empties

Okay y’all for the first time EVER I’m being SO INCREDIBLY DILIGENT about using up my beauty products. I mean, I seriously have been kind of amazed by how I’ve actually been able to try Birchbox samples and how I’ve decided that if I don’t like a product, I won’t force myself to use it I will just THROW IT THE HECK AWAY.

That said, I’m prepared to start my year of monthly Empties posts… BUT FIRST… lemme finish the last one, aight?! By waiting months and months and months, I end up with a long boring list of empty products and it drives me nuts. I end up doing empties posts out of necessity (i.e. I can’t shove any more into the little box I keep them in) when I really work best with the thought of “I need to have something to show for this month.” Seeing my little pile growing makes me excited to share them. But again. Let me go back to the lat one I was doing and wrap that up first.

The Body Shop Eye Shadow 
So I went to The Body Shop to buy the banana shampoo/conditioner I wrote about in the last post, and was greeted with a Buy 2 get 1 free sale. I ended up randomly picking out this eye shadow, which I ended up LOVING. It was a shimmery gold color and was so good to me down to the very last part.

Dr. Jart+ BB Cream 
This used to be the allstar of my beauty routine but has been out shadowed in the past year by Root Pretty, which I’ll write about. I discovered this through Birchbox (y’all, I suck at beauty/makeup and have LOVED learning through Birchbox) This BB Cream is smooth and not shiny and is a really great product.

NYC Cheek Glow in a color I’m not sure of anymore.
I desperately need help with blush. How do you use it? Like… so serious. I had this kind of rose colored blush for a long time, and then it ran out. This was so good to me for the price (it’s a drugstore brand, which is perfect for a person who has NO IDEA what they’re doing LOL)

Benefit The Porefessional
YEP. EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE. I use this literally EVERY day. It’s a little tinted, which I love. It does a really great job of minimizing pores without being greasy or heavy and it’s great for under makeup or even on its own. I love this stuff and cannot imagine my life without it. I randomly grabbed the smaller travel size while I was in line at Ulta one day, and it literally changed my life.

ELF Lip Balm Tint
Who even knows what shade this is. I threw it away because I’m over it. I don’t like it. Hard pass.

Root Pretty Pretty Booster
Okay that’s the little bottle AND most of those little tubes on the side. One of the things I LOVE about Root Pretty is that they allow you to buy little samples of like ALL OF THEIR PRODUCTS. When I was trying to find the right Pretty Balm, I tried a bunch of slightly different shades until I found the one that was juuust right. And I have never looked back. 😀 The little white tubs are of the powder. It’s taken me awhile to find the best shade for me in their powder… even after thinking I discovered it, I bought a full sized powder, then ordered one more sample color and realized the sample color was so much better than the full sized powder. Mixing them together for now. 🙂 {REMEMBER you can get 10% of your first purchase of $25 or more if you use my link}

Benefit Posie Balm
I wish I could remember what color this was. I got this in a Birchbox and I LOVED it. I loved the teeniest tint, because I honestly CANNOT do bold lip colors at all. Some people can rock that but I am not one of those people. which is why that bold coral Cynthia Rowley lip gloss right next to it was a HARD PASS.

True Organics Clay Mask
I’ve said it once, twice, and I’ll say it forevermore: most masks are the same to me. This is the same. Except I have this one bucket list mud mask: the GlamGlow one.  It’s like HECKA expensive but I’ve wanted to try it for like 5 years. Maybe one day I’ll splurge?

Also those 4 perfumes? The only opinion I can give you is this: I don’t care how ‘basic’ this makes me, but I FREAKING LOVE ALL THE JUICY COUTURE SCENTS, most especially the regular one. It was my signature smell like 10 years ago and I still smell it at the store and think “oh I love you, Juicy Couture.” Maybe that will be my gift to myself when I’ve finally rid myself of mountains of beauty products and smelly things.

WE DID IT.

We finished the 12th Installment of Empties. Holy Crap, this is probably the most consistent thing my blog has ever seen. I’ve been doing them off and on for over 3 years! On my 101 list is a goal to do one a month for a year, and I think I am SO READY to start that this month.

Shop the post:

Before I left for the summer, I decided to clear out my little tub of Empties and snap some photos so I could share them here. When I came to Nashville, I brought a few of my regular staples but I made sure to bring a TON of my samples so that I’d use those and be able to return with a crap ton less than I brought! Super excited to watch my little stash deplete 🙂

There was actually a BUNCH of stuff for this post but I decided to keep it to one picture since it was so overwhelming – I’ll do a part 2 like I had to do with my 11th round up. Too bad I couldn’t get my shhhh together to just post it like every month or something, amiright?! eye roll emoji here 🙂

Lots of great stuff to go through this time, so here we go!

• Biore Baking Soda Cleansing Scrub (I blogged about it here) – loved this stuff! I loved being able to control how scrubby it was.
• Root Pretty Face Cleanser (USE THIS LINK to get  10% off your first $25+ purchase) – tried this stuff out… I really loved the orange-y scent of this stuff, I just tend to lean towards cleansers and washes that have a scrub to them.
• Lollia Hand Cream in Wish – LOVE. I LOVE this stuff! This small tube is $8 so I definitely call this a splurge. One day I’ll buy more than just the small tube of it, but I absolutely love the scent of this and the way it’s not super greasy.
• Love + Sunshine Bath & Body Works lotion – it’s a nice, springy, happy scent! I don’t need any more lotion, though. And I’ve started figuring out that I’d rather pay full price and buy scents I like than buy whatever’s on clearance at the outlet.
• Derma E Purifying Detox Scrub – YUP! I LOVE DermaE. I’ve used their products for awhile, and I received this in a Birchbox and was SO EXCITED to try it. I absolutely loved this stuff – it’s scrubby! I’ll definitely be trying this once my current Derma-E face scrub runs out.
• Fabuloso Platinum Blonde Intensifying Conditioner – Well. I don’t think I actually have blonde hair in the slightest. I think I maybe used to dye my hair more blonde, but yeah. I think this stuff was purple, which is really cool. But… hard pass.
• Malin + Goetz clay mask – I actually really liked this stuff! I’m still of the idea that most face masks are like every other face mask, so I don’t think I’d ever purchase this on its own.
• St. Ives Fresh Skin Body Scrub – I bought this on sale or at a cheap store or something. I was like OMG ST IVES BODY SCRUB because don’t we ALL love St. Ives face scrub?! This was just like the face scrub but I felt like the scrubby bits were less intense. It was alright, but apparently while I love scrubby face scrubs, I’m not a huge fan of scrubby stuff on my body. Unless it’s a coffee scrub.
• Whish Body Butter in Coconut – IDK, coconut scents are hit or miss. I loved how thick this body butter was, and I really loved that it was in a tube unlike most of my other body butters which are in jars.
• The Healing Garden Sanctuary spray – This just had to go. I’ve had this for so long and it made me sneeze. I actually used it to spray on my shower curtain… I guess like a cheap Febreze. I was so excited for this to be empty because it was HUGE and took up SO MUCH SPACE and literally ALWAYS made me sneeze. Bye, Felicia!
• The Body Shop Banana Shampoo + Conditioner – IDK maybe I’m all about weird things but I LOVE banana scented stuff, and this shampoo/conditioner smelled BOMB DOT COM.
• Peter Lamas Pumpkin Scrub – I first reviewed this here and was so excited to stumble upon another small bottle of it. I absolutely LOVE this stuff – it smells amazing and has just the right amount of scrub.
• Neutrogena Ultra Light Cleansing Oil – I got this to try and replace the Garnier cleansing oil I love so much. This was okay, but it wasn’t great to use on my eyes like the other stuff was (have you figured out yet just how much I LOVE the Garnier stuff?!). I’ll keep trying to find something, but this wouldn’t be a terrible replacement.
• Root Pretty Organic Coconut Sugar Scrub – if you haven’t caught on, I love scrubby things. I was really excited to try this out (as I wrote here) but I wasn’t as impressed with it as I’d planned on being. I did find another Root scrub I love, though… so that will come in time!
• Batiste Wild Cherry Dry Shampoo – OK y’all, I think Batiste is literally the best dry shampoo in the world. I love that they have super fun scents. I like this one and the tropical one. What do you guys think?

Shop this post:

Every time, I’m like “dang it’s been so long since I’ve done an Empties post,” and this time it REALLY has. I was waiting on finishing a bottle of shampoo so I could renew that + the conditioner as a set, haha.

Also before we even begin looking through what I’ve used up in the past half a year or so.. I KNOW some of these pictures are blurry. I just opened up the pictures and saw them and was like…

So let’s just call it what it is – POOR PHOTOGRAPHY – and move on. Dust yourself off and try again, like Aaliyah sang. Here we go. The pile of stuff that’s been taking up a bunch of space in my bathroom closet. It’s actually a large amount so I’m going to do this in two parts. Here’s part one.

Healthy Hair Diet Shampoo + Deep Conditioner
Hard pass. 🙂

NYM Way to Grow Shampoo + Conditioner
I bought this set when I was staying over at someone’s house. I wanted to love it. I really really did… but I just couldn’t. I don’t even know what it is, but I just can’t. In general I feel like I keep trying to love NYM products, but I just can’t seem to be all in. Anyone else?

Caress Mystique Forever Body Wash
I got this sample in one of my Jane.com orders and I AM IN LOVE! I feel like Caress body washes are REALLY fragrant, and I love that I can continue to smell them on my skin long after the shower is over. I’m going to keep my eyes open for this one.

Garnier Nourishing Cleansing Oil
MY FAVE! This has been present in a LOT of my empties posts. They no longer sell it, so when I found a bunch for sale at Ross, I STOCKED UP! I’ve raved about it many times before, but ugh. This would be a staple in my routine if it still was being stocked in stores!

Victoria’s Secret Pink Warm & Cozy Hand and Body Cream {19.25/50 smelly things used up for my 101 in 1001 list}
Um. My FAVORITE scent. It’s so… warm… and…. cozy. 😀 I love love love love love the scent of this. I feel like if I ever don’t have something Warm & Cozy in my stockpile of beauty products, something is super wrong.

Biore Baking Soda Pore Cleanser
I purchased this earlier year for a sponsored post, and I actually really love this! I keep it in my shower, and it has just the right amount of scrub. I’m a huge fan of this stuff.

ModelCo Party Proof Lipstick in Kitten
They no longer sell this color – I somehow received two tubes of this, and I liked it enough but it actually melted and completely fell apart! Probably my fault for keeping it in my car for like half a year. 😀

Herbal Essences Naked Shampoo
I’m a sucker for trial sizes. I actually can’t remember what I thought of this. Sorry, y’all.

Coola Makeup Setting Spray
I got this as a sample in my Birchbox over the past summer, and I used it faithfully every day until it ran out… and I have no idea what it’s supposed to accomplish. What is setting spray? Someone help me out. I have no idea if it was effective or not.

Bath + Body Works Sleep Body Lotion {20.25/50 smelly things}
In high school I had a hard time sleeping and my friend gave me some of this Lavender + Vanilla lotion and I fell. in. love. It actually helps me unwind at the end of the day as I’m laying in bed, ready for sleep. It also helps that I literally NEVER use this lotion aside from bedtime so I’m conditioned to smell it and get sleepy.

Stila Huge Extreme Mascara
I got this mascara in my Birchbox, and I LOVED the jet black color, but I HATED how clumpy this mascara looked when it was on. I got in the habit of first applying this mascara and then using another mascara to kind of get rid of the clumps, and eventually realized it just wasn’t worth the hassle. I wonder if it’s just the mascara wand that is the problem. IDK.

Whish Shave Cream Pomegranate
THIS SMELLS LIKE BUTT ABORT MISSION DO NOT BUY THIS. I actually LOOOOVE Whish shave creams so I was really disappointed when it smelled so foul. Ugh.

Bath & Body Works Be Enchanted Body Lotion  {20.75/50 smelly things}
Okay so I KNOW I already have a problem with lotions and sprays and stuff but you guys. A month or so ago I was at the bins, and I saw a WHOLE BAG full of STUFF. Travel products. Small lotions. BIRCHBOX SAMPLES. It was $6, you guys. That’s LESS than the cost of ONE Birchbox and you had better believe I BOUGHT THAT BAG OF STUFF. Anyway, this lotion was from said bag of stuff. I really loved this Be Enchanted smell. I just love smelly things, unless they smell like butt (refer to the product directly above this one).

Bath & Body Works Sleep Moisturizing Hand Cream {21/50 smelly things}
Please refer up a few reviews and that applies here, too.

Suki Foaming Cleanser 
I still think this is one of THE BEST cleansers OF ALL TIME. It starts scrubby and then gets foamy and IT SMELLS SO AMAZING!! Unfortunately It costs a zillion and a half dollars, so I try to ration it and then re-purchase it when Birchbox has a sweet deal. Actually do me a favor. If you’re on the fence about Birchbox, sign up and then I’ll get $5 to use in the Birchbox store. Thanks in advance.

OK, BRB.. .we’ll continue this soon. 😀

This is going to be a sad Empties post, because I’m saying goodbye to some old favorites. Y’all, I swear to you my beauty products procreate every night because even though I try really hard not to buy too many, they’re EVERYWHERE.

Let’s get on with the show, shall we?

The Body Shop Banana Shampoo

Banana shampoo? YES PLEASE. When I’m doing the no-poo thing (which is seriously NOT right now – I have like 283249587 shampoo/conditioners) I like to keep a pretty gentle shampoo on hand for days when I need to feel some scrub. I LOVE this one. Like I said, I’m at 0% need of shampoo/conditioner, but this is what I’ll be keeping in my shower once I go through the rest of them.

Jergens BB Body Perfecting Cream

I LOVE THIS STUFF! I love the smell and the feel and everything. It leaves my legs feeling hydrated and feeling slightly (VERY slightly) tinted. A few months ago I saw this on sale, so I picked up a few more of them. Can’t wait for the summer to use this ALL THE TIME!

Dirty Works Coconut Body Scrub

Picked this up at TJ Maxx (my favorite place to find new things to try) and it was pretty great, until I made my coffee scrub. I’m all about scrubby things and this body scrub just wasn’t scrubby enough for me. It did smell awesome, though.

St. Ives Naturally Soothing lotion (16.25/50 smelly things)

This is literally the thing of lotion that never ends. I buy lotion with good intentions and then rarely use it. This is a pretty basic lotion. Let’s move on.

Vivify Hydrate Hair Mask

I received this item thanks to Tomoson – it didn’t really do much for my hair. After reaching out to the company they gave me an alternative way to try it, which I did… and it was better, but definitely not for me. The customer service I received was AMAZING, though. They were quick to respond and even walked me through the process of how they would have handled my experience if I was a customer. I was sad this didn’t work out.

Whish Bath & Body Gel (16.5/50 smelly things)

Ulta had a jackpot of a clearance a month or so ago, and I picked up a travel set of Whish products. I’d tried a few in my Birchbox, but since Coconut is my favorite smell I’ve been really wanting to try their coconut products. I liked it. I tend to use a LOT of shower gel in the shower (I LIKE THE SMELL!) so I was sad this didn’t have more in it. But the smell and the suds… yes please.

Melvita Floral Water

Hey everyone, I LITERALLY got this in my first ever Birchbox back in June 2012, so when I noticed it I decided to toss it. I really liked it when I used it – it would make my face feel happy and refreshed when I spritzed it on. I especially loved it in the summer, but I just kept forgetting to use it.

Root Pretty Pretty Booster in Light

Have y’all heard of Root Pretty? It’s LITERALLY right up my alley – all natural, organic products… and the packaging, you guys. THE PACKAGING! Awhile ago they had a sale on their samples, so I bought some. I LOVE this Pretty Booster. I actually couldn’t remember which color was the best on me and now I remember because it’s the only one I used up! I LOVE that they send you these samples (for only $2!) before you commit. Side note: click on this link for 10% off your first order. You can thank me later.

OZ Naturals Ocean Mineral Facial Cleanser

I have no idea how I got this… but nope. Absolutely not, no.

ClariSEA Rapid Detox Charcoal Exfoliant

I got this as a bonus in a Birchbox purchase. As someone who loves scrub, this is BRILLIANT. You add a small amount to a gel/cream scrub and it gives it extra scrub and exfoliation. I will DEFINITELY be purchasing this once I get my beauty stuff under control.

Elf BB Cream

As a very vocal advocate of BB Creams, I was excited to try this! I’ve seen a lot of beauty bloggers writing about ELF, and since it’s cheap and available at Target I kept my eyes open. This was on clearance! Super score! But maybe there’s a reason it was on clearance. It was SO ORANGEY! It actually looked like a really bad fake tan. I’m going to say that maybe I picked out a terrible color (it seemed to be the best option) and move on with life.

Dr. Jart+ Ceramidin Cream

Birchbox sent this to me, and I LOVED it! I don’t often use moisturizers or creams in the daytime because I feel like they make my face greasy. This, however, DIDN’T! It left my face feeling moisturized but not greasy. Big fan of this.

Trusted Health Products Amazingly Beautiful AM Moisturizer

I won this through a giveaway hosted on a blog, and I absolutely  LOVE it. It’s an oil and has a slightly orange-y scent to it. You know the above statement about not using moisturizers or creams in the daytime? I used this one EVERY DAY. Plus they package it with my name so every morning I get to read about how fantastic I am 😉 Loved it.

Dr. Brandt Pores No More Pore Refiner Primer

There was a Dr. Brandt kit in the Birchbox sale store. Plus I had points. and a discount. So I bought the little kit. This was worth it. I’m not a huge primer person, but this was brilliant. I loved that it was slightly tinted. It had a matte effect when applied. This is on my list of products to purchase in the future.

Victoria’s Secret Angel Body spray (17.5/50 smelly things)

My dad and stepmom ALWAYS gift me VS scents for Christmas/my birthday. Which is cool, but I’m so overwhelmed with smelly things! This body spray was kept in my travel bag, so the smell of it always reminds me of traveling. It specifically makes me think of one trip to San Francisco in particular. I think I used it a LOT on that trip.

100% Pure Organic Coffee Bean Caffeine Eye Cream

Win. So much win. This little tiny tube is my favorite part of my morning routine. The cream has a light scent of coffee, and it really wakes my eyes up. Not only that, but even using it really consistently (I’d say on average, 3-4 times a week) this little tube has lasted me since SEPTEMBER! Definitely replacing this with the full sized product.

Miss Jessie’s Original Super Sweetback Treatment

As far as scents go, this one takes the cake. It has the most fun scent ever.. kind of bubblegum-my. It hydrated my hair and during my no-poo time, it definitely made the waves in my hair look amazing. When I am using shampoo, it makes my hair less wavy and more just dumb looking.

Harvey Prince Signature (17.75/50 smelly things)

This smells like solid PERFUME to me. Like when I close my eyes and think of perfume, this is it. I can’t even really describe it. I like it a lot, but I wouldn’t ever purchase it.

I Am Juicy Couture (18/50 smelly things)

Love. I love all the Juicy stuff. The other day I showed Justen the original Juicy perfume and I realized how much I really love that scent. Like these other ones are fun, but the original… man. So good.

Fabulous by Isaac Mizrahi (18.25/50 smelly things)

I do NOT like this. It has a weird cleaner scent to it in my opinion. Pass. HARD pass.

Not Soap, Radio Body wash (18.5/50 smelly things)

First can I just say that the name of this is “Liquid Freud (when you need to turn up the volume on your inner voice of reason).” and it’s called “emotional well-being bath/shower gel” and the scent is coconut milk mango + vanilla sooooo yeah. LOVE! I LOVE it!

Softlips – Pearl

When I first discovered Softlips I was SO EXCITED because it worked so well, so I bought a few packs of the regular kind and they came with extras. I HATE the pearly shine of this lip gloss. and that’s why I’m throwing it away. 🙂 Deuces!

Harvey Prince Hello Body Cream (18.75/50 smelly things)

It’s lotion, what more is there to say? The smell wasn’t my favorite.

Benefit They’re Real Mascara

This was a sample, and I tried to take as much life out of it as possible because it is AMAZING! I used + loved another Benefit mascara, so it’s no surprise that I love this one so much. Definitely sad to see this one go, and I will keep it in mind when it’s time to replace my mascara.

The Body Shop Almond Hand & Nail Cream

So good. I love this stuff. I have a little tub of it, too. It’s SO GOOD. It smells great and leaves your hands feeling moisturized but not greasy. My only complaint is that since the tube is like kind of metal, it got bent and broken and some of the cream started squeezing out of the top! No thanks 🙁

I’ve rounded up the products for you to check out:

18.75/50 smelly things!

• Empties v1
• Empties v2
• Empties v3
• Empties v4
• Empties v5
• Empties v6
• Empties v7
• Empties v8
• Empties v9