I'm Feeling Empty - Part 3

I lied. Before 2011 comes to an end, I want to pump out one last empties post for 2011 so that next year will start on a fresh slate. Plus, neither part 1 or 2 features any makeup (excluding mascaras) but part 3 will!

Up first are the skincare empties:


Avène Thermal Spring Water - I finished a much larger size early in the year which made an appearance in Pt. 1 but this travel sized lasted much longer (say what?!). It's a staple, much better than the Evian spray but I'm going to branch out next year.

St. Ives Naturally Clear Green Tea Cleanser - Too drying and strongly scented. In the end, I used it as a brush and wash cloth cleanser. This happens to all bleh facial cleansers.

MAC Volcanic Ash Thermal Mask - When did the Volcanic Ash collection last come out? Well whenever it was that's how long I've had it for. The tube is actually 50% full but I'm tossing it. Never EVER listening to the certain Youtube guru that raved so highly about this mask ever again. It's expensive and.. IT DOES NOTHING AT ALL.

Fresh Soy Face Cleanser - Technically, this was the SO's and it was about 1/5th full when he left it with me to finish. Absolutely hate the smell which is very much like an ebi sunomono. The consistency kind of grosses me out too; reminds me of boogers and slime.

Etude House AC Clinic Acne Foam Cleanser - Almost as good as my beloved HadaLabo Tamagohada Face Wash but this one stings my eyes. Strangely enough, I enjoy the Glysomed-like scent.

The Body Shop Vitamin E Moisture Cream - Nooooo! This is my last travel sized tub of this cream. At first I didn't think it was worth it is. It has saved me from a lot of scarring. Must repurchase this ASAP in case of emergencies!

Murad Sensitive Skin Soothing Serum - Seems like all the Murad products I've tried finish off extra quickly. If you haven't already read my full review, don't bother. In short - I don't recommend this serum.

Hair Care:


Earlier this year I made a P5P for shampoo's & conditioners. Well, I broke that project but I finished everything but the humongous Shiseido Tsubaki conditioner. Since I also finished a few other hair products this year, I'll say the P5P was successful. Hurray!

Essential Nuance Air Shampoo and Treatment - A year after I bought this pair, Kao reformulated the line. Not sure how the new formula compares but the shampoo was very meh. The SO loved how the shampoo smelled but all it reminds me of is the $12 Cut & Wash salons. Read: cheap hairspray.

John Freida Frizz Ease Serum - I'm trying to cut out silicone's from my hair products so after I finish my back up of this serum, I'll be leaving John Freida behind. Can't believe I used to call this stuff HG - it did nothing for me this fall!

Body Care:

Vaseline Intensive Rescue Extra Strength - Be gone! Finally finished off the LAST bottle of the Intensive Rescue. The first bottle made an appearance in Pt. 1 and the last bottle makes an appearance in Pt. 3. Good riddance, I hate this lotion but the SO loves it. Must convert him to something animal friendly next year!

The Body Shop Raspberry Ripple Bath & Shower Gel - The scent, oh the scent! If you like raspberry and cotton candy, this is a sweet mix. I want to gulp this shower gel down - it smells that good but burping out bubbles isn't lady like. Plus, I hate the taste of soap. How people willingly eat soap candies baffles me...

Makeup Removers:

There was a P7P made earlier this year on all make up removers in my stash. Well, I broke that project too... I know, I'm horrible BUT I finished all but one remover which was the humongous bottle of Shu Uemura's cleansing oil. I'll also claim this as a successful run because I finished a few new makeup removers.

Kracie Naive Cleansing Oil - This is a good cleansing oil and far better than the cult favourite  Shu Uemura cleansing oils. For no more than $15, I'd buy this again but it's hard to get a hold of. I bought this of YesAsia.com almost two years ago!

Marcelle Essentials Purity Soothing Cleansing Water - Read Rae's review on the Marcelle cleansing water and I jumped aboard the cleansing water train. Best enabled purchase of 2011!!

Yes To Cucumbers Hypoallergenic Facial Towelettes - The pack probably has about 20 left but into the trash they go. This year I have learnt a lot about myself like how I despise cucumber scented products. Aside from the awful vegetable scent these towelettes strung my face red. That's no good!

Miscellaneous:

OPI Matte Nail Envy - MUST review this nail strengthener! Forget about Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle Salon Strengthening Treatment, Nail Envy is 100x better. It's slightly more expensive but ooooooh so much better. Yeah, I seriously need to review this soon.

eos Medicated Lip Balm in Tangerine - Where is the tangerine scent in this lip balm? WHERE? eos has some of the best smelling drugstore lip balms around but Tangerine is not it. None of the eos

Masks:


A stack of empty My Beauty Diary mask packs. This collection started back in August (or September?) and up until today there are 17 masks here. That is nearly one used each week up until today! They all smell amazing and hydrate well but my favourite is the new My Beauty Diary mask in Royal Jelly. 

Samples:

Who else is swimming in samples? I still have a drawer full of samples but these were the first ones I decided to clear out. None of them were impressive enough to warrant future purchases but that's all good because I clearly do not need anything for a long, long time.

And what everyone has been waiting for.... the makeup!

Too Faced Eyeshadow (depotted) - This eyeshadow is from the Too Faced Naughty or Nice palette which came out in 2009(?). It's a beige eyeshadow that I used as an all over colour. After 2 years, it's FINALLY finished. This is the first eyeshadow I have ever finished but truth be told, I don't think the pan it was held in was all that big... *hangs head*

Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer - Not bad but the Sonia Kashuk Radiant Tinted Moisturizer is better and cheaper. Good thing I never splurged on the full size!

Baviphat Magic Girls Plus BB Cream - I won this on an eBay auction earlier this year. Funny how I finished this one first but not the other dozen BB cream samples I've had since 2010. Then again, Magic Girls Plus is the only BB cream that matched my skin tone!

Skin79 Diamond The Prestige BB Cream - Grey. Grey. Grey. Next!

Too Faced Shadow Insurance - So... this eyeshadow primer is still 50% full but I've had it since December... of 2009. Now to go through the two back ups. In my defense, the back ups came with two Too Faced palettes I have. - I don't hoard that badly, really!

Shiseido Eyeliner - Tossing this. It's from 5 years ago, need I say more?

Clinique Quickliner For Eyes - There is no way I could ever finish up a full sized eyeliner which is why I'll admit the Quickliner is a sample. The sample lasted three uses but each time it would smudge.

Wait! There's more! 


Mascaras galore! These are all of the mascaras I have used this year; nearly one tube per month. It seems kind of wasteful but I had to toss half of it due to a) flaking b) smudging c) curl killing.

My favourite mascaras out of the bunch:
Kiss Me Heroine Make Long & Curl -  Long & Curl is a waterproof mascara that volumizes, lengthens, and holds a curl. It will flake later in the day but there is virtually no smudging. Two words: HOLY GRAIL.

Imju Dejavu Fiberwig - Fiberwig will forever be my favourite lengthening mascara and it's so fun to remove too!

Prestige My Longest Lashes - My Longest Lashes deserves an honorable mention. While it isn't waterproof and it smudges (only a little), it thickened my lashes and held a curl better than any other Western mascara I've tried all year.

Pheeeewf, all done! After all of this emptying and tossing I realized the tallying system needs to be revised but only slightly. From now on, every two travel/deluxe sample sized items will equal to one full size and every ten sample packets will equal to a full sized product. 
In total, there is 20 sample packets, 10 deluxe samples, and 11 full size which equals to... *drum roll* ... 20 empties (37 if you including the sheet masks!) and 9 tossed! 

Sweet relief! Now I feel a whole lot less guilty about the never-ending shopping & splurges since November. Until next year (for serious this time)!

A Blog w/ Pictures!

I promised a few posts ago I'd post more pictures on my blog, not just stock photos. Anyhow, I didn't want to title this post as "haul" because I don't like that word... (I don't like a lot of words). I'm not purposely flashing my purchases, I just want to share with everyone my great finds. Believe me, these purchases were bargains I couldn't resist.

I don't remember how many times I've mentioned this but I'm from & currently residing in Vancouver, B.C. Most beauty addicts here in Canada (or even B.C.) don't realize that NYX Cosmetics IS available here & not just online. NYX Cosmetics can be found at Rexall Drugstores and Save-On Foods grocery stores(some, not all). I only recently learnt that Save-On's has NYX Clearance baskets with items all for a $1. So here's what I found about a week ago at Save-On's:

I bought 7 Chrome Eye Shadows (pigments) & 4 Triple Shadows For Sexy Babe's Eyes Only! (trio palettes) for myself, all for a $1 each. I bought a few for my friend's birthday too but those aren't pictured in case she reads this post & thus ruining her surprise!
F.Y.I - NYX is a drugstore cosmetic line that is said to be comparable to MAC & other medium-to-high end cosmetics. For $1, the NYX eye shadows I bought were well worth it and I would pay full price for them if I had to! Both the pigments and pressed e/s are plenty pigmented but foiling them makes them even more amazing (with regular water!).

Then at Wal-Mart on the same day I bought the Neutrogena Eye Makeup Remover Lotion - Hydrating, I also bought the Wet n Wild Mega Last Lip Color in Just Peachy (903C). I'm not the type to wear lipsticks or lip liner but the color looked nice & it was no more than $4(??).

I wish it was as pretty on my lips as it is in the tube. The formula also doesn't work with my lips. I'll write a review on it later but this was a no-go for me :(
My Wal-Mart trip wasn't a complete bust however! I also picked up Revlon's new Top Speed nail polishes in Jaded (320) and I absolutely love it! I prefer this to Revlon's Minted nail polish & China Glaze's Re-fresh Mint. I was supposed to do a comparison review but I keep screwing up my nails before I can take pictures!
And after ages of waiting for Bioré to go on sale (anywhere!), London Drugs was having a sale on Bioré products and a BOGO Free deal!

I initially wanted to use $2 off coupons I had saved but London Drugs coupon policy does not allow stacking. (The BOGO deal was through London Drugs in-store coupon *sigh*) Another catch was that the "free" item had to be the 
Bioré PURIFY Steam Activated Cleanser. Conviently, a week before the sale I knew there were certain Bioré cleansers that came with a free razor or John Freida Frizz-Ease Hair Serum. In the end, I bought two different cleansers so I got two Bioré PURIFY Steam Activated Cleansers free, plus two John Frieda Frizz-Ease Hair Serums! My total was $23.27 for 6 products & divided evenly, I paid $3.87 for each product. I know I have a lot of cleansers left to finish but I also use my facial cleansers to wash my brushes and face cloths! I'll run out in no time....
Ontop of the abundance of cleansers I got, I also bought more nail polishes. Revlon recently released previously limited edition nail polishes onto their permanent display. I bought Minted & Gray Suede for $2.99 each as it was on sale but I haven't tried them out fully yet.
I can't explain why but London Drug was having a massive clearance on beauty products & I found quite a lot of great beauty products on sale but still a little too expensive for my taste.  The whole L'Oreal Passport to Paradise Collection was on clearance; nail polishes for $2.99 and eyeshadow quads for $5.99. I bought a nail polish in Ocean Breeze (606) from the Passport to Paradise but I also don't like this one. The first coat leaves little streaking but during the second coat, the formula gets goopy making it hard to apply. Atleast the second coat leaves a very opaque blue nail! I never quite liked L'Oreal nail polishes, they separate in the bottle too quickly and are waaay to thick. Lastly I bought Seche Porcelain.. I don't know why but I can't return it so I might swap that too. I couldn't take clear pictures of the nail polishes or find stock photos so... I'm sorry!

I think I've gone on for long enough anyway so I hope this was an interesting read for someone! Happy Weekend, hope no one has a dentist appointment tomorrow like I do! :(