Empties - V2

[scott1201]

Seeing product empties is so satisfying 🙂

Post your weekly, monthly, quarterly, whenever-ly empties and let us know how you felt about them!

Previous Empties thread:

Spoiler

https://community.sephora.com/t5/Insiders/Empties/m-p/589003

[CookieGirl1]

@quspork I've actually seen it at my local TJs in the last couple of weeks.  It kind of trickled out of stock awhile ago but I think it's making a comeback so you might start checking.

[quspork]

That's awesome news, @CookieGirl1! I haven't seen it at our local stores yet, but I'll definitely keep my eyes peeled!

[WinglessOne]

Not sure how old all these empties are, but I’m finally remembering to post them in this thread. 😄 Some of these were empty months ago, others I just finished last week. 

Loves and likes: 

Left: loves | Right: like ‘em but won’t repurchase

Spoiler

Left: loves. These are mostly longtime staples I frequently repurchase. 

- Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Lotion is one of the few body lotions my skin loves. No greasiness or overpowering fragrance, and it does what body lotion’s supposed to do. It just works, man. Sometimes it helps calm any red irritation on my face. 

- Skinfix Eczema Hand Repair Cream is a recently discovered love (thanks again to Sephora for the gratis); I’ve got 2 more unopened tubes and will definitely buy more for the winter. This stuff is magic. 

- YTTP Superfood Moisturizer is my AM and PM moisturizing cream. I rave about it often. I always empty it (in near total darkness, as quickly as I can so as not to introduce too much air into the product) into an airless vacuum pump jar, which I just refilled 2 days ago. 

- Benefit Precisely My Brow Pencil is my second favorite brow pencil. Even though it
doesn’t get daily use anymore, I like to keep one on hand in case I run out of my Kimiko pencil. 

- The Ordinary Buffet has quickly become a favorite; I use it once or twice daily. I’m SUPER excited that it’s now available at Ulta, where I can use points to restock it. 

- SheaMoisture Coconut & Hibiscus Conditioner is my leave-in conditioner. My hair has adored this stuff for years. It’s one of the only SheaMoisture products that’s continued to work well for me after various reformulations. 

- Camille Rose Fresh Curl works for me as a morning hair moisturizer. I usually spritz water on my coils, then immediately scrunch in this product. 

- Crabtree & Evelyn Jojoba Oil Body Wash is my favorite shower gel. Sadly, C&E discontinued it a year or 2 ago. 😞 I was able to grab bottles at TJMaxx and Marshalls for months, but not anymore. I don’t know why C&E keeps discontinuing their best products. 

- Crabtree & Evelyn Gardeners Hand Soap - this is not the same formula currently sold at C&E direct. That newer one doesn’t contain rosemary; this older formula does. The newer formula makes my hands very itchy. This old formula is fantastic. And it’s now harder to find anywhere... sigh. I have 2 bottles left in storage. 

Right: things I used to use often but won’t (or can’t) repurchase. 

- Shiseido Facial Cotton - I finally finished this pack last week. 😄 I love these but have no need for them since I’ve switched to reusable cotton/bamboo rounds. 

- Crabtree & Evelyn Gardeners Hand Sanitizer is something I’d repurchase if C&E still made it. (Seriously, what the heck is their business strategy? How do they stay in business? :D) It leaves my hands moisturized and I love the rosemary scent. I have one more bottle left. 

- Lancôme Genefique Yeux Light Pearl is the eye serum I used to use each day and night. That ended when I started the DDG retinol & ferulic acid eye serum. I finally used up the rest of this Lancôme serum 2 weeks ago on other parts of my face. I’m going to keep the applicator: it’s a steel ball on a flexible stem that feels soooo nice—very cooling—in the morning. 🙂 I wanna use it to apply my DDG serum! 

- Agent Nateur No. 3 was my everyday deodorant until I tried Routine deodorants. I can’t believe I’m saying this but, I’m calling it quits with Agent Nateur. Routine works that much better for me. I have one more tube (a travel size) of No. 3 to use up. 

- CeraVe Moisturizing Cream has been replaced by the Skinfix hand cream, which is much more moisturizing for me. 

- Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair used to be my nightly serum. I’ve had this empty bottle for a while. I still think this is a good serum, but I like others more—and they cost less. 

- Lancôme micellar water - this isn’t their Bi-Facil Face version, it’s their plain ol’ micellar water. It works well on everything but eye makeup, and I like that it comes in a pump bottle. But I like Bi-Facil Face more. Actually, I like Tarte’s Micellar Magic even better. 

Dislikes and hates: 

A whole lotta nope.

Spoiler

Aveeno Stress Relief lotion is waaaay too fragranced for me. I like the smell of lavender but this stuff’s overkill (and it doesn’t even smell like true lavender), plus it’s not as nicely moisturizing as the plain ol’ daily moisture lotion. It’s taken me almost a year of using it only on my feet and ankles 😄 but this bottle’s finally empty! 

YTTP Superfood Cleanser is much too drying for my skin. This is the second chance I’ve given this cleanser, thinking “maybe now that the rest of my skincare routine’s knocked out most of my dry patches, this cleanser will work better.” I was wrong. Sorry YTTP, I love you but my skin hates your cleanser. I won’t bother using the rest of this mini. 

Kiehl’s Lip Balm No. 1 - I’m so relieved this tube’s finally empty. I did not enjoy using this balm. It’s not nearly moisturizing enough, and I had to reapply it every 1-2 hours or switch to good ol’ Aquaphor. 

FAB Ultra Repair Cream is something I liked a lot at first. Then I realized how often I had to reapply it to keep my hands moisturized. 😐 I don’t hate it, but I won’t repurchase it. 

Skyn Iceland Micellar Water - something in this irritates my face. Took me half the bottle to realize that last year. I spent several months using it with the Shiseido cotton squares to remove makeup swatches and custom shade blends from my hands and arms. Had to quickly rinse my hand/arm afterward to avoid lots of itchiness. Ugh. 

Fresh Soy Face Cleanser left a weird coating on my face I wanted to wash off, especially on my oily zone. It didn’t cut through my sunscreen very well. And it caused a reaction of little bumps on part of my face. 3 strikes. 

[CookieGirl1]

@WinglessOne I'm sorry that you don't like the YTTP cleanser--it's actually one of my favorites!  Totally agree with you on the Fresh Soy cleanser, though.  I know it's a staple for a lot of people but I don't like how it feels and I HATE how it smells.

[WinglessOne]

@CookieGirl1  Yeah, many folks love the YTTP cleanser. I’m glad it works for others. I’m just not one of them. Same with the Fresh cleanser, which does have a rather strong scent. While using it, I tried to convince myself it was a cucumber smell 😄 but that wasn’t really it. I don’t hate the smell but it is kinda obnoxious. 

[CookieGirl1]

@WinglessOne Let's be real.  It smells like an ungodly mixture of cucumber and grass.  I'm not a fan...neither is my face.

[WinglessOne]

@CookieGirl1  😂 Now see, cucumber + grass is a scent I could handle. (I love grassy scents.) But the Fresh cleanser has some other weird smell—super strong almost-cucumber + something I can’t quite identify. It’s not as bad as the Tata Harper rotting dandelions smell (I cant tolerate that odor at all). But I can see why some people hate it. 

[CookieGirl1]

Lol!  @WinglessOne I love the "rotting dandelions" descriptor.  

[lmaster]

great job! @WinglessOne love your empties

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @lmaster ! I’ll try to remember to save empties for this thread. I’m usually too quick to take everything to the trash/recycling bin. 

[lmaster]

I know @WinglessOne I've never tried to keep any empties before, but now it's very satisfying 😆😍

[l8totheparty]

I love the Buffet as well. I use it every morning and it makes my skin bright and nourished with its peptide love.  I also use the Niacinamide every evening.  I'm loving many of the Ordinary products I use. 

I have the Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair as well, and I don't think I like it too much.  I thought I did but then I think it may have been causing me breakouts. So I've paused and restarted twice now.  It's too expensive to toss.  Ugh.  It hasn't gotten any love from me lately.

@WinglessOne 

[WinglessOne]

@l8totheparty  For me, the ANR serum was especially nice on exfoliation nights. It felt like a soothing smoothie after the DDG peels. (I stopped using those peels because of alcohol burn.) And it’s a good antioxidant boost. But for the price, I can easily sub it. There’s another Estée Lauder serum most folks like better—I don’t recall the name but it comes in a purple bottle—but my skin had a very bumpy reaction to it, so nope. 

My my only complaint about Buffet is its lack of antioxidants. But other steps in my routine make up for that. 🙂 The Ordinary does make very good stuff! 

[l8totheparty]

Hm.  Antioxidants.  What are some recommendations for products with antioxidants?  I don't think I've been looking at that.  @WinglessOne 

[WinglessOne]

@l8totheparty  Well, there are so many antioxidants, I can’t list them all, let alone remember 1/2 of them. 😄 Different antioxidants can help protect skin from pollutants, as well as brighten, firm, reduce the appearance of wrinkles, soothe redness, and balance uneven skin tone. Vitamins C, E, and A (retinol) are antioxidants most folks know and love. Other common antioxidant ingredients are green/black/white/ tea, ferulic acid, coQ10, various berries, vitamin B3 (niacinamide, already one of your best friends 🙂 ), and plenty more I’m forgetting right now. Some facial oils, like rosehip, are also good sources of antioxidants. 

My moisturizer contains green tea, kale, with vitamins C, E, and B5 (panthenol), so I get 2 daily doses of antioxidants, plus more if I also use one of my face oils. My eye serum contains ferulic acid and retinol. I’m using a 1% retinol serum twice a week now. And I do have a vitamin C serum that contains a mix of antioxidants but honestly, I’m not sure yet if I like it. 

[l8totheparty]

Ok, whew. I seem to have a lot of those popular ingredients in my skincare.  Here I was worried I had none. 🙄 

I do wonder at times if I might be overlapping hard in some areas, but as long as it isn't in the exfoliants, I'm not as concerned at the moment. 

I have found that I'm not able to use vitamin C everyday, as my skin ends up flushed with it if used that often.  I'm currently going for a once every couple of days sort of thing, seeing what works. 

Thanks for all the info!

@WinglessOne 

[itsfi]

Great empties @WinglessOne! Love The Ordinary Buffet serum; I'm thinking about trying out The Ordinary Buffet + Copper Peptides. That stinks about the Crabtree & Evelyn products - hopefully your TJ Maxx / Marshalls will have more of them again - the ones near me restock certain things in waves.I remember seeing a lot of them a few months ago, then nothing and now I see a couple here and there - I'll keep an eye out for you.

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @itsfi ! There was a C&E outlet store at a Florida outlet mall I used to visit while visiting my parents. That place was a treasure trove of discontinued products. It disappeared last year. ☹️ Now I’m searching for a new body wash; I’ve got several on deck to try, including a Lush one I usually only use in the winter. But I’d be thrilled to have bottles of that jojoba body wash again.

I’ve also considered trying Buffet + Copper Peptides. The color concerns me a bit 😂 but at such a low price, it’s probably worth trying. I just restocked 2 bottles of regular Buffet, so I’ll wait til they’re empty before buying the copper peptides version. 

[l8totheparty]

I have also wondered about trying the copper Buffet out as well!  I more regular to go and then it may happen. @WinglessOne @itsfi 

[Samtian]

My empties from April. Someone wouldn't let me get a decent photo lol.

Love-
BBW Summer Nights Lotion
Wax Melts
Gucci Guilty

Ok-
Marc Jacobs Mod Noir
Schmidt's Deodorant

Hate-
Juicy Couture Majestic Woods-Destash

No Opinion-
Clairins Body Tonic
Sephora Coconut Mask

Destash-
Whish Iced Fig Body Gel
Taylor Swift Body Gel

Total-43/100.

[sockmagnet]

@Samtian your kitty looks a lot like my Marmite (who also likes to get in the way when I'm trying to photograph things).