January & February Empties

I know it looks like a massive pile of empties but it is two months worth, plus I'm destashing my makeup collection so admittedly it's not all actually empty. Some are expired and some were awful but not ones I could sell or gift so were binned. I'm hoping to start doing these every couple of months or so, or if I forget to do it every couple months, whenever the basket of empties fills up. It's a good way to look back at products I've used up and see whether I liked them or not over time.

Listerine Advance Defence Sensitive & Colgate Maximum Cavity Protection you'll probably see a lot of these kinds of dental products over time, I try to buy as many high fluoride cavity prevention/repair ones as I can given the state of my teeth thanks to medical issues. In all honesty I can't give you much information on the effectiveness of either the cavity prevention or the whitening (again, thank you issues). Sorry, this hasn't been the greatest review. They taste fine though!

Cuticura hand gel I picked this up for carrying around and using when I was eating on the go a lot, or for quick cleaning jobs between work in the lab. It works perfectly well, smells better than a great many of the standard ones though, like all alcohol gels, dries hands out.

Garnier Micellar Water & Simply Essentials Wipes I really liked the micellar water, it's a decent make up remover. It doesn't remove waterproof make up particularly well, I didn't really expect it to do, but you can get it off after a while. I mostly used this for cleaning up my face of any of the stubborn mascara smudges in the morning (the stuff that really clings to my lashes that I didn't want to scrub at) and to remove any make up remover residue. It lasted for ages too, which is great value especially if you can get it on offer. I bought a different one to replace it (one of the Boots Botanics Ultra Calm ones as I had a voucher for some money off and Boots had a 3 for 2 skincare) but I may well go back to the Garnier afterwards if it's not amazing. The wipes were not a regular use thing, I used them on and off for loads of bits and pieces though, after the gym to clean my face a bit, removing swatches and travelling. Anyway, they weren't great when I had to use them for make up removal, and honestly I find them a bit scratchy and irritating to sensitive bits of skin on my face. I'm still looking for a kinder, softer alternative to travel with.

Phil Smith Dry Clean & Batiste Tropical so Batiste is brilliant and works great for me, I prefer the Cherry one to the Tropical, but Tropical smells rather nice. The Dry Clean though... that was horrible! It made my hair feel even more greasy and a bit like I'd just sprayed hairspray on it (I checked, it's not). I won't be repurchasing it ever.

Maybelline Falsies yep, still one of my favourite mascaras. There's not much I can say about this really, I like using it and will, when I run out of mascaras, probably end up repurchasing it. Unless the blogger and addict in me kicks in and there's something else out that looks totally awesome of course. #bbloggerproblems

Maybelline Collosal Cat Eyes this worked quite well. I will admit I didn't like it as much as my original Falsies mascara. But it worked fine and I was happy to use it while I had it, I do doubt I would repurchase though, as there are plenty I prefer.

L'Oreal Volum Million Noir Excess when I first got this mascara it smelled terrible, the smell improved over time though you could still smell it. I really did like this mascara, just not so much the price. I do have a second tube in wait that my mum kindly gifted to me (she doesn't use make up) for when my current one runs out, but if it happens to be on offer or something I would consider picking a tube up.

Collection Glam Crystals this dried up rather than being totally used up, but I really love these liners. I haven't seen any so strongly glittery (and mildly pigmented, though that could be the glitter running) for such a great price. It makes the perfect glittery blue line. Or did as the case may be.

Aside from that one trio (which was ancient, old and not very good at all) that I can't even remember the name or make of, though it had long since rubbed off the packaging, these are all samples. Of course. I don't know if I'll ever manage to use up a full size indie product.

Darling Girl Friday I'm in Love and Survival Instinct I didn't like Friday I'm in Love as much, the colour never really worked well on me and in the end I mostly used it as a liner or occasional brow product, but Survival Instinct I did really love.

Victorian Disco Lorien, Kidnap Sandy Claws, I'm 100 Years Older Than You But It's Okay! Lorien was by far my favourite of these, it was a lovely inner corner highlight colour. IOHYOTYBIO was not a great lid colour, it turned very black and not very purple, but worked great as a liner and I pretty much just used Kidnap Sandy Claws as a liner since the glitter never showed very well.

Kiss My Sass Meteor eh, I didn't hate it, I didn't really love it all that much. It was pretty much a everyday neutral that I was, honestly, just trying to use it.

Meow Telekenisis this, I loved. I really wish the shipping from Meow wasn't so painful ($11) because I would repurchase this. I really want to find a dupe or a similar colour. I really should have kept a little and swatched through my collection just to check, it had the perfect warm orange red glow to it without being actually orange or red. I could wear it on pretty much any occasion.

So the MUA BB Cream, Nivea Tinted Moisturiser and Collection Coverup Stick were all too orange (the BB cream oxidises on me something awful now) and the stick was clumpy and chalky. But for obvious reasons I can't pass these on, so they're being binned.

Seventeen Phwoar Paint worked perfectly and I really liked it, I especially like the mirror in the lid for when I'm on the go. I may well rebuy this when my current concealer tube runs out, especially if it's on offer.

Rimmel Matte Perfect this had, admittedly gotten rather caked up and solidified with oil before it broke. I really liked this powder, it was a decent colour for me and worked well as a powder. Stopped me getting too oily though I did have to reapply a few times. When I run out of my current powder I'll likely rebuy.