Empties #4

Its been almost two months now and I have a load of empties.  As there's such a large number I'm going to go through them pretty quickly.  Its  mainly made up of my smaller travel size or tester products that had been sitting around. (Sorry this was meant to be posted on Saturday, but I wasn't able to get this finished in time).

The first item is one that I haven't actually been able to use up completely, but which has got too gluppy to actually be able to use anmore.  This is the Avon Nails Experts Tough Enough nail care product and I've had it a very long time, at least 4 years, so its no suprise that its no longer useable.  Its no longer available to buy and the bottle itself has no information about what is actually in this product (it was probably on the box that the threw away ages ago).  I didn't notice any toughening up of my nails and it did funny things to any nail varnish I put ontop of it, even if I left it to dry first for a few hours.  Not that it really matter as I have no choice in buying it again, but even if I could I think I'm going to go for something more natural.

The next item I used up completely, and that's the Blistex Intensive Moisturiser for lips.  I got this as my lips got really dry and cracked this winter, and its was the only intensive moisturiser for lips I could find at the time.  It felt really nice to put on, though did leave my lips very white, and after did leave my lips feeling very soft.  The only information on the tube is that its made in the UK, go Blistex, so I'm guessing the rest of the information was on the box.  I know that the blurb says that it contains Shea Butter, Allantoin, and Camphor, but the long list of ingredients you get on the box also shows bee wax, petroleum jelly,and lanolin alcohol (which is known to bring some people out in spots).  Despite some of the natural products, the product list isn't great so I think I'm going to try and find a lip product with fewer, more natural ingredients.  Blistex also test their products on animals, so that's a no for me.

I got the Halo Eye Make-up Remover Pads because I caught in the rain one day and most of my mascara was down my face.  I don't normally like products like this but didn't feel too bad as some of the profits were going to support Cancer Research UK.  That said, I didn't really like the product itself.  While I was happy using it to remove the product running down my face, the pads were too rough for me to be happy using them on my eyes.  I also didn't feel that there was enough moisture in the pads to allow me to hold the product against my eye, to break up the make-up, before wiping it off.  It definitely didn't remove waterproof mascara either, like it said, without me really scrubbing.  This with the fact that it contans alcohol (not something I want around my eyes) and parabens means that I won't buy this item again, and they test on animals.

The travel sized Batiste dry shampoo was also a product that I brought in a rush because my hair was looking really greasy at a point where I needed to look presentable.  The scent, Blush, is lovely and it did work, but its really not a product  want to get into the habit of using as I really don't like using aerosols and I didn't really like the way it made my hair feel.  I really like my hair to feel more 'natural'.  Usually I know when my hair's going to be greasy etc and I think I'll just have to deal with a greasy day when it comes in a different way (that said I still have another can of dry shampoo to get through), so this isn't going to be a re-buy.  On the animal testing front, as far as I know they don't test on animals, but its been difficult to find information about this.

I brought the Boots Sun, Swim & Gym Leave-in Conditioner (it now has new packaging) when I was going to the gym to save time in the shower as I went to the gym before work.  Its good that it has UV filters in it, but I didn't notice it doing a lot when it came to detangling my hair.  It was definitely better than using no conditioner at all, but definitely not as good as the conditioner I now use in the shower.  As I no longer use the gym to get my exercise I really don't need this and really just used it as an extra step in my hair care to use it up.  However, even if I did still need this type of conditioner I wouldn't use this product again as a quick look at the ingredients shows a number of parabens and alcholols, along with sodum hydroxide (I'm sorry, what!) a known skin and eye irritant.  I'm not sure if the new formula still has this, but I'll just stick to normal conditioning from now on.  On a plus, non of the Boots own range are tested on animals.

The Simple Moisturing Facial Wash is also something I brought because I needed a face wash and only had time to quickly pop into a supermarket to grab one.  The plus is that it down't contain any animal ingredients nor does Simple test its products on animals.  However, it is owned by Unilever who, while they are developing alternatives to animal testing, they still do animal testing.  The negative side is that, despite their claims and awards, I find that this face wash does dry my skin, especially around the nose area where I feel a tighteningof the skin.  I think its because it contains sulphates (which you find in many shampoos to help with the lathering) and parabens.  My skin doesn't like either of these products so I won't be buying this again.

My next product is Natures Aid Distilled Witch Hazel.  I love witch hazel as a toner and it soothes any problems I'm having with my skin, especially redness.  Natures Aid do not test their products on animals and this product is vegetarian and vegan friendly, so thumbs up all round.  The only problem I have with this is the alcohol, which can be quite drying on the skin, but I do use a very deep moisturising night cream so its not such a problem.  At the moment I'm working my way through a massive 1l bottle of witch hazel, but I would buy this again.

The Boots Natural Collection Wild Strawberry Face Mask is a product I got in my stocking last Christmas.  As I said before, all Boots products are non-animal tested.  This product does smell lovely (it even has 'This is not a food' written in big letters on the back), it did make my skin feel soft afterwards, and I managed to get three uses out of this one pack.  However, my skin feels no softer than when I use the Soap and Glory mask I wrote about before in my Empties #3 post, and does contain a number of parabens which I think is why a felt a slightly uncomfortable tingling feeling when I had it on.  I won't buy this again, but if you're not bothered about parabens this is a nce face mask.  You just have to be aware that strawberry masks are known to be irritants to a number of people, so just be careful.

Bio-oil is a weirdly controversial product due to the fact that it contains mineral oil.  While I don't believe the hype about the mineral oils getting into your system and causing cancer, I do think that getting used to using something that could be running out isn't necessarily a good idea.  The reason I got it is because I have a number of scars and colour variation on my face and was hoping that this would help reduce them.  I didn't really notice a huge difference in the scars, but my skin was definitely softer than usual and the skin tone was more even.  Bio-oil doesn't test on animals and a quick look through the ingredients doesn't fill me with dread either.  Despite that, I'm not going to rebuy this.  Firstly, as I said before, I'm trying to reduce the number of products that I use with mineral oils in it.  Secondly, I'm wanting to use simplier products on my face from now on and will be looking for very basic plant oil products to replace it.

I've decided to put these two together as I got them together as a gift set and used them up at the same time.  They are the Sanctury Spar Body Scrub and Sanctury Spar Body Wash.  These smell gorgeous and felt really nice to use.  They are also not tested on animals and paraben free, which should mean that these products were something I would want to use all the time.  The only problem with these is that they do contain sulphate and I noticed that my skin dried quickly when I used these than when I used my sulphate free products.  Its a shame, because I love these in every other way.

The Softening Coconut Body Butter is by from Nature, a company I can find no information about on the world wide web, so I can't say anything about whether or not these products are tested on animals. As I said in m Empties #3 about the body washes, this seems to smell more of banana to me (yuck!) than coconut soI really didn't enjoy using it.  I really didn't feel that it was a great moisturiser and, though it felt alright straight after I used it, I found that my skin got dry quicker than when I've used other moisturiser (possibly due to the fact that it contains sodium hydroxide.

I somehow managed to loose the cap to this deodorant, the Sure Woman Cotton Ultra Dry, so this dried up a lot quicker than it normally would.  I've never found that this product has kept me dry, despite its name, but it does keep me smelling fresh, which is what I actually want from my deodorants.  However, like most deodorants, it contains aluminum (contected to cancer and Alzheimer's) and a number of different alcohols (which is probably why my underarms get very dry and soar).  Sure is also owned by Unilever and so there's the issues of animal testing talked about above.  I am looking for alternative, but I can never find more 'natural' products that work.

I've finally got onto the make-up that I'm trying to use up (still a lot I need to go through though :-( ).  First is the Revlon ColorBurst Lipstick in Crimson.  I love this colour and I have to admit that Revlon lipsticks are my favourite lipsticks.  The colours are gorgeous, the pigmentation is great, and the colour stay on for a really long time (which is great if you love reds).  Of course, there's now an issue with Revlon on whether or not is tests on animals.  While it states that it keeps to the EU legislation of not testing its products on animals, it has started selling in China where animal testing is required for most of its cosmetics.  Because of this, and despite the fact that I love it for its lipsticks, I will stop buying Revlon products until they can show that no animals testing is happening.  This means that I won't buy this product again and am working my way through my other Revlon products at the moment.

My last item is another Revlon product (as I said, I'm using these up) and is the Revlon ColorStay Lipliner in Red.  As the lipstick above, I love the colour and the staying power of this product, but due to the animals testing issue I won't be buying it again.

So that's it (this was really long!).  I should really do these more often so I have less to get through, but its done for now and I've gotten through most of my smaller items now so there should be a longer time between items.