won’t repurchase this for some time. Or if I changed my mind, I would want to try out another color. I just don’t want to pay 20 bucks for a lip balm. The most ideal thing would be to have a set of minis of these so I could try different tints. That, I would certainly buy.
Miscellaneous: Retails for $20.00 and is available at Sephora, Nordstrom and the Fresh website.
Due to the slew of sponsored posts on Instagram, it feels like nobody is talking about Olay and if they are, they must be paid for it. That’s obviously not the case here. I have been using this product for a while now and always feature it in my skincare routines. I used it diligently for over a year and have finally gotten to the end of it now. This is one of those gel-type sleeping masks that are quite popular and a lot of skincare brands seem to have one of these in their product offerings. One of my favorite ones is the Laneige Sleeping Mask. This one is good too – it absorbed well into my skin and I never woke up with dehydrated tight skin. However, I didn’t notice a huge impact in terms of plumpness and hydration of my skin. I do acknowledge I am terrible at drinking water. However, that hasn’t changed. So if a product like the Laneige mask could plump up my skin even when I wasn’t drinking too much water, the comparison holds when I talk about the Olay one. So in short – while I enjoyed it and used it up to the end, I wouldn’t repurchase. I’d like to try something new or go back to Laneige.
P.S. I am taking a look at the ingredients, and at a first glance, they don’t look half bad. Niacinamide is quite high on the list – third ingredient.
Miscellaneous: This retails for $25.00 give or take depending on where you purchase it from. Here is a link for the product available at Target.
Just do a keyword search on my website for batiste and see how many posts crop up haha. It’s incredible how nothing I’ve tried even holds a candle to Batiste dry shampoos in my opinion. By the way, if you ever want to know if I have written or mentioned any product on my blog, just do a keyword search. The search bar is on the top right hand corner of the website (doesn’t show up on mobile, only desktop). So Batiste. I really don’t feel like typing the whole schpeal again because I literally do that in every other post. So to keep it short and sweet – this absorbs even 11th day oil (exaggerating, obvi). No but seriously, this absorbs oil like you wouldn’t believe. It gives a gorgeous grit and volume to the hair that sets it apart from anything else. And it’s affordable – more affordable than other good dry shampoos. Why I keep trying anything else is completely beyond me. Actually I know why – it’s because I’m a product junkie. There’s no other reasonable explanation. I have done a blog post in the past comparing a few different dry shampoos if you’re interested. I’ve finished two giant bottles of this in various scents. Frankly, I don’t remember which scent I like most because I use so many different ones, sometimes I forget what they all smell like. What I do know is I love the one that is in the pink bottle for sure and the one that’s made for dark brunettes.
Miscellaneous: These retail for less than $10 but depends on where you buy it from. The cheapest I’ve found it in is actually at TJ Maxx. They usually have the big daddy sizes over there for very affordable prices. Other place would be Ulta, Target and other drugstores.
I saw this as an Allure Best of Beauty 2017 winner, and I was itching to try a new dry shampoo. Safe to say – Batiste still has top place in my list of best dry shampoos. This dry shampoo was good at controlling oil, had a nice scent but it really didn’t do anything for my volume. And that is of extreme importance to me. So this one goes in the ‘good’ pile not the ‘excellent’ pile. However, some people don’t like Batiste and may find it itchy or too powdery or whatever else – those people might find this to be a good alternative to explore.
Miscellaneous: This retails for $8.00 for 6.5 oz and can be found at Target, Ulta etc.
That’s it loves! Hope you found some useful information here. Let me know what you’ve emptied recently that you would absolutely repurchase in a heartbeat. I’d love to check out that product. Other than that, thank you very much for stopping buy to read my July empties. I appreciate the time.
Thanks for saving me money on that Saturn mask! And I’ve been curious about the Yes To melting cleanser so I hope they bring that back! Maybe just repackaging?
You know I gotchu babe! No so an update on that is – they’ve brought out a new product to replace it.