Favourites Repurchased

I missed out on favourites in January mainly because I was so busy or suffering from a cold for anything to stand out. I did however make a few repurchases.

Batiste Dry Shampoo, Medium & Brunette link

An old faithful made it's way into the December empties pile and was promptly repurchased. Funnily enough it was this time last year when I repurchased it. Whilst I'm a daily hair washer over the weekends I have been known to rely on just a spray of Batiste to get me through the day. I also find it comes in handy for bad hair days when hair is looking a little lifeless and I need something to provide a bit of oomph. 

Radox Herbal Bath Relax link

Radox has been mentioned many many times on my blog and you'll know I'm a fan. When you can pick up a bubble bath for £1 that fills the bathroom with a wonderful scent then why would you not? I recently tried another brands relax/lavendar scented product and it didn't hit the spot. Radox on the other hand provides the perfect evening bath.

The Wet Brush link
I love my Wet Brush which you can read about in this post but unfortunately it was starting to look a little sorry for itself so I decided to start 2015 with a brand new one. I don't think I would ever use another brush now.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz in Brunette link
If you read this post you will know that I tried to replace this whilst in the US last year and actually picked up the brow pencil which wasn't discovered till I returned home. Whilst I don't use this product daily due to favouring the speed of the next product I'm going to mention it is always in my make up bag in case I want to go a little heavier with the brows.

Maybelline BROWdrama link
This is my go to lazy girl eyebrow treatment. If it's a 'special occasion' I go all out for brows but day to day a quick sweep of this across my lashes is sufficient to provide a great natural look. You can read my full review of this product here.

So there are some favourite products I've recently repurchased. Have you had to stock up on old favourites recently?

Products That Didn't Work For Me #5

As I've mentioned in a few posts recently I am trying to work my way through overflowing drawers of products and work out what I do and don't like. Whilst I'm lucky enough to have access to and receive many products through blogging it's good to take stock and pass on the things I don't enjoy to homes where they will be appreciated.

The first product that didn't make the cut was the Anastasia Beverley Hills Perfect Brow Pencil. Perfect for me this was not. I actually purchased this in error believing I'd picked put the Brow Wiz which needing repurchasing. You can imagine the drama when I opened the box and the product was not there that I expected. Nevertheless I decided to give this pencil a try although was disappointed with the results. Whether it was my familiarity with the Brow Wiz and other similar products but this pencil was too harsh and not creamy enough to blend. I appreciate my skills may be lacking but I could not make this work for me and the brow wiz was repurchased and this pencil was ditched.

During one of my US visits there was a white nail polish phased happening so I picked up Essie's Blanc to try. For whatever reason it sat unloved for a long time till, as I've said I was going through my collection and decided to find out if this was a keeper. It's not hence it's appearance in this post. Again as I've said I've a small Essie collection of colours but I've always been impressed and happy with how they apply. Blanc was difficult to work with, it was like cheap watery tippex and need numerous layers to achieve opacity. How did I feel about white nail polish? Not for me, it felt like I was back in school painting on Tippex - just with a worse formula. If I was one to give myself a french manicure I might have kept it for that purpose but as I'm not it's off to a better home.

Finally rather than a product off to pastures new it's a group of, and that group is glitter. I have decided glitter is not for me. I'd blame my age but my mum loves and has always loved some sparkle on her nails and I often seen pictures or manicures either with all or an accent nail covered in glitter of some description and love it but for my stubby nails it's just not meant to be. On one hand I could keep the glitter just in case but quite frankly the effort required to just remove an accent nail of glitter vs the pleasure having it brings is just not balanced.

I'd love to know your thoughts on glitter nails, thumbs up or thumbs down?

November Empties

My favourite time of the month, it's empties time. It doesn't look quite the glamorous selection of products this month but there's a couple of reappearances and one sorely missed so lets dive in.

Sure Maximum Protection link
Are we bored of this one yet? I'm tempted to remove Sure Maximum Protection from my empties post but fear it's absence may lead you to believe I'm not using any deodorant. For the lowdown read this post.

Anastasia Brow Wiz in Brunette link
I had mixed feelings on the Brow Wiz when I first purchased it. I used it sporadically and then the packaging let me down. The spoolie end would come off completely in the cap so I had to abandon it if I wanted to use the spoolie which meant it was able to get grubby in my make up bag. In amongst that time I started using the Sleek Brow Stylist which I enjoyed and that made me return to the Brow Wiz and I found how to work with it and it was love. Whilst in Vegas a few months back I picked up a replacement Brow Wiz knowing my current one was nearing its end and you can imagine my horror (yes first world problems people) when I opened the packaging and I'd picked up the pencil by mistake. So far the pencil is proving difficult to work with but I have a back up Sleek Brow Stylist which I'm relying on till I repurchase.

Victoria Secrets Phone Case link
A slightly rogue item to throw into my empties post but for some reason I put it into the pile and included it into my photo. Sadly this case has cracked so it's off to iPhone cover heaven for this slightly narcissistic case. Luckily I stocked up on my last Victoria Secrets trip so I have another but fyi the cover has cracked and my phone hasn't from whenever I dropped it.

VO5 Plump It Up Amplifying Blow Dry Lotion link
Another frequent entry is this beauty from VO5. You can read previous posts here and here. I haven't repurchased this yet as I'm testing a few other products and to see if I miss using it so stay tuned as I'll be sure to share with you.

Gillette Venus & Olay Sugarberry Scent Razor* link
I reviewed this razor not too long ago in this post and I can confirm that having used to 'empty' I'm even more of a fan and will be replacing the razors on my next trip to the drugstore. It was definitely handy to have although the size of shave bars is somewhat deceiving as they do start to disintigrate that they start flapping about so they're unusable. That said they lasted a sufficient amount of time to be worth my repurchase.

Molton Brown Rose Granati Soothing Hand Lotion now known as Pomegranate & Ginger link
I've had this hand lotion from Molton Brown so long it's changed names. I've also had it so long that it was purchased from QVC when they originally stocked the brand and have subsequent begun reselling. I've had this hand lotion in my bathroom, then moved to my desk at work in an effort to use up and whilst it was at it's end on my coffee table at home. It felt like it went on forever and I'm finally glad to see the back of it. Truth be told I wasn't that much of a fan of this hand lotion and will give it the benefit of the doubt that it's possible age could have a factor and if someone handed me a new bottle I wouldn't throw it back at them! I found the texture watery and greasy and a little certainly went a long way.

Simple Cleansing Facial Wipes link
Facial wipes and an empty pack at that, the horror. We all know the deal with facial wipes, they're not the best and even a lazy cleanser such as myself prefers traditional cleansers than a facial wipe but when I found myself staying overnight without my usual stash of skincare I popped into a supermarket wanting to spend as little money as possible for what was essentially one night and one mornings cleanse before returning home. And I'd add I'd like a pat on the back for even considering removing my make up at all. Anyway excuses aside I still couldn't reach for the own brand and instead went for Simple having seen them pop in skincare routines from one or two people. I was actually suitably impressed with these wipes which was completely unexpected. Considering I literally used the wipe for removing make up and was unable to follow up with toners and moisturisers I didn't find my skin was left tight at all. As such I used these for a couple of late nights and would happily repurchase these for future flights or mini breaks where I'm accepting of the lack of diligence to my skincare routine.

Compeed Cold Sore Patches link
It was only Monday I referred to these cold sore patches as being my go to product for cold sore time. With two cold sores I went through these patches quicker than I would like but they did the job. A week later my cold sores have disappeared. Definitely give these a try instead of creams if you're a sufferer, I'm sure you'll be converted.

What products did you say goodbye to this month? I'm looking forward to seeing what the festive season's empties bring.

*PR Sample

August Pay Day Haul

This month's pay day haul was specialised around a masked ball that I was due to attend on the following weekend and a desire to try out this tutorial from Pixiwoo.

Firstly I jumped online and ordered the Anastasia Brow Wiz in Brunette from Cult Beauty. A much raved about product I was intrigued to try and I'm pleased to say I'm in love. This pencil is a breeze to apply and is far easier to grab than my previously used Mac Charcoal Brown Shadow and brush.

Next there was a trip to Space NK for a threading appointment which of course allowed for the opportunity to spend some cold hard cash. Bloggers seem to opt for the Xen Tan Absolute Luxe which I was going to try but after seeing the price tag and remembering that it was Deep Bronze Luxe cheaper that a friend had applied on me previously I thought I'd stick with that option. Caudalie Divine Legs has been on my wish list for sometime and just in case the Xen Tan experiment went awry I decided to have that on standby (thankfully it wasn't necessary!). As I would be wearing my Cinderella sandals  my feet need some sprucing up with Margaret Dabbs Exfoliating Foot Mousse. I'm a bit on the fence with this product. It was a completely blogger brain washed purchase and I think I could've got the same results from a cheaper product and to be quite honest, it doesn't even smell very nice.

From Superdrug I picked up some goodies from Sleek, their Contour Kit and Luminous Pressed Powder and onto Mac for some new brushes to add to my collection; the 239 and 210. Unfortunately Painterly Paint Pot was out of stock so it was over to Boots and the suggested alternative, Benefit's Creaseless Cream Shadow in Birthday Suit. The Boots haul didn't end there of course. Whilst I've been avoiding acrylic nails and doing my best to get my nails into an acceptable state without some Impress Nails they wouldn't be up to scratch for a black tie function. Unfortunately whilst initially thrilled with the results, simple to apply etc the thumb nail didn't last the night (thank god for the eyelash glue in my bag) and by day 2 the remaining nails were rising up and my hair was getting caught up in them and all sorts that I pulled them off. I was pleased with how easy they were to remove and whilst I wasn't wowed I would use this product again for a one night occasion.

Barry M Dazzle Dust and Bumble & Bumble Finishing Spray were the final products, the latter being a product my mum and I had seen on a recent shopping trip.  Thinking it was only £6.50 we both picked one up and decided against them when they were rung up at £10. Then we spent the whole shopping trip admiring our hair with it's finish that we had to return and buy them. I thought it would be perfect for my up do at the masked ball yet completely forgot to add a spritz when I left the hairdressers, typical.

A slight cheat to the haul is the Garnier Perfect Blur as my friend passed this over to me as she wasn't a fan. I've yet to try myself but I'll keep you posted on my findings.

Now it's time to halt the spending as I'm off to Las Vegas next month and I need all my cash to go wild in Sephora!