Trimming My Stash - March 2019 Edition - Empties And Mini Reviews *

I'm late again with one, so much so that we're now almost in the middle of April argh! I honestly don't know where this year has gone, Easter is next week, and then it's my birthday and then it summer arghhhhh! I'm sure time seemed to drag more when I was younger. Anyway because time is short I'm going to get straight down to it and talk about my March empties.

AVON Advance Techniques Anti Hair Fall Shampoo - 250ml
Yes To Grapefruit Rejuvenating Body Wash - 500ml**
The Body Shop Glazed Apple Shower Gel - 60ml
The Body Shop Glazed Apple Body Butter - 200ml
Benefit Roller Lash Super Curling And Lifting Mascara - Black - 3g
Benefit Gimme Brow - Light / Medium - 3g
Beauty Pro Foot & Callus Peel - 40ml - 1 x Pair Single Use Booties
Freedom Pro Studio Brush Bath Sanitising Brush Cleanser - 100ml

Total - 8 Items

At last a decent month! It took 3 months but I finally achieved a monthly empties total that I can be proud of. Not only did I manage to finish 8 items, making it my best month of 2019 so far, but I also managed to finish a nice variety of items. I didn't manage to finish any skin care products but I did manage to finish a good assortment of body and hair items, and shock of horrors I managed to finish a couple of make up products, which almost never happens. Go me!

1. AVON Advance Techniques Anti Hair Fall Shampoo - 250ml

I've already talked about this at length in quite a few posts, so I'm really going to try and not repeat myself much. What do I think about this product? well I love, love, love it and I can't be without it, so much so in fact that I've already got a couple of bottles of the shampoo and the matching conditioner in back up. I do switch things up a bit when it comes to shampoos and conditioners but I just keep coming back to this one and I probably use it at least once a week.

Containing keratin, bamboo extract, wheat protein and peppermint, it's especially designed to strengthen the hair and to reduce hair loss. It smells gorgeous and I think it's made a real difference to my hair, and unlike a lot of anti - hair fall shampoos it's really affordable, with a 250ml bottle retailing at around £2 directly from AVON or via your local AVON representative.

2. Yes To Grapefruit Rejuvenating Body Wash - 500ml**

Next up a product from the popular Yes To range. I was lucky enough to try a lot of their products when I wrote regular reviews for My Pure and this was one of them - You can read my original review here. x

If you've never tried anything from Yes To before than I'd highly recommend that you do. The entire range is petroleum, SLS, paraben and cruelty free, and this particular product is 98% natural, and contains both apple and grapefruit extracts, and coconut.

As you would expect from the name this is a very refreshing, and zingy shower gel, with a noticeable but not overpowering grapefruit scent. It's not drying on the skin and just a tiny, tiny amount creates a lovely creamy lather, making this huge bottle a very economical buy.

Alas My Pure no longer seem to sell the Yes To range range but this particular product is still available and retails at £7.99 for a 500ml bottle from various retailers including Look Fantastic, Feel Unique, and Fragrance Direct

3. The Body Shop Glazed Apple Shower Gel - 60ml

4. The Body Shop Glazed Apple Body Butter - 200ml

I don't know about anyone else but there is something very satisfying about finishing a beauty product, and seeing those empties stack up - I can honestly say that I normally relish finishing a product but in the the case of these two items though it made me feel a bit sad.

In pretty much every other empties post that I've ever written I've shared my love for The Body Shop's festive collections, I've loved so many over the years but the stand out for me have to be their Glazed Apple range from around 2014.

It's not the obvious apple scent that you'll ever smell but it's sweet, juicy, sugary and almost candyfloss inspired - for me it's simply mouthwatering. Add an amazing fragrance to The Body Shop signature shower gel and body butter formulations, and the combination of the two products left the skin clean, soft, and deliciously scented.

Unless I find another forgotten stash of beauty products hiding somewhere in my house, I'm nearing the end of my The Body Shop Glazed Apple stash. I think I have one full sized bottle of shower gel and that's it :( The range was obviously discontinued some time ago now so unless I succumb to some of the ridiculously priced pieces on ebay, I'm on the verge of saying goodbye to Glazed Apple for good - So you know what The Body Shop needs to do? Bring it back of course! 

5. Benefit Roller Lash Super Curling And Lifting Mascara - Black - 3g

Now I'm going to try and keep this short, because I do intend on doing a full review of this mascara in the near future. I'm a huge fan of Benefit Cosmetics, and I do love their mascaras, this is their curling mascara, which aims to separate, lift and curl the lashes, it water resistant and long lasting.

I love using this alone but it also works really well with Benefit They're Real, you get the length and thickness from They're Real and the curl and separation from Roller Lash. This is a mini but it has the same size brush as the full size. As I say I have a full review coming soon but if you're interested Benefit Cosmetics Roller Lash Super Curling And Lifting Mascara retails at around £22 for the 8.5g size, and at around £11 for the 4g travel sized mini.

6. Benefit Gimme Brow - Light / Medium - 3g

Next up another Benefit product and I'm not actually sure where this one came from, I think it got lost in my stash somewhere but in case you don't recognise it, it's an old Gimme Brow that I found and finished.

For years and years I didn't really bother about my brows, I plucked them without ever knowing really what I was doing, I lost my natural shape and  my brows ended up an over plucked skinny mess. Then a few years ago now I was offered the chance to try out the Benefit Cosmetics Brow Services and the rest as they say is history (read about my experience here).

I now have regular brow waxes, and occasional dye treatment, and I now have all sorts of different brow products in my collection. A product that I keep coming back to though is the original Gimme Brow and now Gimme Brow +.

It super quick and easy to use, and as well as adding a hint of colour, it add thickness and volume to the brow hairs, and it sets and tames all of those stray hairs. I've used every shade from light / medium in the early day, to everything now from 3.5 to 4.5 and it's something that I will continue to use. The full 3g size now retails at £21.50 with the 1.5g travel size retailing at £11.

7. Beauty Pro Foot & Callus Peel - 40ml - 1 x Pair Single Use Booties

If you are a regular reader of my Trimming My Stash posts then you'll know that I am a little bit obsessed with this type of foot peeling socks, they are gross but at the same time so, so satisfying.

Beauty Pro are mask specialists and whilst they are probably best known for their face masks, they also produce a range of hair, hand, and foot masks.

Containing 16 botanical and fruit extracts including sage, anise, kiwi, lemon and lime, vitamin E and both salicylic and glycolic acid, these foot masks are paraben free and they contain no mineral oil, lanolin or petroleum.

Inside the packet you get a pair of thin plastic socks, with a paper like lining, and an adhesive strip to keep them in place. They aren't the sturdiest socks so I ended up putting on a pair of slipper socks over the top to keep them in place. These socks contain a lot of liquid, these were very wet, and they had an astringent slightly fruity scent.

All you do it wash and dry the feet, and pop the socks on for around 90 minutes, before rinsing any remaining liquid off with plain water. Unlike some of the similar socks that I've tried there was no real tingling sensation just a cool feeling, and there was no redness. After about 6 days the skin started to peel off my feet, that lasted for about a week, afterwards my feet were a lot smoother with only a small amount of dry skin still visible on my heels. 

I've tried quite a few different brands of peeling socks now and I was pretty impressed with these ones and I would definitely consider buying them again in the future. You are advised to leave at least 6 weeks between these type of treatments, and next up I have some AVON ones to try. The Beauty Pro Foot & Callus Peel socks retail at around £7.95 directly from Beauty Pro, and also from various retailers including NEXT, Fabled, Feel Unique, and Fragrance Direct.

8. Freedom Pro Studio Brush Bath Sanitising Brush Cleanser - 100ml

Last but not least, a discontinued product, that some may argue doesn't belong in a beauty empties post but hey I think it does. Brush cleaning is one of my least favourite beauty tasks, and I tend to avoid it for as long as I can, in fact I think that's probably one of the reasons why I own so many brushes, I just buy more instead of washing them.

As much as I hate it though this product definitely made it a bit easier, it basically a solid brush soap, wet your brush, swirl it in to the soap, squeeze, rinse and dry, simples! This had a gorgeous fresh fruity, floral scent, and it really made cleaning my brushes easier and a little less time consuming.

Unfortunately like the entire Freedom beauty line, it's been absorbed and re branded under the Revolution Beauty label, and it's being replaced by a product called the Revolution Pro Hygiene Sanitising Solid Brush Cleaner which is £5. It's a very similar product just with a slightly different rose based scent. and it's available direct from Revolution and from Superdrug.

As you may have gathered I'm pretty happy about March's total but I've got to keep at it and make April another successful month x If you have any questions on any of the items that I've mentioned then don't forget to leave me a comment x 

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Life Lately, Photobucket And Trimming My Stash - July 2017 Edition

Well I'm back with yet another apology - July was another month that just never seemed to get going for me and as a result my blog took another hit and sporadic and patchy posting resumed. It's not that I haven't been working on the blog I really have - I've taken a ton of photos, I've done a lot of research and product testing but I just haven't managed to get the words on the screen, again!

As well as being in the middle of a huge CFS, Fibromyalgia flare, a lot of things have tried both my patience and my energy over the last month. First of all we've had the decorators in, which always creates havoc, stress and disorder and secondly I've had to deal with total stupidity of Photobucket!

For those of you that aren't in the know, Photobucket is a photo hosting site, you can upload your pictures, store them safely, and then share them online, or you can print them off or create all sorts of personalised items. Sounds good doesn't it? Well it used to be ! - when I first started blogging over 10 years ago now, using a third party hosting site like Photobucket was one of the only ways to add photographs into your posts, so that's what I used to use. Nowadays it isn't something that I use that regularly but it's still there hosting a lot of the pictures from the first few years or so of my blog. Fast forward to last month and Photobucket decided that if you want to continue using their service to use your pictures on other websites then you need to pay nearly $300!!! Needless to say that ain't happening so I'm currently having to weed through all of my blog posts (numbering nearly 2000 now) and either edit or delete all of the posts which included images from Photobucket! I know a lot of bloggers who have routinely deleted a lot of their early posts but I'm not one of them, every post has made me the blogger that I am today, but thanks to Photobucket I really don't have an option anymore. I'm basically having to delete all of the posts with pictures that I can't replicate, and I'm going to have to re shoot and redo a lot of my original nails of the day posts, and a lot of my early recipe posts. It's so frustrating and it's something that I really could have done without. Like so many things it will be an ongoing process so I'm going to apologise in advance for the dead links, page not founds, and lack of photos that you'll no doubt find littered throughout my blog. Anyways before I combust with rage and frustration lets get back on point and take one final look back at July 2017, and take a look at my July beauty empties!

Philip Kingsley Elasticizer - 75ml
Kueshi Anti Cellulite Booster Anti Cellulite Lotion - 150ml
Jack Wills Hope Cove Ladies Luxury Body Scrub - 200ml
Weleda Pomegranate Creamy Body Wash - 204g
Hei Poa Pur Monoi Tahiti Tiare - 100ml
Australian Bodycare Tea Tree Oil Body Wash - 200ml
Weleda Pomegranate Regenerating Body Oil - 100ml
Purederm Botanical Choice Exfoliating Foot Mask - 1 Pair
Freedom Pro Studio Brush Bath Sanitising Brush Cleanser - 100ml
Percy & Reed Hair Perfectly Perfecting Wonder Overnight Recovery - 30ml
Lush Snow Fairy Shower Gel - 100g
Bath & Body Works Winter Candy Apple Body Lotion - 295ml
Lush The Comforter Shower Cream - 250g

Total - 12 Items 

At last something to be happy about, July proved to be my most successful month of 2017 so far. I managed to finish 12 items, including quite a few bits that I'd forgotten about and rediscovered. No make up again, and for a change no skincare, but I still managed to finish a nice mix of body, and hair products

1. Philip Kingsley Elasticizer - 75ml

I haven't done a favourites or a products I'm loving right now video, on my You Tube channel for ages now, I definitely need to remedy that and one product that I will definitely be featuring will be Philip Kingsley's famous Elasticizer. Originally invented for the goddess that is Audrey Hepburn, this stuff really is a miracle worker. Apply it to damp hair before you shampoo, leave for at least 20 minutes, and then shampoo out, and your hair will be transformed! My hair is rubbish, and it has been for several years now, it goes through phases (thanks to certain products) where it's passable and then it starts falling out and generally looking like crap again. I've used this product sporadically for a few years now but over the last few months I've been using it a couple of times a week and I really can see a difference. I'm still losing hair but my hair definitely feels stronger, and more resilient, and it looks shinier and healthier. This is the original fragrance free version but you can now get various fragranced versions, including my favourite, the Geranium and Neroli and the new Coconut Breeze scent which is perfect for holidays.

2. Kueshi Anti Cellulite Booster Anti Cellulite Lotion - 150ml

This was a product that came in a Glossybox many, many moons ago and it's something that I've been using for the last few months now. Like most people  I'm pretty sceptical when it comes to cellulite products, I don't see how rubbing a bit of cream on your bum and thighs is going to magic all of those lumps, bumps and dimples away, but I'll still keep products every now and then in the vague hope that they will make a difference. This was just a white, cream, it didn't have much of a scent and apart from adding a bit of moisture to my wobbly bits, I didn't feel as though it was doing anything, and I certainly couldn't see any difference in my thighs.

3. Jack Wills Hope Cove Ladies Luxury Body Scrub - 200ml

Me bad - I recently discovered a whole Jack Wills gift set in my wardrobe that I'd completely forgotten about! I love the Hope Cove scent and unusually for body scrubs that come in a tube, this one was actually pretty decent. You know my usual gripe with body scrubs is that they aren't scrubby enough, well despite being in a cream / gel base this one was actually nice and scrubby and it's one that I would happily use again. This particular scrub came in one of the Boots Star Gift Christmas kits, but if you don't want to wait till Christmas, there are still a couple of Jack Wills bits of the Boots website and there are also a few beauty bits on the Jack Wills website x 

4. Weleda Pomegranate Creamy Body Wash - 204g

This is the first of two, coordinating Weleda products in the this list, and I'm slightly embarrassed to say that both of them were well past their use buy date. They still smelled okay though and the texture hadn't changed so I thought I better use them up. This vegan shower gel, had a lovely creamy texture and a fruity yet powdery scent. Full of natural, good for you ingredients, a little went a long way and produced a lovely creamy lather which didn't feel drying on the skin. If you're looking for a nice shower product from one of the worlds most established and best known natural brands then this could be something worth trying. If you don't fancy the idea of the Pomegranate scent, Weleda offer several other scents including Wild Rose, Lavender, and Arnica, and you also use them in the bath x

5. Hei Poa Pur Monoi Tahiti Tiare - 100ml*

From one rediscovery to another, and this was a product that I actually reviewed on the Zuneta website. Zuneta were one of the first online stores that really understood the power of the blogger, and several of us were actually featured on their website reviewing products that they'd sent us. It was fun to do, it got us noticed and we got to try lots of new products, those were the good old days and unfortunately in some cases things change, Zuneta is now part of Love Lula and my original post has gone for good so here's a quick summary of what I thought. This is basically a solid coconut oil in a bottle, fragranced with tirare and gardenia, you warm it up in a bowlful or sink full or hot water until it returns to a liquid and then you can use it as a body moisturiser, on the hair as a styling oil, or as an intensive conditioning treatment. It smells fabulous and a little goes a long way. This product isn't that easy to find in the UK so Amazon is probably your best bet, I really liked this but Elemis Exotic Frangipani Monoi Moisture Melt just edges it in to second place, when it comes to solid melting, multipurpose oils.

6. Australian Bodycare Tea Tree Oil Body Wash - 200ml

This isn't the most exciting of products but it's a staple in my bathroom cupboard. Crammed full of natural tea tree essential oil, this gel textured body wash has a refreshing, almost Eucalyptus type scent. Being an antibacterial wash it's perfect for any areas of irritated skin, it's great if you have any body odour issues, and it's a must have if you have pets, for cleaning scratches on them and on yourself! This stuff is brilliant for making you feel really clean, and it's great for using before and after hair removal, and if you heading to somewhere warm and toasty on holiday this summer, then the mosquito's hate it!

7. Weleda Pomegranate Regenerating Body Oil - 100ml

This Weleda product is a perfect accompaniment to the shower cream that I've just shown you. I think I got this product in a beauty box and as you can see it was well out of date. Thanks to the dark glass bottle, and good storage though, it didn't smell or feel any different. Designed to be used on ageing and slackening skin this oil had a lovely fruity, citrus scent. It was quite a thick oil but it felt nice on the skin and it didn't take too long to absorb. If you like body oils then Weleda is definitely a brand that's worth looking at, they have several other varieties in their range, including lavender for relaxation and Birch for cellulite and skin firming.

8. Purederm Botanical Choice Exfoliating Foot Mask - 1 Pair

Despite liberal applications of foot cream, and body butter, at the beginning of July my feet still looked dry and crusty and they were crying out for even more TLC. After seeing these in a few posts and Instagram pictures I decided to place a little Amazon order, and attack my dry feet head on. I've tried a few of these exfoliating sock treatments now and these ones are by far the best ones that I've used. I used to get them in Primark but the only place that I've seen them recently is Amazon. The idea is simple wash your feet, put the socks on a relax for about an hour, then wash your feet and wait for the magic to happen. It usually takes about a week and then your feet will start shedding like a snake sheds its skin. It's gross yet fascinating at the same time, and at some point you'll definitely feel as though you want to slather your feet in cream but you need to persevere and embrace the crustiness for a little while. Mine have just about finished peeling now and bar a few stubborn bits on my heels my feet are at least 80% better than they were a month ago.

9. Freedom Pro Studio Brush Bath Sanitising Brush Cleanser - 100ml

There are a lot of things that I have no patience for when it comes to beauty, hair removal is one of them and so is brush cleaning! I have an awful lot of make up brushes so I'm one of those people that uses a brush once and then puts it to one side to wash. so I usually end up with dozens and dozens of brushes to wash. I know I should probably wash them as I go but I never do and as a result I make my life so much harder. Over the years I've used a variety of things to clean my brushes, including face wash, and baby shampoo, and various specialist brush cleanser but nothing I've used has come close to this. From the TAM Beauty stable, this is from their Freedom line, and it is hands down, the easiest and nicest smelling brush cleanser that I've used. It's basically a solid brush soap, and all you do is swirl a damp brush into it to create some lather, squeeze, repeat and rinse and your brush is clean. It really does work and it also cleans sponges and beauty blenders like a dream. I've got a couple of other brush cleansers to use but this one is now a staple in my beauty regime.

8. Percy & Reed Hair Perfectly Perfecting Wonder Overnight Recovery - 30ml

Another hair product and this time something that was not only completely new to me but something that is also pretty new to the market. This was something that I got in July's Birchbox (see my unboxing video here) and I couldn't resist trying it out straight away. From the hair geniuses at Percy & Reed this is basically an intensive conditioning treatment, that you apply to dry hair just before you go to sleep. You then give it a few minutes to soak in and then you can go to bed without the risk of any residue getting on your pillow. Then in the morning you just shampoo it out and you're left with shiny, bouncier and more manageable hair. I actually really liked this, it left no residue on my pillow, it smelled lovely and I really think that it made a difference to my hair. I'm obviously devoted to my Elasticizer at the moment but I would potentially buy this product again.

9. Lush Snow Fairy Shower Gel - 100g

Ah Snow Fairy, this is probably one of the cult beauty products of the last 10 years or so and rightfully so. This sweet, sugary shower cream is fun, girly and it is crammed full of sparkles. I love it and so many other people do to. Thankfully I have another couple of bottles to last me till Christmas when hopefully Snow Fairy will be back, making it's annual festive appearance in stores.

10. Bath & Body Works Winter Candy Apple Body Lotion - 295ml

Cry! Well bar half a bottle of hand sanitizer, this is the last Bath and Body Works Winter Candy Apple product that I own. Yes it's another Christmas item, but as I've said previously this scent for me works all year round. You get a hint of festive spices mixed with apple, and most surprisingly pineapple. A little of this creamy body lotion goes a long way, both smoothing and fragrancing the skin. Again Bath and Body Works is a brand that isn't that easy to get hold of in the UK, but The Bath And Body Shop do have a decent selection of products and they also have a few Winter Candy Apple items x 

11. Lush The Comforter Shower Cream - 250g

Finally I'm saying goodbye to another Lush product, and sadly it's also one that Lush are saying goodbye to as well. When I had my bath tub, the Comforter Bubble Bar was one of my favourite products. I love it fruity blackcurrant, berry scent. Thankfully not long after I lost the bath, Lush introduced The Comforter Shower Cream so I could still get my Ribena esq fix. Personally I find this shower cream a little bit drying on the skin but I love the fragrance and I've really enjoyed staining the shower cubicle purple when I've used it! As I've said this product is on Lush's latest goodbyes list so if you like this product you better get a move on and stock up while you can.

So they were my July empties x If you have any questions on any of the items that I've mentioned then please leave me a comment and I will try to get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks for reading and thanks as always for sticking with me x

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