Trimming My Stash - June 2016 Edition - Empties And Mini Reviews

Hey Guys x I hope you've all had a lovely Saturday x The weather isn't that great for the first Saturday in July, but I'm British so I'm pretty used to summer being a wash out! I really can't believe that it's July already - I've already had a few Christmas in July press invites which is terrifying - where is this year, and where is my life going!

I've had another up and down month but I'm thinking positive and battling on regardless, blogging again has taken a bit of a back seat but I'm feeling really motivated at the moment, I've got a lot of ideas and I've got a lot of new posts planned. Before we look forward though first lets look back at June and focus on my June beauty empties.

Boots Botanics Cleansing Toner All Bright - 250ml
L'Oreal Kerastase Cristalliste Luminous Perfecting Conditioner - 75ml
OPI Avoplex Cuticle Oil To Go - 7.5ml
The Body Shop Honeymania Bubble Bath Melt - 300ml
Hello Kitty Liberty Art Fabrics Body Scrub - 50ml
Bumble And Bumble Bb Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Conditioner - 60ml
Benefit Sandal Scandal - 130ml
Chanel Illusion D'Ombre - 84 Epatant - 4g
Primark PS Love Your Skin Oil Balancing Facial Cleansing Wipes For Combination Skin - 25 Wipes
Ole Henriksen The Clean Truth Cleansing Cloths Brightening - 10 x Quilted Cleaning Cloths
Pixi Glow Tonic Exfoliating Toner - 250ml
Impulse Tease Body Fragrance - 75ml
Soap & Glory Sugar Crush Body Scrub - 300ml
Primark PS Love Your Skin Oil Balancing Facial Cleansing Wipes For Combination Skin - 25 Wipes
Total - 14 Items

Yeah - I managed to finish 14 items last month, which is best performance of the year so far. As well as managing to finish a lot of half finished product I also managed to finish a really nice mix of products, including some body care, skin care, and hair care items, and shock of horrors I even managed to finish a make up item!

1. Boots Botanics Cleansing Toner All Bright - 250ml

I've been using this Boots toner for a little while now and for the price I really like it. If you like Pixi Glow Tonic then this is an okay budget alternative. At just £3.99 for a 250ml bottle, this toner of AHA's and Hibiscus. It brightens and freshens my skin without any of the tingle associated with pricier exfoliating toners. Is it as good as Pixi Glow Tonic or Alpha H Liquid Gold? not in my opinion but it's a decent product and it's something that I will always pick up when it's on offer.

2. L'Oreal Kerastase Cristalliste Luminous Perfecting Conditioner - 75ml

This conditioner from L'Oreal's famous Kerastase range was something that I received in a beauty box. I've got to say that it didn't really wow me it was a good everyday conditioner but it didn't make that much of a difference to my hair. The only real plus point and the point that took this product to the next level was the smell, I absolutely loved the scent, put this fragrance in a perfume bottle and I would most definitely buy it, as a conditioner though I would happily use it but I wouldn't go out of my way to repurchase.

3. OPI Avoplex Cuticle Oil To Go - 7.5ml

OPI Avoplex is without a doubt my favourite ever cuticle product. It smells amazing, it sinks in quickly and it works. This is the travel or on the go version and instead of coming in a glass bottle it comes in a squeezy plastic tube with an attached brush. It's a little thicker and more gel like than the original formulation but it works just as well, and it's a lot easier and less messy to carry around. I've already repurchases the original glass bottle for home use, but for travel and holidays I'll definitely repurchase this on the go version.


4. The Body Shop Honeymania Bubble Bath Melt - 300ml

When The Body Shop's Honeymania range launched, you couldn't go on twitter or read blogs without somebody raving about it. Personally though I wasn't interested, honey for me is the devils food, I hate the taste of it and I think that the smell is even worse!  Fast forward though to December 2014 and I was invited to a festive event at a branch of The Body Shop in Newcastle Upon Tyne. After receiving an amazing hand massage and finding out some more about their Christmas range I was lucky enough to received a fabulous goodie bag which contained this product. I tried it full expecting to hate it but shock of horrors I didn't, I loved it! It has a tiny bit of sweetness to it but what you smell instead of the sickly sweetness of honey, is a beautiful heady floral aroma. You can swirl a bit of this sticky, honey like gel into the bath, for a bubbly milky bathing experience or you do what I've been doing over the last few months and use it in the shower. It is specifically a shower product but put a small amount onto a shower scrunchie, and you have a super foamy, deliciously scented shower. Since I don't have a bath tub anymore I probably wouldn't buy this specific product but I would definitely consider buying some of the other products in the Honeymania line. You can read all about my The Body Shop experience and read a mini review of this product here.

5. Hello Kitty Liberty Art Fabrics Body Scrub - 50ml

I love Hello Kitty and I love florals so I was all over this Boots exclusive collection from a few years ago. Apart from the super cute packaging, again the best bit about this product was the smell. This scrub and the entire Hello Kitty Liberty range had the most amazing powdery, slightly Shea butter based, floral scent which I loved, unfortunately in this case though I just didn't love the product. This scrub had a liquidy, cream base with tiny, teeny, nut shell like particles. I like a good, grainy scrub but for me the grains in this one were just too fine to do the job properly, which is a real given everything else it had going for it is a real shame.

6. Bumble And Bumble Bb Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Conditioner - 60ml

For me one of the best parts about blogging is getting the opportunity to try something new, and hopefully finding something that you love, and this product was a case in point. I received and reviewed this product just under a year ago now, and I loved it so much that I went straight out and repurchased it. This is really nice range and this conditioner made me hair feel instantly smoother and thicker. You can read a full review of this, and of some of the other products in the Invisible Oil range here. Blogging is a fickle thing and I'm currently loving another product but this is still something that I would definitely consider repurchasing x

7. Benefit Sandal Scandal - 130ml

This is the first of two empties that I'm absolutely devastated to have finished because they can't be replaced. Nowadays we probably know Benefit Cosmetics best for their quirky and innovative make up range, but back in the day there was more to Benefit then just brows and blushers. When Benefit first launched in the UK they used to have a nice little core collection of body care products, all fragranced in their signature Maybe Baby scent. As well as bubble baths, shimmer, balms, and body creams, they also produced this pretty amazing foot cream. I'm not a huge fan of minty foot creams, so this one with the floral Maybe Baby fragrance was perfect for me. With a rich creamy texture,and crammed full of AHA's to attack that dry skin, it came with a cute pair of pink and white pompom socks. This was a perfect overnight foot product, the dry skin disappeared within hours and it left the feet feeling silky soft. This was my favourite ever foot product and I'm very, very said that it's been discontinued :(

8. Chanel Illusion D'Ombre - 84 Eptant - 4g

Something else that I'm devastated to have finished is this Illusion D'Ombre eye shadow from Chanel. This shadows have the most amazing mousse like, cream texture, they apply and blend like a dream either with the brush that's provided or if you're feeling really lazy you can apply them with your fingers. This shade is Epatant, a beautiful metallic silvery, grey, taupe, green, that changed in the light. This was one of my go to eye shadows for a long, long time, it was easy to apply, the wear time was good, and the finish was super impressive. In theory this shadows should have been binned a long time ago but thanks to using a damp brush, and spraying it with Fix + I managed to hydrate it enough to finish the pot and I'm sad. Why am I sad? Well I love the formulation and I for this one could even justify the £25 price tag but unfortunately Chanel Illusion D'Ombre in Epatant is no more, I can't find it anywhere so I think it's been discontinued - farewell Epatant I loved you - even if nobody else obviously did.

9. Primark PS Love Your Skin Oil Balancing Facial Cleansing Wipes For Combination Skin - 25 Wipes

Your probably sick of seeing these in my empties post but yes this month I finished another two packets of these babies and I bought some more. In one day I took 158 swatch photographs so these babies have been busy mopping up swatches and for freshening up on sticky days. They're full of tea tree so they leave your skin feeling cool and fresh, I don't use them on my face that often but they are a good standby.

10. Ole Henriksen The Clean Truth Cleansing Cloths Brightening - 10 x Quilted Cleaning Cloths

Dear readers, I have a confession to make I used this face wipes on my face and nowhere else! I don't why I did it maybe it was because I thought that a high end skin care brand would make a decent caring wipe and good for you wipe and  do you know what I did actually quite like d these. I got this ten pack of Ole Henriksen wipes in a beauty box, and feeling lazy one morning I picked these up and give them a try. They were a really nice quality, thick and quilted wipe, with a lovely citrus and vanilla scent. They left my skin looking really fresh, and bright and feeling squeaky clean, if a tiny bit sticky. Although I'm definitely not a cleansing with wipes convert, these were a good quick way to cleanse my skin and I actually felt as though they had some skin care benefits. I probably wouldn't repurchase these but if you're interested these wipes retail at around £12 for a pack of 30.


11. Pixi Glow Tonic Exfoliating Toner - 250ml

This was my first ever bottle of Pixi Glow Tonic, and I'm a total convert. As much as I love the feeling and results from Alpha H Liquid Gold, I love the convenience and ease of use of Glow Tonic. You can fit it into any skin care regime, just use it to replace your regular toner and you're good to go. Again full of AHA's this toner has made such a difference to my skin since I started using it regularly, my skin is smoother, and clearer, I get less breakouts and my pores aren't as obvious. I love this stuff and I will definitely continue to use it. All you need to remember to do is use a bit of SPF on your face, but you should be doing that anyway. You can find out a little bit more about why I love this in my March / April Favourites Video which you can watch here 


12. Impulse Tease Body Fragrance - 75ml

Whilst searching through my extensive beauty stash I found a whole load of new and half finished body sprays -  Isn't that always the way when you've bought a new one, note to self - maybe if I was more organised and tidier this wouldn't happen! Anyways if ever there was a product to take my back to my early teenage years it would be an Impulse body spray. Every girl I knew used to reek of them and we always used to try and be the first to try a new fragrance. My favourite used to be the one if the dark blue can, I don't remember the name now but they all smell pretty similar and the fragrance of this one took me right back. This one has that same sort of sweet, musky scent that I remember so well, the one I liked was a bit more fruity but this one is definitely trying to a bit more sophisticated with the musky undertones. I probably wouldn't repurchase this particular scent but at between £1 and £1.99, these are a pretty bargainious way to recapture your childhood.

13. Soap & Glory Sugar Crush Body Scrub - 300ml

Another product that featured in my March / April Favourites Video (you can watch it here) and something  else that I love. This is exactly what I look for in a body scrub - I'm a huge fan of coarse salt and sugar scrubs and this one is exactly that. Crammed full of sugar, and moisturising oils, it has the zingy, citrus, lime scent, that we've come to expect from the Sugar Crush line and I love it. I like using on dry skin for a really intense scrub, just massage it in and rinse it off and your skin is left feeling smooth and silky. I will definitely buy this again and again x


14. Primark PS Love Your Skin Oil Balancing Facial Cleansing Wipes For Combination Skin - 25 Wipes

Yes I finished another packet x You can read my thoughts above x 

Well that ended up being a much longer post than I'd planned so I really hope that you managed to stick it out until the end. I finished a lot of products last month and I really can't see me doing as well in July but you never know, as per usual though I'll give it my best shot.. I've got a few beauty hauls to show you over the next few weeks but then I will definitely be starting Project 10 Pan so hopefully in July I'll have a few more make up items to show you but we'll see x Thanks for reading and if you have any questions on any of the items that I've finished then please let me know x