Project Pan Update: April 2020 Beauty Empties

This past month I did much better using up beauty products than I did in March. In particular, I used up quite a few large bottles and jars that I will be happy to recycle.

While I often use up more facial skincare products than any other category, in April bath and body came out ahead.

Here’s what I used up:

Bath and Body

• Dial Silk & Ginger Moisturizing Body Wash: I loved the slightly spicy scent of this affordable body wash. It lasted forever, was indeed moisturizing, and it also worked well as a shaving cream. Repurchase? Although I most certainly recommend this affordable, pleasant body wash with a wonderful scent, this particular scent has been discontinued.

• Liquid Hand Soap Almond: I bought this no brand almond hand soap at HomeGoods a couple of years ago for the downstairs bathroom. I bought it primarily because it matched the color scheme of the room, lol. It was a perfectly fine hand soap, and it had a delicate, lovely almond scent. Repurchase? Since this was a random purchase, and after I bought it, I noticed it had lots of parabens in the ingredient list, I wouldn’t repurchase it.

• The Body Shop Banana Nourishing Body Butter: I love The Body Shop’s Nourishing Body Butters. They honestly last for at least 24 hours. They are rich and effective. I bought Banana a while back because the banana scent appealed to me. While it did smell like bananas, after a while the scent smelled kind of artificial. Repurchase? Although I will repurchase The Body Shop body butter in the future, I don’t need any right now. The banana scent is a limited edition scent, and it isn’t available now. However, the banana scent wasn’t my favorite.

• Hempz Sweet Pineapple and Honey Melon Herbal Body Moisturizer, travel size: I had wanted to try Hempz products for a long time, so I was happy to get this travel size lotion in my March Ipsy Plus Bag as an extra travel size freebie that Ipsy has been doing the last few months. The pineappley scent was summery and nice. The lotion would be fine for most people, but with my super dry skin, it wasn’t quite hydrating and long-lasting enough for me. Repurchase? No.

• City Beauty Restoring Hand Treatment: I was very eager to test this hand cream that is supposed to rejuvenate the appearance of skin on the hands. It is supposed to help fade dark spots and make thin skin on the back of the hands appear plumped and younger. Honestly, I think my hands were too far gone to get excellent results from this pricey hand treatment. It did make the light spots look less apparent, but my large dark spots don’t look changed IMO. I need IPL to really improve the look of my dark spots. And in terms of making my thin skin look plumper, it did do that after I would apply the cream but it wasn’t any longer lasting than a traditional hand cream. Repurchase? No.

• Sensodyne Fresh Mint Toothpaste for Sensitive Teeth and Cavity Prevention: I bought several tubes of Sensodyne when it was on sale some time ago. I’m a fan of Sensodyne even though my teeth are no longer as sensitive as they once were. Repurchase? I will in the future because I have been using Sensodyne on and off for years. I am using Colgate Total Care right now.

Hair

• Matrix Total Results Keep Me Vivid Shampoo: I really like this shampoo designed for high-maintenance hair colors to help prevent fading. I liked the innocuous sweet scent, it lathered very well, rinsed well, and most important, I do think that it helped my red hair color fade less than other sulfate-free shampoos. Repurchase? Yes, I bought another bottle of the shampoo. I also bought the Keep Me Vivid Vibrant for 65 Days intro kit with shampoo, conditioner and Velvetizer, a leave-in with UV filter. I also bought a full size bottle of the Keep Me Vivid Color Lamination Spray that is used after shampooing and before conditioner to help seal in the color.

Facial Skincare

• First Aid Beauty Pure Skin Facial Cleanser: This creamy, fluffy, white facial cleanser is my favorite, especially for winter. It is so gentle, hydrating and comforting. I am sad to see the tube empty! Repurchase? Yes, I will buy it again next autumn. I want to use up some of the other cleansers that I have.

• Tatcha The Dewy Skin Cream, mini size: I bought this mini size jar of new The Dewy Skin Cream from Tatcha as an add-on to my March Ipsy Plus bag for $3. If I had bought it from Tatcha or Sephora, it would have cost $20. That’s one key reason why I love Ipsy. The lavender colored rich facial moisturizer with a light floral scent that faded immediately was a delight to use. It hydrated my super dry skin very well so that when used at night, I woke up to still moisturized skin. Repurchase? Again, I must make some headway at using up some of my other anti-aging moisturizers before I purchase this heavenly but expensive skin cream. Maybe during a sale next fall? However, if you have very dry skin and are in the market for a rich moisturizer, Tatcha The Dewy Skin Cream is well worth the price.

So, I used up 9 beauty products in April. Somehow I thought I had used up more than that, but maybe that’s because many of my empties were large bottles, tubes and jars. My total of beauty empties so far this year is  29. Frankly because this has been such an unusual year, I am not sure I’ll make the goal I set at the end of 2019 of 125 empties. Regardless, I will keep going!

Expired Product

• New York Streets Hair Repair: I received this lightweight hair repair spray several years ago to try out for review (here). I liked it, but there was always another hair repair serum that came my way to try. I ended up forgetting about this indie brand spray, and I think it’s at least 4, if not 5, years old. Because I have so many other hair repair sprays and serums, I think I should toss this.

Today's Author

Allison Cohen

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