October Empties, 2013

I don't have a lot of empties, but I don't want to keep clutter, as I'm trying to, well. De-clutter. Mostly skincare products, with only one makeup product, while I enjoyed the majority of these, even have one repurchase already, it's unlikely that I'll be putting some of the items back in my shopping basket the next time around.

Mario Badescu Acne Facial Cleanser
This cleanser is what I think really helped calm my acne skin around. I don't really get pimples or anything anymore, I'm not sure that's because I'm just "growing out of it" or I've found a skincare regime that suits me. But I probably won't repurchase this exact same cleanser, because I don't have acne anymore really, but I'll definitely look into what other cleansers Mario Badescu offers.

Bio-Essence Bird's Nest Bio-Energy Firm and Brighten Eye Cream
I bought this from sasa for about 30 bucks, so it's really not the cheapest. But my mum liked the brand before, so I thought I'd give this a try, it also has the fantastic "bird's nest", a common high-end ingredient in Asian skincare. I won't be repurchasing this, it was pretty average. Though I will say that it's a nice lightweight gel, and absorbs pretty easily. But I don't think it really did anything for moisturizing, or dark circles, maybe a tiny effect for puffiness?

La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo
This. Love this. Already repurchased, so there's that. I think this keeps anything at bay, when my skin goes a bit out of whack (probably do to poor cleansing and touching my face a bit much), I think this product really does help to decongest. I've noticed my pores are smaller, and I've got less congestion too, so I'm pretty sure it's down to this baby.

Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Oil
This was my first face oil, ever, and I think this was not only to help with moisture, but also to help with texture and heal the skin faster. I'm not sure if it did, I noticed a difference on some occasions, but I think I would like to go for something with a bit more punch. This oil is a really nice dry oil, and absorbs into the skin nicely, I think it does calm my skin down. I think I paid about AU$59 dollars for it (from memory), so it is quite pricey. But it definitely saved my skin in the drier months.

Art Deco Eye Brow Color Pen in Light Brown
Not repurchasing. Just. I can't even deal. How can this pen be used up so quickly? Granted, it was fairly inexpensive, from memory. The first time I used it, there was waaay too much ink, and it looked like my brows belonged in the opera. Then, after maybe a week when application got better, the tip of the pen started blunting and no ink would flow at all. Yeah, no. Not what I want at all. 

So yeah, a huge month of non-repurchases. I mean, I did like some of them, but I powered through using some of them, some used themselves up all on their own, it seems. The benefit of this however, more room! Less clutter. A-hem, glorious space for makeup.

Skincare baby haul

I just couldn't help myself. I went to pick up my contact lenses today and thought, while I'm here, might as well pop into Priceline to pick up a dye set to refresh my hair. Turns out, I was a day too early for my hair dye (20% is starting tomorrow for Solfine), but I was just in luck to browse the 40% all skincare and my eyes zoned in on a few products.

The first thing I came across was the ever-popular nanoblur by Indeed Laboratories. I have not really looked into this much, but the claim is that it's so amazing, one is sold every nine seconds in the UK. Which, fair deuce, if something gets enough hype, yeah, it's going to sell. So I thought I would give in and give it a go. I may be young, but I love smooth skin and would do an immense amount to achieve it. In the same section, I was considering the eye cream by the same company, but decided I needed to finish my current one (okay, two) first. So my eyes trailed over to hydraluron. I can't quite remember whether it was a video or a blog, but I remember someone saying that they applied this under their makeup and it worked wonderfully as a moisturizing primer. Due to it being winter, I'm getting a bit of case of the dehydrated oilies on my T-zone, so I'm hoping that this product will give it a bit of pep. And finally, as I was wondering around the aisles, wondering what else I could possibly add that I also didn't need, I saw a single shelf of La Roche-Posay products. I've heard this brand mentioned a number of times, but again, have not really looked into their products; I didn't even know that I could purchase them from Priceline. So I picked up the one that I've heard of most about: Effaclar Duo. I thought that this was a product pretty much just to help sensitive skin, which intrigued me, but as I read the packaging of the product, I had to have it, considering "corrective and unclogging anti-imperfection care" and all. 

So far, my first impression of La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo is that it smells... herbally. I have not tested this on my face as of yet, but the product is an almost-clear gel that feels very smooth when blended into your skin (at least on my hand). I've got high hopes for this product, corrective, anti-clogging AND anti-imperfection? This baby better live up to its hype. Especially considering on the back, this product is for "skin with severe imperfections". Tear. 

Okay, biggest claim out there, "look up to 10 years younger in 40 seconds" given by nanoblur by Indeed Laboratories. With that, you would assume there are some silicones in there, and, I checked, yes, there are. So who knows whether this is just superficial and won't do a whole lot in the long run. But if that's the case, it would probably at least smooth out your face a bit, maybe acting as a primer...

...Which is why I purchased hydraluron, also by Indeed Laboratories. This one is a "moisture booster with the purest hyaluronic acid" which basically translates to increasing the hydration in your skin as hyaluronic acid can hols up to 1000 times its weight in water. It seems a bit of a pain to have to do a couple layers of moisturizer in the morning, though I love the finish it usually gives me; hopefully this product will knock out a couple steps and keep my face fresh all day long. We'll see.

But for the time-being, I thought I would include a little demo of using nanoblur. I just had to test it out as soon as I got home. A little tip that I learned from a Benefit sales assistant, was when trying some product that is to smooth out your skin, apply it on the (wrinkly) skin between your thumb and forefinger. Most people are unlikely to have wrinkle around their wrist or the top of their hand, which is where swatches are generally done, so this is an effective way of actually testing out the smoothing claims of the product.
 

Before. No Product.

Little dab of nanoblur

Blended in. After.

Soooo, I am quite pleased with this texture. So smooth, so easy to absorb, and just based on the hand test, it seems to work pretty okay as you can see in the pictures. The name is very telling, it quite looks like it blurred the lines and wrinkles. Can't wait to test this out on my face, just curious as to whether this will have a long-term effect.

And that's my little skincare haul for the day! I should probably stop spending. Coming up soon.