Empties: Round Four

So it's time for another empties post, and this time it's a big one. I'm not sure if I've left it a little longer this time around or something but there seems to be a lot more here than previous empties posts I've done. But without further a due, lets have a look through my beauty rubbish.

For body I have two scrubs this time around: the Mr Bean Coffee Bean Scrub in the Mandarin scent. While this was a really good scrub for exfoliating, I just can't get behind how much of a mess it leaves behind. The scrub is black and completely dry in the packet and it goes everywhere and leaves black muddy marks all over the place. My favourite scrub of the moment is one that I've also used up recently: the Soap & Glory Pulp Friction this stuff is amazing. It really clings to the skin as you use it and the scrubby particles are perfect, the scent is also really nice. I'm yet to find anything better.

For body cream the only thing I've used up this month is a mammoth container of the Soap & Glory Butter Yourself body cream. I love the texture of the Soap & Glory body creams but the "Butter Yourself" scent really isn't one of my favourites. Will pick up another but in a different scent next time. I also made my way through a Mayan Spa Reviving Body Wash. This just didn't lather up enough for me, much better shower gels available on the market.

I've gone through another Dove Invisible Dry deodorant. This was my deodorant of choice for a long time but after trialing something else, I'm having a break from the Dove. I've been trying out the Mitchum range after having used up a mini of the Mitchum Spray Deodorant on my trip to Amsterdam and I loved it.

I finished up my mini of the Therapie Himalayan Detox Salts. While I do think I'll be going back and picking up some more, I currently have a massive collection of bath things that I want to work through before I buy anymore. These are a great pre-bed-time bath product that really get you ready for a good nights sleep.

The Soap & Glory Mist You Madly Body Spray is something I've been really enjoying as a day-to-day fragrance that I'd wear to work and such. While I love my luxe perfumes they're just too expensive to be throwing on all the time so this has been great.

On my weekend trip to Ireland I knew I'd only need to be washing my hair once so I took one-use sachets of the R+Co Gemstone Colour Shampoo and Conditioner. I really enjoyed these and a full size of the shampoo in particular will be added to my stash soon.

A shampoo that I wasn't so keen on was the Kebelo Clarifying Shampoo. I got a sample size of this in a Birchbox a while back and it's just a bit too clarifying for me. A shampoo I'm definitely going back for is the Bumble And Bumble BB Hairdressers Invisible Oil Sulfate Free Shampoo. I love this shampoo as it leaves my hair clean but silky smooth.

Finally for hair I have a Co-Lab Extreme Volume Dry Shampoo in the Monaco scent. Now I really wanted to try some Co-Lab products but I think I made a duff choice as Ive heard a lot of people saying the extreme volume collection was once of their less-successful launches. I'd like to try one of the normal dry shampoos as this one left a white cast and made my hair feel really product-heavy and apparently, the regular ones don't do that - will check back on that one.

I have a few different bits of makeup to talk about this time around, first of all the Urban Decay Perversion Mascara and the Subversion Lash Primer. I loved the Perversion mascara as it was super black and made my lashes look lovely but for higher-end mascaras, I prefer the Clinique High Impact Mascara. The Subversion lash primer wasn't my favourite, but I don't normally get on with lash primers anyway.

Sadly my Nars Creamy Radiant Concealer in "Light 2 Vanilla" has come to an end. I love this concealer but I think I need there to be 1 shade light as Vanilla is a hair too dark for me. I've been using the Urban Decay Naked Skin Concealer more recently and that's a better shade match and it's very similar in formula. I've also gone through a whole bottle of Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation in "N51 Light Vanilla". Again I loved the formula but the shade was a bit dark (come on brands! We pale folk need base products too!). Would repurchase if they brought out a lighter shade.

So now we're looking at my skincare empties and there's a whole lot of those this time too. Firstly we have a sample size of the Goldfaden MD Doctors Scrub. Not my favourite. I found this super harsh on my skin (it feels like it would be too much for my body, never mind my face), won't be using again. A sample size of the Bioderma Sébium H2O Micellar Solution has also found it's way into my empties bin. Again, not my favourite, I'd like to try the regular Bioderma micellar solutions but I preferred the Garnier one to this.

Another Yes To eye cream has been used up, this time it's the Yes To Carrots Moisturising Eye Cream. This is a lot creamier than the Yes To Cucumbers version but I don't think it was enough for me in terms of moisture. The skin under my eyes can get a bit dry at times and I need something a little more rich. I finally made my way through a whole bottle of the Superfacialist By Una Brennan Vitamin C Brighten Skin Renew Cleansing Oil. Already had a backup waiting once it started getting low. This is my favourite cleanser for makeup removal.

I've also finished off a whole Sarah Chapman Skinesis Intense Hydrating Booster. I did really enjoy this serum but for £59, it's a bit steep when for me, I like Indeed Lab Hydralyron just as much. The Sarah Chapman is a bit silkier and feels nicer going on as it's more liquid, but the indeed labs is less than half the price and give the same results for me.

And finally, we have two naughty skincare products. These products aren't in here because I used them to the end, they died on me. The Soap & Glory Off Your Face 3-in-1 Daily Purifying Cloths dried up before I could use all of them. I must admit I don't use face wipes very often but I don't expect them to dry up. And sadly, my REN Flash Rinse 1 Minute Facial seems to have gone off. I went t use it the other day and it had gone completely liquid and there was no way of it staying on my face. This was one of my favourite masks but I'm not sure about it if you have to use the whole tube really. I think I've only had it for around 5 months? :(

Bathing With Therapie

I wrote a post a few weeks back about some skincare products I'd picked up from Therapie (clicky link here) and in that post I mentioned having a review on a few of their bath and body products coming up, so to stick to my word, here's that post. I picked up their discovery set from Cult Beauty a few weeks back and just need enough time to actually try all the products and it made sense to split them into a skincare post and a bath/body post as I could try the skincare pretty quickly but the bathing products for me needed a bit more time.

So the product that I was desperate to try was the much blogger-hyped Therapie pick: The Himalayan Detox Salts. They have a lovely calming scent to them in the pot and the crystals dissolve really well in a warm bath but my main issue with them is to do with the luxury factor. When the salts dissolve in the bath, they leave no silky-smoothness or bubbles in the water and the smell isn't very potent in the water at all. It's kind of like bathing in a regular bath that you haven't added any product to. So when I first used them I was quite disappointed. That being said, after use I could feel the tiredness seeping in as soon as I started draining the water and the next morning I woke up feeling refreshed like I'd had a really good sleep. So while they're not a real luxury experience, they do seem to really work for helping with sleep.

My opinion on the Equlibrium Bath & Shower Essence is very much the same. I acutally prefer this to the bath salts as this does leave the water feeling smooth and soft like a regular bath oil in addition to having the sleeping benefits, so for me this does seem like more of a luxury product and it's definitely the format I'd choose of the two.

The final bath/body product I've tried from Therapie is their Boost Hair & Body Wash, and again, it didn't really hit the mark for me. I like to take baths in the evening and showers in the morning (not both everyday obviously) so I thought I'd really like this product as it has one of those amazing zingy citrus scents to it that can really wake you up in those early morning showers, but the formula is just not my favourite. It's quite a liquid-y body wash so it doesn't really lather up all that well. The packaging does suggest to use an exfoliating glove to work the product in but I prefer the puff type shower scrubbies and I just couldn't get the product to work the way I wanted it to. I did try this with an exfoliating body brush to see if that would give more of a lather but even then it didn't seem to do much for me, which is a shame because the scent is amazing.

For me when it comes to high-end bathing, I love Aromatherapy Associates and Laura Mercier and unfortunately the Therapie products don' really do it for me but their skincare range is lovely.

A Therapie Skincare Duo

I've been dying to get my hands on some Therapie products ever since I first heard about their Himalayan Bath Salts, they're hailed at giving you the best nights sleep ever and while I definitely don't have any trouble in that category, a girl loves her sleep. I did actually think that they were a bath/body brand until I heard about a serum that she'd made for LilyPebbles' mum, and as soon as I found out about their skincare range I was all over that.

So today wont feature the bath salts (but good things come to those who wait) and we'll be focussing instead on a couple of their skincare bits that I picked up recently.

Something I've really been loving trying out lately is serums, and Therapies Cherish Skin Repair Serum is a bloody good one. It's got that almost oily texture that I love and we wont even go into the smell because I could possibly right a novel in ode to the scent of this product, let's just leave it at lush. For me this product does sit on the skin for a while before it sinks in so I'd call this a PM serum, while the sits-on-your-skin feeling isn't for me in the morning, I love a product that I can really work in for overnight.

This serum is really hydrating on my skin to the extent that I could go moisturiser free in the morning if I fancied (not that I do) and leaves my skin feeling refreshed and plumped by morning. It also works equally well used as an overnight oil on it's own as it does as a serum under your regular night cream. My only complaint is that I think the essential oil content may have cause a break-out on my chin upon first use, but I'll have to keep using it to make sure that this product is the one to blame (I've been testing so many things lately that it could be one of a few).

A nice one for the AM is their Restore Aura Spray, it's a spray mist that's super refreshing for the morning and again I love the scent, it's super zingy and will definitely wake you up. I will say if you only have a budget to pick up one of these products, I'd go for the serum as the mist is a princess product if I've ever heard of one. The mist is so fine that you end up having to spray quite a lot before you feel a difference on the skin. Can't say wether or not I'll repurchase this yet but I will say it's comparable to the Caudalie Beauty Elixir but it's actually a teensy bit more affordable.