Empties #11

I'll be the first to say I am shitty at doing empties posts when I read back over them a few months on. Its times like this when I wish I made youtube videos, because then I could waffle on and it wouldn't end up being a massive long post with overbearing paragraphs and loads of photos. So with that in mind, I decided to take my photos differently to how I normally do for these posts and I also cut out some of the boring same-same shampoos, body sprays and the rest. Hopefully it might add something to them, but do feel free to tell me its awful, I'm chipping away at sprucing it up!

Above is some hair bits, most notable is my massive Pantene that I got on offer in Tesco and really liked considering its not a brand I use often. While it didn't give me a 'wow' factor, it didn't bug me and I ran through it. A quick rant for Herbal Essences cos' this gave up the ghost one day and refused to work, while still having half a bottle of product inside. I normally like this stuff, but man it bugged me!

Lastly from the pile, its clear to see I have a liking for the aul VO5 Give Me Texture goodness. I've even bought this when its not been on sale - lads that means a lot. I think this is great and if you have hair, I'd suggest trying it out. A little extra oopphh, while also smelling lovely.

I did a review on The Body Shop Fuji Green Tea range a while back, over here if you fancy a look at more of the line. But being honest, they were lovely to use but I wouldn't buy them myself as they cost way too much for what they are. A nice box of radox and some Ziaja scrub is much better for your pocket and the skin - or so I think.

Nip+Fab Detox Blend Scrub was something I bought from Cloud10 to try out ages ago and I thought it worked well enough. Not my first choice of body scrub, but I might pick it up again in future if I pass by. Side note though, the brand in general has some real gems so do check it out.

And a random one that the sister brought back from France for me, Caudelie Shower Gel. This was peach scented and I was sadly a bit wasteful with it, slathering it on in the shower instead of saving it up. So sad this is all gone and will totally be bothering her to bring me back some again in the future. 

Considering I really love the brand, I thought I'd be onto a winner with the Botanics 3in1 Cleansing Solution, but this didn't do it for me. I think a micellar water is basically more or less all the same, but some do genuinely stand out more then others. This was used up quickly purely because it was so bad at taking off make up I needed loads. Not one I'd ever pick up again.

My love for Ziaja is pure and true, and this toner has been bought more times then I can count. Love this brand with all my heart and love this toner equally. Although the star of the show and my number one product from the brand is in the next photo below.

If I'm feeling fancy, which is lets face it, often enough, I'll wonder over to No7. Theres something wonderful about this brand and although not everything they do I like, they do really know how to do cleansers. This is the beautiful skin cleanser for normal to dry skin. I have spot prone, combo skin but I love this so much I've yet to try one thats right for my skin type. However that said, it doesn't break me out or mess with my skin so I haven't had the need to try something different. Maybe the blogger in me will pick up some others, for science and review reasons. Cough. 

As I said above, Ziaja Rose Butter face scrub is my all time favourite thing from the brand and I've bought this easily 7-10 times since I found the brand. I think this is the best feckin scrub and every time I run out I'll try something different. It never matches up and I have to buy it again. Just. Pure. Love.

La Roche-Posay was a feckin gem in that mad heat. This is a little travel one, but I've a full size in the fridge waiting for me. Can't say enough good things. it has one job and it does it. Couldn't ask for more then keeping me from being an unintentional hot mess when I'm trying to be a lady. (Another side note, I add in bits of mildly sexual comments now and again in beauty posts, as you can see. But its gas when people complain that I only write one sex piece a week. If only they read my beauty stuff!) 

Something that I really disliked to begin with was Super Drugs Deep Action Facial Cleansing Pads. Nope, these were harsh, cheap, painful to use and smelled like I was on the hard stuff. But a few months later my skin changed a bit and I found them to be handy at making my face softer. But the real gem is that even when I have double cleansed, toned twice AND used some micellar water, these still managed to find dirt and traces to make up. I'm anal about my skincare routine so to see what comes off my mug after going at it with all that for a good 15 minutes means I'll be getting at least 3 pots when I'm in again. Mightn't suit the sensitive skin types though, as it is very alcohol-y.

  

Soap And Glory Sugar Crush is all kinds of good and one of my favourite scents from the brand. I'm actually running so low on S&G things, must stock up, cos' you can never go wrong with them! I'm a big fan of their body scrubs too.

A quick one on Lush now, just to say that So White was a Christmas shower gel and not really my thing. Kind of a more fruity bitter lime thing going on, whereas Its Raining Men is honey sweet and you can get it all year round. Its got to be the men for me. (But of course the ladies too!)

Yes, more Ziaja, and I enjoyed this micellar water way more then the Botanics one! I'd pick this up again no bother, but at €6 it is a little on the pricey side for the ml. This is where Garnier wins with their massive 400ml bottles for feck all.

Speaking of, Garnier 2in1 Eye Makeup Remover is life. I've bought easily over 12 of these bottles in the past year or two and I think its just really good stuff. Plus its normally on offer in Boots for under €3. It takes off all the heavy panda eye looks that I regularly sport, win!

This was fecked into the photo here because I forgot about it when piling all the hair stuff together. Tricky business, this blogging thing. Green Angel Conditioner was a little sample I got ages ago and honest to god its bloody amazing. Something I would highly recommend getting if you dye your hair a lot, use a lot of heat on it or in general have dry, frizzy, knotty, in need of tlc hair. Its the stuff.

All my favourite things in one photo. I have bought all these again and theres no real reason to say much about them, other then love, love, love. Seventeen is affordable, the coverage is intense, an SPF of 25 AND they make it in my colour. All hail Seventeen!

Revlon is also a good coverage foundation, a little more pricey but it stays put until its bed time. Honestly doesn't budge, love it! And then of course the cult love for Maybelline Eraser Eye is a concealer that I didn't like the look of, but fell for it once I tired it out. This this also on the pricey side but I've had 3 so far and will totally buy more.

Random section now/ Cutex is the best brand of nail varnish remover ever, just a fact! It doesn't do much in the line of strengthening or whatever else it claims, but it does take off nail varnish like a hero.

So this Garnier Body Oil was all the rage last year on the blogs, so naturally I picked it up. But man I hated the stuff as it was messy, didn't sink in and was like putting chip fryer grease on my skin. But after my skin had a seriously bad month of bring dry and my drawers didn't have any bath goodness in the line of softening me up, I fecked caution to the wind and plonked this stuff in. Its still going to make you feel a bit greasy, but man did this noticeable make a difference to my skin after steeping in it for 40 minutes. I towel dried and patted off the most of it, but in the morning it was like I'd brand new skin. Yes, it felt a bit gross, yes I did have to scrub the bath for a good 10-15 minutes, but totally worth it. I'll pick this up again purely for the bath.

Lastly in this massive long post (sorry lads, if you've read right to the end your all troopers and I love you like you don't even know!) is my favourite mask, Lush Mask Of Magnaminty. You don't need to leave it in the fridge like with their other masks and it lasts way longer too. Great one for helping fight spots and leaving your skin feeling fresh. Will buy this again soon!

Not So Essentials Boots Haul

I went to Boots about three weeks ago for eye makeup remover and I naturally went a little mad. I haven't had a good look around a Boots in the longest time (well over a month - a lifetime for me!) and when I'm in Liffey Valley that has one of the biggest shops, I love to have a proper spend on a few bits. I always feel like that have the best deals with the best selection of things.

First I got some L'oreal pure colour shampoo and conditioners. Being honest these were a little more expensive then my regular always-on-offer Garnier, but I've watch Fleur talk about the brand so often on her channel that I decided to try them. Normally both €7.99, they were on offer for €3.99 each. I'l totally be putting up a post about these in the next few days. 

The Dove leave in conditioner was grabbed on a whim, but I'm so glad I did get it. Normally €4.99 it was down to €2.49 and I definitely think it gives Aussie a run for its money. If your an Aussie lover like myself but see this on offer, do pick it up. It does the job just as well, smells like Doves lovely shampoo and also has a much better spray disperse then Aussie which kind of squirts a load of product on one piece of hair.

I'll admit that I go through make up removing products like no ones business, I just have to make sure that I remove everything. And lets face it, I do cake on a lot of make up. I got my regular Garnier eye make up remover (which I'm almost all out of again) for €2.99 - its always on offer though, but sometimes it can be €4.49. I might have a look out for an eye make up remover thats in a bigger bottle. No point in having a tiny bottle with all the mascara and eyeliner I wear!

Botanics is a lovely brand that I do use when I'm feeling like a treat, but it can take ages to be on offer at times! Garniers micellar water is the best value for money hands down, but I thought I'd pick up Bontanics that was €6.49 down to €3.24 to try out and also the cream cleanser, €5.99 down to €2.99, as I was running out. To be honest I don't think both are anything special, especially the cleanser. I think Ziaja do a much better one for less then €4.99. 

The V05 give me texture spray was a repurchase and its the best thing since sliced bread. It was also on offer from €5.09 down to €3.81 so I couldn't not be happy with that. I'd highly recommend it for anyone who wants to jazz up their hair a bit, but doesn't want to spend ages curling it or putting loads of styling products in. I haven't noticed that white layer on my hair after using it, like some dry shampoos can have. It smells great too. 

I didn't really need to get a hair spray, but the Tresemme salon finish extra hold was on offer from €4.09 to €2.72 so I got it. Have to say that I'm not at all impressed with it though, I don't think it has an amazing hold at all and I have gone back to using my Aussie hair spray instead as it holds the aul curls much longer. Not one I'd recommend picking up if your looking for heavy duty hold.

So Seventeen had a buy one get one half price on. And I think by now we can all agree that I'm a big fan of the brand. I was in need of a new pressed base €5.09 and I've used this one lots before so I got it - since then I have drunkenly broken it after I grabbed my clutch while it was open. So so sad. I got a repurchase of my much loved stay time foundation €8.19 and then a random spend of their flawless poreless primer that was €7.59 which I'm enjoying so much. I've come to the end of my favourite contour kit by Sleek and decided as the offer was on  I would get the offering from Seventeen which was €7.59. I'll be doing a post about it in the near future as well.

Lastly I picked up a lipstick from Sleek in Exaggerate. It the most beautiful matte deep purple and I couldn't love it more. I've been wearing it non stop since getting it and its that loved that I will be picking up another one in a month or two if I keep using it at the same rate. It was only €5.99 which I think is great value for what you get.

Empties #7

I think I'm getting better at doing these empties more often, thing aren't piling up so much! I only did one of these last month but since then I've had loads more odds and ends that I've been using up. Some of them I'm very sorry to see go and will be on the list must buys again soon, once all the Christmas presents have been bought!

First is my lovely Body Shop chamomile cleanser that was an utter dream to use on my skin. It took off all my make up and didn't irritate even my eyes. It was pricey at €15 and not something I will be picking up soon, but is on my wishlist of lovely things to get when I have a spare few bob floating about. You can read my full review of it over here.

Seventeen is the love of my make up life, we all know that by now. So when they brought this new foundation out a few months ago I couldn't have been happier. I'm now on to my third bottle of the stuff and use it daily. Its the perfect tone for my pale completion and can build up to have a totally flawless - slightly thick, but full coverage. Theres not much else in the make up section that could make me change my mind. This is just over €8 but all the make up in Boots tends to be on 3 for 2 so you can pick it up on the cheap. I need to get a back up of my back up for this one!

My Garnier micellar water is finally finished. When the internet went mad for those waters I naturally jumped on the bandwagon and bought a million different ones. This one is by far the best, purely based on the price. Its one of the biggest bottles at 400ml instead of the usual 200ml. So when I next run out of all my water, I'll pick this on up again.

Ziaja is amazing, theres not one product that I've tried of theres that I've not loved - which is a big thing for me to say. The Ziaja rose butter micro peeling face scrub has been my go to scrub for months now and I'm sad thats its come to an end. I'll be keeping an eye out for this again and buying a back up when I do find them. I used this about 3 times a week and it kept my skin soft while not being too harsh or stripping it. This was about €6 if I remember right and is worth every penny. 

My fall down with these posts are the crazy amounts of hair things in them. So I'll keep this one really short. We all know I love Dove and I buy this conditioner for coloured hair religiously. Big thumbs up. Next is a let down of a Dealz find, some random shampoo and conditioner that wasn't very good. I wont be getting it again.

Onto the hair dyes now. My Bleach London dye needs a full ranting, so heres the blog post for it. I just hate it so much! The other is XXL Live and that is the other end of the scale entirely. I use this all the time and love it so much. I lasts ages and gives such gorgeous colours once its washed out. You can pick this one up on offer in Boots all the time for about €5 which is perfect for me.

Two bottles of dry shampoo that I now use all the time. Batiste is an old favourite that I used a lot of especially around Halloween as it gives great texture and the white powder it leaves behind looks great too. But a new favourite is the Herbal Essence range and I have about 3 as back ups! They were on special offer in Tesco so I really stocked up. Best dry shampoo ever!

Few deodorants I really like is the Nivea no stains one and the roll on energy fresh one. Mostly the bigger bottle is about €5 in Boots but I always buy the roll on one in Dealz for €1.49 which is great for just before bed if you don't fancy having a stuffy room of spray left or if you have asthma and find that sprays irritate it. 

Next are two body scrubs, one is a mini from Soap&Glory. Sugar crush is by far my favourite scent along with the new orange one thats out. Nom nom nom, they smell so good! I'm asking santa for one of those sets for Christmas and in the mean time I might just accidentally buy one! The other is the raspberry body scrub from the Body Shop that loads of bloggers raved about. When I was in one day they had it on special offer so I picked it up but I wont be getting it again. It just didn't do anything for me and left my skin, unscrubed?

Once I found the dupe in Dealz for my Bourjoir nail varnish remover, I'm not going to be picking it up again. But this did work really well and if theres no Dealz near you then I'd recommend getting this one. Its about €6.99 so its not breaking the bank.

I really love Ghost and enchanted bloom is my favourite one of the collection. I have had this still in my shelf far too long but I could bare to throw it out. But considering its less then €30 I think I'm going to ask himself for it for Christmas. Perfume is such a lovely gift and an easy one once you know what type the girl or guy likes!

Lastly is one of the best Irish candles around, Emmas so naturals. This is one of their winter limited edition ones in masala chai. I think this is one of the nicest ones of all the winter candles out there. For €9.99 I think this is going to be bought again really soon. You can see all the other scents and full reviews over here.

Do you think empty posts are good for finding new things to try?

Penneys, Boots And Other Random Bits Haul

I know I've just done a haul post, but that was for books and this haul only has one book in it. So that doesn't count at all. Right? Grand! I went off to Penneys in search of some new leggings the other day and naturally spent 'only 5 minutes' - An hour later I came out with half the shop. I'm not even slightly sorry. I got a load of new knickers too and if you've been round these parts long enough, you'll know I always show you my new knickers. I'm nice like that you see. 

First off, I went into Boots for only hair stuff and walked out with only the hair stuff. Lads I don't think I was very well. I needed a new shampoo and conditioner, Boots own brand smells divine and it was two for €3. Sorted! They didn't have my normal hair dye in stock (the blue box? I'm great with the names..) so I picked up the fancy new Bleach London that seems to only be in stock in the Liffey Valley branch. Boo for that if your interested in getting your mitts on some, but you can get it online. This was €6.69 and the range is drool worthy. Seriously, go. Look at it all. Cry a little if you must. Its a brand of beauty.

Picked up a sneaky €3.99 chicklit in the value book shop in town and a Maleficent Funko Pop figure in Dublin Comic Book shop. €15 but would you look at it! No? I'll be in the corner.. 

Then I went a little crazy in Penneys. I needed it all, Honestly. I got two gorgeous necklaces, the colourful bead one was €6 and the arrow, feather and triangle one was €3. I couldn't leave the pink roses for €2 in the shop either. They called to me. It was meant to be.

I got all the knickers. Cats, stars, butterfiles. Oh my little heart is happy. They were all about €2 and the lovely (if I do say so myself) royal blue bra was €5. I has a matching thong but I already used that to floss my teeth with. Ha! Me? Thong! Would you go way outta' that!

You can never go wrong with €3 for a pair of shoes that, yes ok. Will fall apart in about 10 minutes but they were nice. The leggings that were €2.50 each and a weird sheer material black floaty kimono that was €9 were all too bored and hard to photograph. But you know what all that jazz looks like. 

I needed a mirror for my bag after months of squinting at my reflection on my phone and this owl one was happy making for €2.50. I also got €3 cupcake headphones. They don't give amazing sound but for that price and the fact that when I break them in the near future I wont feel too bad.  

Two quick repurchases were my beloved Catrice concealer palette €3.79 and my Wet'n'Wild pressed powder for €3.99. I also nabbed a Garnier eye makeup remover for only €2.30. Its €2.86 in Boots - its the little victories! 

Anything catch your eye from my haul? 

Or have you bought any bargains recently?

June Favourites

I've been crappy at posting in June, tis' a woeful situation altogether lads. I'll try and be better this month. I've lots of lovely things I want to post about, I promise I'll kick myself up the arse and get to it! Right now though, lets talk favourites. I've been a little fish this month heading into the pool a lot and as a result the hair is about three days short of a full on strike. Also I have been stocking up on the books which I'll have a post about soon, love me some reading!

First off I am going mad overboard fancy here - well for me! I recently ran out of my Benefit They're Real and decided to go rooting for a new mascara. Boom! I found this in my draw, a long lost Christmas present. Lancome Hypnose in black. Its a lot wetter then what I was used to with Benefit and when it drys theres no hard layer of can't-open-your-eyes-for-the-weight. In short, I feel classy wearing this. Bit of a bitch if you like fast drying mascaras, but the end result is gorgeous lashes. Not worth almost €30 though. 

On the other end of the money scale (and back to my normal kind of thing!) is a bargain grabbin' €1.50 argan oil hair treatment from the pound shop. As I said, the hair is in dreadful condition so I picked this up in hopes that it will do something. Your instructed to use 3-4 drops and distribute throughout the hair, but I just lash it on and hope for the best washing it out a few hours later. Its worth picking up as I can feel the softy soft results after using it.

As I am an absolute tool I forgot to take a photo of the pink exfoliate gloves from the top picture, but I still need to tell you about them. Penneys best, €1.50 and everyone needs a pair. I have gotten big into my body scrubs lately and what better way to maximize the scrubby goodness then with a pair of gloves to help remove sandpaper skin? These ones replaced my much loved WaxPerts gloves, which I will talk about soon. (Me blogging a lot sounds great in theory!)

If your new to the party, I wrote about the book Guilty Pleasures a little while ago, and after about 14 of them (theres something like 20 in total) I gave up and ranted to anyone who would listen about the awful story line. And after a few months of not reading the books, I'm beginning to miss it again, so when I found some graphic novels of the books I pounced on them. They are everything and nothing like I had imagined in my head, but thats always the way! I'm so tempted to go back and read a few more awful, sex filled, vampire books... Actually it doesn't sound all that bad!

The most exciting thing about my showers recently has been Garnier Ultimate Blends shampoo and conditioner. Man these bottles smell so damn good! (Hey, its the little things in life) I'm slowly making my way through their entire range and this is my favourtite so far. I smell my hair all day and look like a loon because of this stuff. Softy soft hair is also a major bonus from using this too. There all on offer for under €3 in Boots at the moment if you fancy grabbing a few.

Lastly my Emma's soy candles. I'm still in love with these and I did a post about them here. When I get sad I light these and they make me happy. My asthma has seriously been getting worse the past while and they don't effect it at all. Little jar of happiness that you can enjoy being around and still being able to breath? Yeah, we like that kind of stuff! They are Irish, hand made and come in so many different scents. You need at least one.

New Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water

People have being going totally mental for micellar cleaning waters the past few months and the latest one has been Garniers. I wasn't too quick to jump on the band wagon considering I was quite happy with my L'oreal skin perfection 3 in 1 purifying micellar solution that I did a review on a while back. Everyone has been comparing the two and to be honest I really can't see that much of a difference in the two apart from a few small things. But before we get on to nit picking, what the hell is micellar water and what can it do?

This product takes off all your make up while cleansing, toning and hydrating it all in one go. It smooths, unclogs pores and removes all those nasty impurities just by dabbing a bit of this water-like stuff onto a few cotton pads and wiping it over your face. Honest to god thats a bit of gold in a bottle if I ever did see it! As with the L'oreal one, Garnier takes off lip stick very well but can take a good scrub before all the eyeliner and mascara will come off. But if your traveling or lazy like me, you wont want to go through 5 bottles trying to get all the goo off your face, so this is perfect! And it does leave your skin squeaky clean and fresh.

So whats the difference between the two? Some say that one solution or the other is better, but personally I think they are about the same and do exactly the same thing while both being sensitive to the skin - some scientific evaluation there huh! But one thing I haven't heard complaints about with Garnier is that their lid is a lot better then the L'oreal one. Less product comes out so its easier to control and your not wasting any. Bonus 1 point to Garnier. Bonus point 2 to Garnier would be the obvious fact that the bottle is bigger at 400ml in comparision to L'oreal's 200ml. Also Garnier is cheaper on sale at €3.29 (normally €6.29) then L'oreal on sale at €5.02 (normally €6.69). An extra 200ml and cheaper even when not on sale? Yeah thanks I'll go with Granier any day of the week.

Only problem now? The world and his wife are mad for Garnier and they can't keep it on the shelves in Boots. Its also currently out of stock on Boots.ie. The general population of micellar water consumers have spoken it would seem!

Have you tried either of these micellar waters? What do you think is the better one?