Progress! My fifth empties post!

Once you get started, these empties creep up on you faster than expected. I decided to do a post at every 10 products or so, and it has miraculously turned into a semi-monthly event. For those who are eager to see if I had finished any makeup products in relation to the lippies/shadow/liner ban -- not this time. But I'm really glad I put myself to the test again and look forward to saving money while taking the time to enjoy the things already in possession. And now, for the empties!

Yup, still using this bag.

As if this whole exercise isn't anal enough, I came up with this system of measurement:

1 jumbo size = 2 full size
2 travel/sample size = 1 full size

It's fair, right? Really, I think it should be about 5 samples = 1 full size -- but we all know it takes a long time just to work through our millions of samples. Maybe I'll amp things up later. ANYWAY. Moving on.

Garnier Fructis Pure Clean Fortifying Shampoo

I have a fondness for the Garnier Fructis shampoos, so I had to try the new Pure Clean line that came out some months back. You can click on the picture and zoom in on all the claims that it makes. (94% biodegradable, blahblahblah.)

Normally I don't wash my hair everyday, but summer heat made it a daily necessity for a while, so this jumbo size went pretty fast. It has a nice, fresh scent that I associate with Fructis shampoos. This one is supposed to be for normal hair, but it might be quite nice for oily hair actually. I have normal hair and find that it rinses away almost too squeaky clean. I didn't suffer any damages or breakage, but I don't like the feeling of a shampoo stripping all the moisture out of the hair. If you have dry hair, stay away from it. I don't think I'll try this particular shampoo again.

Sally Hansen Maximum Strength Moisturizing Polish Remover

I'm always a little confused when perusing the shelf of Sally Hansen polish removers. They all claim to be moisturizing but I don't see how they can possibly be moisturizing given their ingredients and what they're supposed to do. I can't believe that a chemical that's strong enough to dissolve nail lacquer can be good for your nails. Frankly, I just buy this because it's cheap and effective. So here goes another bottle.

I already have a new bottle of Sally Hansen remover, but I've been curious about the Zoya remover which I hear great things about. Perhaps I'll try that after I run through my current bottle.

Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Body Mist Sunscreen SPF 60

I spent enough time outside this summer to actually finish a bottle. I don't think I've ever finished a sunscreen on my own before. However, I've decided that I don't like these misting sprays. It's way too easy to miss a spot on the body and end up with streaky burns. And I don't like the wet, gleaming look that the mist gives the skin. It somehow feels safer to work a cream or lotion into the skin.

Still, it served me well while it lasted... or so I thought. While conducting this empties inventory, I saw something that made my soul shrink with horror.

This bottle had expired back in May. I used it mostly from May to July. HORROR OF HORRORS. I'm not one to abide vigilantly by expiration dates, but for something as important as suncreen... and given how diligent I was in applying it all summer... God, I can't believe how dumb I was. All right, lesson learned. I will pay better attention to expiration dates from now on.

Goldwell Kerasilk Treatment (Rich Care)

The instruction on the back says to towel-dry the hair, apply this and leave on for 15 minutes or so. I'm afraid that once I step out of the tub, that's it for me. I don't have the patience to go back in and mess with hair again. So I didn't get the maximum benefit out of this product and can't give a proper review. I used it like a normal conditioner and tried to leave it in the hair for as long as possible... but that wasn't ever more than about 5-10 minutes. Eeek.

All I can say is that I think it works well if you actually follow the instructions. I also get the feeling that it's one of those things that might work super well when you apply some heat while the treatment is on. Someday I'll try this again when I have more time and patience for these sort of things.

Nanette Lepore Shanghai Butterfly Dreamy Hand Cream

This one gives me a particularly strong sense of accomplishment. It has been a long time since I've finished a hand cream, what with dozens of Bath & Body Works hand creams scattered around the universe.

I have a particular fondness for Nanette Lepore. Her clothes are fun, classy and quirky (Gossip Girl often dresses the character of Blair Waldorf in Nanette Lepore) and Nanette Lepore's perfumes kept me happy for a very long time. There's a sense of whimsy about the designer that I think is translated very well in her products.

I still have the Shanghai Butterfly perfume and like it very much. But am I ever glad that the hand cream is now out of the way. It was nice but I'm on a mission to get rid of all the scented hand creams.

Cetaphil Daily Facial Moisturizer

There's about 1/5 of the lotion left in the bottle but it cannot be used any longer. The texture turned a little goopy and I'm definitely not going to slather my face with it.

It's slightly heavy for my oily skin during spring/summer, but it's a great basic moisturizer for winter. I would like to go back to it but since I'm working through a lot of other moisturizers right now, it may be a while. Later, Cetaphil.

Boscia Peppermint Blotting Linens

Nothing special. I'm running low on these Peppermint sheets that I stocked up on last Christmas and wish Boscia blotting sheets would go on sale again. I've gotten used to their big square sheets and find the new stuff I'm using to be too small in comparison. Like I mentioned in the last empties post, I am on the lookout for similar but more affordable blotting sheets. Someone had mentioned ELF but I've yet to check them out. Will do so in the near future!

The Body Shop Tea Tree Cleansing Wipes

I talked about these a lot (see previous empties), and I'm happy to tell you that this is the last of my Tea Tree Wipes stash. I decided not to buy facial wipes for a while until I've worked through at least 2-3 bottles of facial cleansers.

Samples

Like a lot of beauty bloggers, I have quite the stash of samples. Sometimes I saved them as extras for swaps. Mostly I saved them out of habit and greed. The whole point of samples being that they're supposed to be used to determine whether you'd like to purchase a full size product, I'm going through a few at a time to see if I'm missing out on something great.

Juice Beauty Green Apple Antioxidant Moisturizer

I don't know about the antioxidant aspect of it, but this was a great moisturizer for my oily skin during summer evenings. I found it a bit heavy for the day but presume that it would be great during winter days. It's too bad that Juice Beauty is no longer carried at Sephora. I might order a full size of this along with the Green Apple Peel once I work through a few more products in my stash.

Caudalie Vinosource Quenching Sorbet-Creme

While I've often wanted to try Caudalie skincare, their teeny tiny product size and expensive price tag always managed to override my desire. So I put off trying this sample in case I ended up liking it a lot and felt the urge to spend even more money on skincare on top of splurging on pretty makeup. The result is as I had feared: I freaking love this!

And look! No parabens. I once tried to go paraben-free and the products ended up making me break out even more than usual (Ole Henriksen to be precise, discussed here). So it doesn't matter much to me whether something is paraben-free or not. I just don't want to wake up with a new zit every day.

This sorbet-creme smells wonderful, like fresh pure grape juice. It feels super light and almost undetectable once applied but the face doesn't feel dry or parched at all, unlike some other "light" moisturizers that I've worked with. In short, I feel like it's worth the money to get the full size.

I've spent more than than this on skincare before, but I really really want to get through some other things in my stash first, so I'm going to put this on the ever-growing list of Good Stuff to Splurge on Later.

----------------------------------------------------------

So there goes another bunch of empties. I'm really excited about how well this is going and can't wait to use up some makeup to feature in future posts.

Working on empties yourself or drowning in products? Need some inspiration? I got mine from a few of my favourite bloggers: Claire @ Eyelining Obsessions, Dee @ Miss Prissypants, Lil Lady's Life and Vita @ Making up 4 my age. My beauty pals Toya @ Beauty Obsessed, Nat @ Raspberry Rouge and Tracy @ Beauty Reflections also recently got on board with the empties, so there are a lot of us working together! Join us if you're so inclined. It's a lot more fun than you might think. ;)