June/July Empties

Ugh, it's been a while. I just have no motivation to do anything at the moment. I haven't worn makeup or perfume in a couple of months, and writing just seems like way too much hard work. I hope I'm back to normal soon, because I'm pretty much over it. :-(

Anyway, I finally got around to taking a picture of my empties for the past couple of months so I could throw them out. I haven't been using much of anything, so I haven't really managed to work through much.

Dr Lewinn's Anti-ageing Foaming Cleanser
I was sent this in a group of five products to trial, and of all of them it was my favourite - I like a foamy cleanser to wash my face with in the mornings but most of them do make my skin feel tight. This one doesn't at all. Would I repurchase? Definitely, once I've used up the 45 other foaming-type cleansers I have.

Terax Crema
My favourite hair conditioner, and Noodle Arms has discovered its wonders now too so I'm getting through it a lot more quickly than I used to. I'll have to start buying the giant bottles again. Repurchase? Yes - over and over and over.

Vaseline Intensive Rescue Soothing Hand Cream
Meh. You get what you pay for with hand cream. I probably got this at my local IGA one afternoon when I just needed something quickly. It's okay, but it's a $5 hand cream - what more can I say? Repurchase? Probably - when I need something quickly again one afternoon.

Clarins Beauty Flash Balm
I have owned loads of these, but I'm sure I've only ever actually bought one - it's one of those products that seems to always be included in Clarins' GWPs (they have the best GWPs, seriously). I don't buy into the hype of this stuff at all - it's nice, but it's nothing special. Repurchase? No, but I don't really need to - I think I have two or three more around and I'm sure there will be future GWPs coming.

Dermalogica Ultracalming Cleanser
Jacquie gave me this because she didn't like it. I'm not really a fan of Dermalogica; I think it's over-rated and overpriced - or at least here in Australia (like everything else). However, I did quite like this - I used it to wash my face in the shower in the mornings, and like the Dr Lewinn's one, it didn't dry my skin out. It worked well with my Clarisonic as well. Repurchase? Maybe - only from Strawberrynet, though. I wouldn't pay full price here for it.


Dermalogica Multivitamin Thermafoliant
Another Dermalogica product I didn't mind - I got this as part of a trial kit a while ago and it had been sitting in a drawer unused. I don't generally like to use scrubs and grainy exfoliants but I had some flaky skin happening so I gave it a go. I have another trial size - possibly another freebie from Jacquie, I can't remember) that I'm working through at the moment, but it's lasting me a while as I only use it once a week. Repurchase? Undecided. Maybe if I saw a good deal on Strawberrynet.


Nivea Visage Triple Action Soy+ Eye and Lip Care
I bought this ages ago after seeing Jacie's trial results. It's a damn good eye cream for the price, and I would repurchase, but not for a while since I have about 20 other eye creams to use up first.


L'Oreal Voluminous Masacaras - Full Definition and Carbon Black
Oh, I wanted so much to love these! They give the false lash effect beautifully, but they smudge like a mofo. It's just ridiculous - at the end of the day it's reverse panda eyes all over the place. I'm glad I only paid about $3 each for them online, because L'Oreal mascaras are about $26 here (INORITE). And you can't even get these ones in Australia as far as I know. Why is that? WHY? Anyway, repurchasing is a big fat no, but it breaks my heart a little because for a couple of hours at least they just look freakin' awesome. *sob*

Urban Decay Primer Potion
This one was the freebie that came with the Alice in Wonderland palette. I wouldn't repurchase (I have another freebie that came with Nekkid) because I think it's highly over-rated stuff. It just doesn't seem that fantastic to me. I know lots of people love it and more power to you for finding something that works for you, but it's not my thing.

My 5 favourite bath and body products in 2009.

This list was a bit harder than the others, because although I buy a lot of bath and body products (well, shower - we don't have a bath), I tend to buy the same things over and over and have done for years. I don't really branch out much, so there's not a huge amount that I tried for the first time in 2009. However, I did manage to find a few new favourites.

5. Palmer's Dark Chocolate and Peppermint Lip Butter. I'm not a lip balm person, for the same reason I'm not really a lip gloss person. I don't like sticky things on my lips. However, I bought this on a whim at my local IGA one day because my lips were feeling a bit dry and also, I am the World's Most Highly Suggestible Impulse Buyer. It was less than $5, and I figured I'd just throw it in my handbag and - let's face it - probably hardly ever use it. As it turned out, I loved it, and now I have it within reach constantly.

4. Mrs Meyers Dryer Sheets. Okay, technically these are not a bath or body product, but I just had to get them in somewhere, because I love them so damn much. In Australia, you can get one brand of dryer sheets, and they suck. They don't work very well and they stink of really cheap fabric softener. The Mrs Meyers ones, on the other hand, have very little scent at all, and work a treat for getting the static out of your clothes. Unfortunately, it costs me (considerably) more in shipping than it does for the product itself, but I've come to terms with that. These are so good I will pay pretty much anything to get hold of them.

3. The Garden Bath Lemon Chiffon Cleansing Sugar Body Scrub. Generally speaking, a scrub is a scrub is a scrub to me, but I do prefer the soapy ones to the creamy or oily ones (again, it's that whole feeling sticky thing - I have a real issue with that). This is a soapy one, and it feels great on the skin, but my true reason for loving it so much is the smell. It's like sugary lemon custard, but without a hint of the egginess that is often present in custard. Like the filling of a vanilla slice. If it was lemon. Gorgeous.

2. Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Moisturising Hand Wash. I wash my hands A LOT. It probably stems from years of working in customer service and handling hundreds of dirty forms, pens, computers, and so on. I've become a bit of a germophobe over the last couple of decades. Consequently my hands are always trashed and dry. Then of course, with the whole not-liking-stickiness thing I have to force myself to use hand cream, even though I really dislike it. This hand wash helps a lot with not drying my hands out so much, and I have been able to reduce the amount of cream I have to slather on them since I began using it. Also, it smells like chocolate! Even Noodle Arms like this stuff - it's amazing seeing her wash her hands vountarily.

1. Terax Crema. I have always had very straight, very fine hair, but until a few years ago, I had quite a lot of it. My hair has thinned considerably in recent years (much to my alarm), and this has made it quite limp and unmanageable, and very much lacking in body. It had never occurred to me to use Terax Crema before - I'd always considered it a product for people with thick and/or curly hair - but I received a free sample with an online order from Adore Beauty and fell instantly in love with it. It's expensive, but I only need a small amount so it lasts a long time. It makes my hair soft and shiny, and even better, it's still soft and shiny the following day, so I don't have to wash it daily, and that makes it last even longer. This is possibly my favourite product of all for the year (maybe even all time) - I just love it to death.

Tomorrow - fragrances. I am struggling to narrow that list down to five, let me tell you.