Although February was a short month, I used up a lot of stuff, and I’m happy to add it all to the recycling bin!
Let’s take a look.
Bath and Body
Bath and body was the big category for me this month. But one product that I’m getting rid of makes me angry!!
- RITUALS Zensation Organic Rice Milk & Cherry Blossom Foaming Shower Gel, now called Sakura: I am throwing out a completely full bottle of this lovely-smelling shower foam because the spray nozzle doesn’t work. This is the third bottle of RITUALS Foaming Shower Gel that I’ve used. With the first two bottles, the shower foam kind of dribbled out of the nozzle and foamed up – not easily but it did come out. The first time I used this bottle, a little bit came out and then that was it, nothing. The entire bottle is full, and it won’t work. I emailed RITUALS about this twice, and they have never bothered to respond. REPURCHASE? NO!!! I won’t spend another nickel on their products in spite of the beautiful cherry blossom scent.
- Nature Island Botanicals Spa Line Seashore Facial Bar: Although this blue-gray bar is billed as a facial bar with tea tree, French lavender and bergamot, I used it in the shower on my face and body too. It was another lovely soap from NIB. But I am spoiled, I love Daphne’s pretty multi-colored swirled soaps because they’re so beautiful to look at. REPURCHASE? I probably won’t repurchase this exact one, and I’m already onto another marbled NIB soap!
- Reverie Farms Sandalwood Natural Foaming Hand Soap: Although I loved the sandalwood scent of this lovely natural and organic hand soap, I discovered that I don’t really love foaming hand soaps. Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer the regular kind of hand soap gel that you rub and foam up – I find that it cleans better especially when my hands are really dirty or have something greasy like lip balm on them. REPURCHASE? No.
- Natural sea sponge: It may not be politically correct, but I still like natural sea sponges for washing my face. They’re so soft and gentle to my skin. Time to toss this one. REPURCHASE? Yes, I found a new source for them, thank goodness, at a local natural food store.
Lip Balm
How amazing to have lip balms as a separate category this month!
- Dr. Lipp’s Miracle Balm: This lip balm made with 100% medical-grade lanolin continues to be my favorite lip balm bar none. REPURCHASE? I’ve got another one waiting in the wings.
- Farmhouse Fresh Coconut Beach Hydrating Lip Balm: I liked this attractive, yummy tasting and smelling natural lip balm stick from FHF. It was the one that I kept at my desk, and it lasted me about a year. REPURCHASE? I have another one in vanilla that I like even better!
- The Body Shop Strawberry Lip Butter: Although I love the smell of this strawberry lip balm and it felt soothing on my lips, I don’t love lip balms that come in pots because the balm gets under my nails and the pot seems unsanitary after a short while. I didn’t get to use this one up because it seems to have turned. REPURCHASE? No.
Hand and Nail Care
- Farmhouse Fresh Steeped Milk Hand Lotion, Honey Chai: I think this is my favorite among favorites from the fabulous Farmhouse Fresh range of natural and organic hand creams. It is not heavy, it absorbs quickly, it keeps my hands soft, and it smells absolutely divine. As I wrote earlier this week, I liked this hand cream immediately, but after using it for a few months, I absolutely love it. The Honey Chai scent is so calming and soothing. REPURCHASE? I still have about half a tube of the Buttermilk Lavender from this same line to finish up, and I like that scent as well, but Honey Chai is my fave!!
- PARODI Daily Moisturizing Hand Cream: Developed by a nail care specialist who has her hands in water all day, PARODI Daily Moisturizing Hand Cream is formulated to last through several hand washings. How cool is that? It has a very light, almost imperceptible fresh scent. The cream itself is lightweight, greaseless, though nourishing. It did a great job keeping my hands soft this winter. REPURCHASE? I will either repurchase this one or their “heavy-duty” version to try out at some point in the future. I have a few other FHF hand creams to finish up before I can justify buying more hand cream.
- Liquid Palisade Easy-Peel Polish Barrier: Sometimes I am such a jerk. I wanted this product for so long, and after I got it, I was too lazy to get it out and use it. When I finally reached for it last week (after a year), it had coagulated and now I have to toss it. My bad because it definitely works. REPURCHASE? No because I wasn’t smart enough to use it.
Facial Skincare
- SimySkin Intensive Ultra Serum for Neck & Decolletage: I really liked this medium weight, amber colored gel serum that comes in an easy to use pump bottle. And that’s saying something since I am totally devoted to StriVectin TL Advanced Neck Cream. REPURCHASE? I have two and a half jars of StriVectin in my stash, so I just can’t. But if you’re looking for an lighter weight, effective, easy to use neck product, check out French SimySkin.
- LIFTLAB Lift & Moisturize Daily Cream: I got a sample from a retailer of this moisturizer and a cleanser from Lift Lab and I loved them so much I bought them. The moisturizer, a gel-cream, cost over $100, maybe $150, but I sprang for it. I really love this moisturizer, and it lasted me a long time because I had to test drive so many other moisturizers while I was using it. REPURCHASE? Probably not. It is so expensive, and I am testing a number of other moisturizers now. But I did really enjoy it. If you have money to spare, it’s worth it.
- MDSolarSciences Daily Anti-aging Moisturizer SPF 30: I got this sample in either my Ipsy or Sephora Play bag in the past month or so. I’m always on the look out for good daytime moisturizers with SPF, so I was happy to try this. It has SPF 30, and it uses chemical sunscreens. So I was surprised that it leaves a bit of a white cast that does disappear when it’s rubbed in. It has a strong herbal scent during application that fades quickly. REPURCHASE? No, I like the Paula’s Choice Skin Recovery with SPF 50 better: high SPF and no white cast.
Hair Care
- Infusium 23 Color Defender Conditioner: After all these years, I still love Infusium 23 Color Defender Conditioner. This big bottle lasted me about 3 years because I only wash my hair every 4-5 days and I’ve been testing out other products. What I especially like, besides the affordable price, is that it’s rich, but it doesn’t weigh down my hair. I test all kinds of hair products, but this remains my favorite conditioner (next to JOICO deep conditioner). REPURCHASE? Not right now because I want to try to use up some conditioners that I was sent for testing, but I definitely will. It’s a staple for me. BTW, I bought this so long ago, the packaging has completely changed!
Other
- Ardell Press-On Lashes: I had high hopes for these Ardell Press-On Lashes that I bought a while back. They each came attached to a weird device that you’re supposed to use to apply them, but I could never figure out how to use it. So I tried putting them on with my fingers. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get them to stay on me. I think I may have ended up using some lash glue (that defeats the purpose, I know), and I managed to get the glue on one of the lashes and screwed them up. Tossing them. Thankfully, they were inexpensive. REPURCHASE? No.
So this is what I used up or what I’m tossing this month. How about you?
What’s your Reaction?
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Wow, a lot of empties! It’s a shame some of them stopped working or went bad before you used them. I hate that feeling. I’m really interested in that Parodi hand cream that lasts through hand washing because I am always washing my hands!
The blogger’s struggle, right, Chelsea? So many products to use that some invariably go off in the meantime. The Parodi Hand Cream really is a good one. As I mentioned, I’d like to try their heavy-duty formula just to see what the difference is. It’s one of the most effective hand creams – the Daily Moisturizer – that I’ve used.
Ohhhh I want to try the Honey Chai from Farmhouse Fresh!
FHF Honey Chai is an exquisite scent. You would love it!
So many great empties! Gotta love Rituals!
Unfortunately, I have had 3 bad experiences with the Rituals foaming shower gel bottle (the nozzles), and with this one, the spray didn’t work at all so I am throwing out a completely full bottle. And Rituals hasn’t even bothered to answer my emails about it. I’m done with the brand.
Great empties post, girl. It’s been forever since I’ve used Infusium 23. I need to pick up a bottle and see if I still love it as much as I used to.
I’m curious to see what the new Infusion conditioner formula is like! My bottle was sooooo old. I hope they didn’t change it coz I loved it as it was 😉
Great reviews! I agree about the pots of lip balm…plus I always feel like I need to wash my hands before I use it. Bummer about the lashes…although the empty shot made me chuckle with one little shriveled one.
Yes, that shriveled up faux lash looked like a squished spider! And say no to lip balm pots. You have to have a lip brush to use them really.
I need to try that lip balm!
I finished up 3 different lip balms. Wondering which one?
I’m with you, I’m not a pot lip balm person.
say no to pots.
LOL, you said it!
I’m impressed w/ your empties, again!!! I tried those lashes too from Ardell, major fail!
Thank you! I’m trying! And yes, I was glad I bought those press-on lashes on sale. Major fail is right!
Liquid palisade– I need to try it again! The first time it was really hard for me to pull off.
Bummer about the liquid palisade! I love the idea of it but also I can’t use it due to latex!
I love sandalwood and foaming soap so that’s up my alley!
Great empties post, Allison! I can’t believe how disappointing it is that the Rituals hand soap had to be tossed because of a faulty pump mechanism!
I finally finished some conditioner! 🙂 I love reading empties posts because it’s great to see what actually worked and didn’t after you used them all up.
I’m always so amazed at how much you use up every month!
Pretty cool you have gone through all those products.
How did I now know FHF did lip balms? I am so going to need to try it!
FHF has the most delectable scents!
I went through three bottles of a peel of base coat and one bottle of acetone for the month. Lord help me, haha.
Wow, that’s a variety of empties for the month. Looks like you had some great products and a bummer with the liquid palisade. I tend to buy things and then not use them right away also. I had a nail repair kit completely dry up before I could even use it once.
Isn’t it awful when you forget about something and it goes bad in the meantime? grrrrr
Your empties pile is inspiring! I recently finished a few things too, and one of them was a Rituals body wash 🙂
I hope you had better luck with the RITUALS body wash than I did. The nozzle on this one didn’t work at all, and the last two I bought were difficult to operate. Unfortunately, I give up after throwing away a completely full bottle, and after being ignored twice by Rituals customer service.