Trimming My Stash - July 2020 Edition - Empties And Mini Reviews*

 

Right, as promised, after another slight delay it's July empties time!

Beautaniq Beauty Guardian Angel Revitalising Eye Gels - 1 x Pair - 3g
Neutrogena Pure Glow Daily Cleansing Cushions - 22 x Dual Textured Cushions
Primark PS... Love your Nails Pump Nail Polish Remover Acetone Free - 150ml
Cuccio Naturale Pomegranate & Fig Cuticle Revitalising Oil - 3.7ml
John Frieda Radiant Red Red Boosting Shampoo - 250ml
Superdrug Naturally Radiant Glycolic Toner - 100ml
AVON Senses Romantic Garden Of Eden Shower Gel - 500ml
Neal’s Yard Remedies Bee Lovely To Your Hands Hand Cream - 50ml

Total - 8 Items

Alas I didn't manage to equal or surpass June's total of 9 items, but I was pretty damn close and I managed to finish 8 beauty products in July. Again no make up (I haven't really been wearing that much lately), but again I managed to finish a nice mix of body, skin and hair care items, and again quite a few hand and nail related products.

1. Beautaniq Beauty Guardian Angel Revitalising Eye Gels - 1 x Pair - 3g

First up a product that you may have already seen in my recent review of the June 2020 edition of Glossybox UK. You can read a full review of these under eye gels in that post, but to sum up, I liked them - the glittery angel wings looked super cute, they left my under eye area feeling really cool and refreshed, and they contained no animal ingredients, and they are suitable for vegans.

The one drawback is that they are a tiny bit pricy, with a single pack of gels retailing at £4.59, direct from Beautaniq, but they are a nice treat especially when the weather is as warm as it's been over the last the week or so.

2. Neutrogena Pure Glow Daily Cleansing Cushions - 22 x Dual Textured Cushions

The first thing I want to say about this next item is please don't judge me on this one, this is probably the most embarrassing item that I think I'll ever show you in one of these posts but please hear me out!

These babies are old! From what I gather that they were discontinued in the UK at least 8 years ago now! You know how it is though when you love a product and it's discontinued, it sucks! So when these pads disappeared from shelves I stocked up and bought about a dozen boxes from eBay, and from local discount store. You know me though I'm not always when it comes to products so I used the majority of them up, and then I moved on to other things, and pretty much forgot about the last two boxes. I recently rediscovered them though and as they were still sealed, and looked and smelled fine I decided to use them up.

They were basically a form of cleansing pad, think a large fibre round with two different textured sides. One side had a textured beaded / raised dot side - this is for gently exfoliating and cleansing the skin and the other side had a softer feel, and an almost striped appearance, this side is meant massage the skin, and to add moisture.

There is a little finger pocket in the pad so you just add some warm water, and start off my massaging the exfoliating side all over you face, followed by the massage side. The water and the massage action produces a gentle, creamy, slightly fruity smelling foam. Then you just rinse you face as normal and you skin is left looking clean, and fresh, and feeling super smooth.

I'm still to this day gutted that they discontinued these, which slightly outweighs the embarrassment that I feel for holding on to them so long. They weren't classed as a liquid so they were great for travel, as a quick and easy alternative to wipes. I still have around half a box left so the embarrassment will continue for a little bit longer, but I know I'm not alone in hoarding discontinued products for way longer than I should so please let me know if you have any ancient products in your stash that your still using and leave your product confessions in the comments x

3. Primark PS... Love your Nails Pump Nail Polish Remover Acetone Free - 150ml

My blog contents have varied quite a lot of the years, as I've gotten older and my life and tastes have changed, but some posts have remained pretty constant over the years including regular nails of the day posts. I love nail polish but nails of the day posts have been a little bit thin on the ground recently due to the god awful state of my nails. Thankfully though after a lot of cuticle oil, hand cream, and liberal applications of OPI Nail Envy, I actually have nails again, so I have lots of nail posts coming up including some nails of the days, and my foray into gel nails.

If you paint your nails regularly though, then you need to remove your polish properly, so I went into my nail stash and grabbed the first bottle of nail polish remover that I came across, and it was this half finished bottle of nail polish remover from Primark's PS... range.

I think what attracted me to this remover was the bottle and to be honest that's its major selling point. The liquid itself has a typical, chemically nail polish remover scent, with just a hint of fresh fragrance. It was decent, like all acetone free removers you needed to work at it a bit but it removed even the darkest shades without too much, strangely though it didn't seem to struggle a bit with just OPI Nail Envy, but I just used the soak the cotton pad and wrap method. I didn't find it drying or particular moisturising or greasy, but it did the job. For just £1 I likes but it still didn't surpass my holy grail, the Superdrug Nourishing Nail Polish Remover (you can read my thoughts on that here).

That said though I am going to decant my Superdrug remover in this bottle. The bottle is exactly like the pump action bottles that you often see in nail salons. You just press you cotton pad down, and the polish remover comes up and soaks your pad - no mess, no fuss, and much less chance of spillage.

I know you can buy these pump action bottles online and to be honest if my decanting idea doesn't work that exactly what I'll be buying. To sum up okay polish remover, excellent packaging.

4. Cuccio Naturale Pomegranate & Fig Cuticle Revitalising Oil - 3.7ml

Next up another nail product and this time it's a cuticle oil from professional nail brand Cuccio. 

As much as I love OPI Avoplex, the price has shot up, and as much as I love Primark's cheap as chips cuticle oils, I was running low during lockdown so I ordered a few new cuticle products to try including a couple of new oils from Cuccio.

The first one I tried was this dinky little bottle of pomegranate and fig oil. Containing natural antioxidant pomegranate extract, and naturally moisturising and Vitamin C fig extract, as well as sunflower oil, safflower oil, and cotton seed oil, the size of oil contains a brush applicator. The translucent pale pink oil has a slight fruity scent, and thin oil texture, it isn't sticky or too greasy or oily IYKWIM. It absorbs into the skin really quickly and it seems to have made an immediate and long term difference to my cuticles and nails.

I was so impressed with this, and the other Cuccio oil that I bought, that I've gone on to buy the 75ml salon size in the other scent. I bought this particular bottle from Nail Polish Direct for around £2.95, but they have loads of different scents and better value sizes. You can also find Cuccio's full range of cuticles oils on their own website and you can also find some products on Amazon.

5. John Frieda Radiant Red Red Boosting Shampoo - 250ml

Although the colours and end results have all been slightly different, on my last few visits to the hairdressers, I've recently been embracing the red. If you've had any form of red hair dye on your hair then you'll know how quickly it fades, and dulls down. One of the best ways of keeping that vibrance though is to use a colour boosting shampoo. I've got to say red colour boosting shampoos aren't that easy to find any more, but eventually I found the Radiant Red range from John Frieda in Boots.

Formulated again with pomegranate extract and vitamin E, the range is designed to preserve and enhance the red tones in the hair. With a translucent red, gel like appearance this shampoo has a gorgeous fruity, floral scent. A small amount produces a lovely creamy foam, and it left the hair feeling soft, clean and shiny. It's really good on it's own but for the full colour boosting treatment you really need to use it alongside the corresponding conditioner.

I'm probably going to talk about the conditioner in August's empties post but I definitely think that using the two products together regularly helped my colour stick around for a little bit longer. Like a lot of people I had over 7 months between hairdressing appointments and bar some root growth, and few greys coming few your could still see the red tones especially with the sun shining on it. I know just have the odd red streak in my hair, but I'm definitely going to keep using this range on a regular basis to keep it looks shiny and vibrant. 

The range isn't that easy to find, the only retailers that I can find are Amazon, larger Tesco stores, and on Boots; Each product retails between £6 and £6.99, but I've been buying in Boots where it's usually on 3 for 2. 

6. Superdrug Naturally Radiant Glycolic Toner - 100ml

The next product is a skincare product that I've mentioned before in a couple of empties posts - the Superdrug Naturally Radiant Glycolic Toner. You can read my thoughts on it in this post, but this is a product that I really like, it's a good alternative to pricier glycolic products if you don't fancy going down the dupe or copy route. It contains glycolic acid / AHA's from mulberry and kiwi fruit, as well as lemon extract and witch hazel. It's designed like most of these toners to re-texturise and brighten the skin; It feels a bit tingly on application but it really helps with improve the smoothness of my skin, it makes it look more even and it's great for clearing up, drying out and preventing blemishes. The one slight drawback is the aftershave, herbal type scent but I have another bottle to use and it's definitely something that I will consider repurchasing in the future. The price has gone up so it's now £6.99 for 100ml bottle but it's nearly always on some kind of promotion such as buy one get one free, or buy one get one half price.

7. AVON Senses Romantic Garden Of Eden Shower Gel - 500ml

One of my biggest gripes with AVON is the fact that they keep discontinuing things that I like. Thankfully though this product isn't one of them, it seems to be a regular stock item and for that I am grateful.

To put it simply this shower gel smells beautiful, its full name is Garden Of Eden Exotic Fruits And Basil Shower Gel. This translucent pink shower gel smells fabulous, it has a really fruity scent with a slight green aniseed hint thanks to the basil, it's a lovely a refreshing, and it foams nicely without leaving the skin feeling dry or tight, and it's really affordable. I've already bought another bottle but if you fancy trying it yourself this 500ml size retails at around £1.50 with the 250ml size retailing at around a £1, direct from AVON or from your local AVON representative.

8. Neal’s Yard Remedies Bee Lovely To Your Hands Hand Cream - 50ml

Finally a little bit of a cop out, I mentioned in my last empties post that 2 of my current favourite hand creams combined citrus and honey scents, well this is second one. I recently rediscovered another tube of this one which I think was also either a beauty box or a magazine freebie, and since I'm now nearly half way through it, I thought that at the risk of repeating myself I'd just hold off and write a full review of this orange and honey hand cream in my August empties post instead, so other than saying I like you'll have to wait till next month for a full review x 

So they were my July empties, so near, yet so far! I'm not holding out much hope that I'll reach 8 or 9 empties in August but we'll see, I'll keep at it and who knows? As per usual let me know if you have any questions on any of the items that I finished then please leave me a comment x I love reading your thoughts and feedback so don't be a stranger x 

*This Post Contains Added Automatic Affiliate, Added Affiliate And Non Affiliate Links