A Very Late Trimming My Stash - April 2019 Edition - Empties And Mini Reviews*

It's quite scary to think that we're over half way through May now, I honestly don't know where the last few weeks I've gone - I've been in the middle of a huge ME / CFS flare, I got a kitten, I had several days and meals out and I turned 41 eeek! What I haven't had much time to do is blog and as I said in my previous post I'm going to try and make it up to you in the next few weeks with lots of new and different posts. First though I'm going to get caught up and I'm going to share my April beauty empties with you x 

Simple Kind To Skin Eye Make Up Remover - 125ml
Boozi Bodycare Cocktails Virgin Mojito Body Wash - 50ml
Colour Vibe Vibrance Bright Violet Semi Permanent Hair Colour - 150ml
AVON Advance Techniques Anti Hair Fall Conditioner - 250ml
Soap & Glory The Scrub Of Your Life - 200ml
Ojon Rare Blend Moisture-Rich Cleansing Conditioner - 240ml
Primark PS... It's Oil Good Oil Balancing Facial Cleansing Wipes x 25 Wipes
Primark PS... Cuticle Oil - 10ml

Total - 8 Items 

Empties wise April was a pretty good month, like in March I managed to finish 8 items. Unfortunately no make up this time round but a nice assortment of skin care, body care and hair products, including a couple of press samples and a couple of holy grail products.

1. Simple Kind To Skin Eye Make Up Remover - 125ml

I spent a long, long time looking for an affordable eye make up remover, that would do the job without stinging my eyes, and then about a year ago I found it. This Simple eye make up remover has rapidly became one of my most used beauty products, it's removed pretty much every product that I've threw at it, without making my eyes sore and watery and at around £3.79 a bottle it's pretty purse friendly. I'm going to try and use up some of the other eye make up removers in my collection first but I will definitely be buying this one again.

2. Boozi Bodycare Cocktails Virgin Mojito Body Wash - 50ml

I've already this yummy cocktail scented body care, brand on a few occasions, most recently in my October 2018 empties post, and this is another one of their yummy fragrances. This one isn't quite as strong as some of the other scents that I tried, but it really does smell like a mojito with refreshing hints of lime and mint, all contained in a nicely foaming non drying shower gel. Unfortunately though since my previous post on Boozi Bodycare, both the brands website and twitter account appear to have disappeared, which is a huge shame. You can still get a few products on both Fragrance Direct and Amazon UK though, if you're still interested in trying the range.

3. Colour Vibe Vibrance Bright Violet Semi Permanent Hair Colour - 150ml*

This was a press sample that I received quite a few months ago x I'm not going to say anything about here though as I will have a full review coming up on the blog in the few weeks.

4. AVON Advance Techniques Anti Hair Fall Conditioner - 250ml

Next up another HG product, I finished the shampoo in March and I finished the corresponding conditioner in April. I've already spoke at length about both of these products and it's safe to say that I am a huge fan of the range. It contains keratin, bamboo extract, arginine, and peppermint, and it smells gorgeous, it makes a huge difference to my hair and it's really affordable at around £2 a bottle. I've already started a new bottle and I will definitely be buying more.

5. Soap & Glory The Scrub Of Your Life - 200ml

Despite the fact that I'm very much a salt and sugar scrub girl, I've gone through quite a few tubes of this now and it's really grown on me. It's a foaming gel based scrub, that contains a whole host of biodegradable scrubby particles. Even though I would like it to be a bit more scrubby, it's quick, easy to use and it works! Unfortunately I can't actually find this on the Boots website anymore so I'm not sure if it's sold out or if it's actually been discontinued.

6. Ojon Rare Blend Moisture-Rich Cleansing Conditioner - 240ml*

From something that may have been discontinued to something that definitely has been! I loved Ojon from the moment that I bought my first ever kit from QVC. Made from rare, and precious ingredients from the South American rain forest, their Restorative Hair Treatment was a product with almost cult status, and it was in my opinion the best thing for dry and damaged hair that I've ever tried. I loved it and I love every other Ojon product that I ever tried.

As often happens though smaller companies tend to get swallowed up by the big boys, and ultimately the brand was taken over by Estee Lauder. At the time I did a little bit of work with some of Estee Lauder groups brands, and I was sent a few Ojon products to try, unfortunately before I got round to reviewing them the brand was absorbed into Origins before disappearing from shelves completely. I was devastated and after a quick search online I found out that I wasn't alone in that feeling.Thankfully I still have a few jars of the Restorative Hair Treatment and a few other products in back up, and last month used up the last of this particular product.

A few years ago now there was a huge trend for co-washing, which basically washing your hair with conditioner instead of shampoo. It was a trend that I actually embraced for a month or two and I do think that it made a difference to my hair at least in the short term. My hair at the time was highlighted, and sun bleached and it had a tendency to be dry and frizzy and the extra conditioning really seemed to help. In the long term though, personally my hair never felt truly clean, so I ended up reverting back to the old shampoo, conditioner and intensive hair mask routine. As a result of this trend, or innovation a lot of brands started introducing something called a cleansing conditioner, which is basically a very conditioning and nourishing hair cleanser that's designed especially for dry, damaged and breakage prone hair.

This particular one from Ojon was both sulfate and glycerin free and contained a huge variety of moisturising ingredients including kukui seed butter, coconut oil, Castor seed oil, and cocoa butter, and lots of botanicals and fruit extracts including watermelon, blueberry, wolf berry, orange, lemon, bergamot, tiare flower and aloe Vera.

It wasn't quite as thick as I expected, it had a creamy shampoo type feel, and a slightly citrus, aromatherapy type scent. It produced a gentle creamy foam and it was nourishing but not too heavy or rich. It was a nice product and it's a shame that this item, and the line is now long gone.

7. Primark PS... It's Oil Good Oil Balancing Facial Cleansing Wipes x 25 Wipes

The last products are both Primark items and they're both products that I will repurchase again, and again. I've talked at length about these at least a dozen times already, but they are full of tea tree and they are really useful for a number of things including swatch clean up.

8. Primark PS... Cuticle Oil - 10ml

Finally another product that I can't be without, my favourite Primark Cuticle Oil. My nails are horrific at the moment, they are short, stubby, peeling, flaking and breaking, so I'm resuming operation nail grow LouLou style - OPI Nail Envy, loads of cuticle oil and frequent hand cream application during the day, and cuticle oil, a thicker hand cream, and cotton gloves at night. I have so many fab nail polishes that I want to show you I just need decent nails to show them off and hopefully this will help. It's only a £1 a bottle and it's just as good as the more expensive stuff.

So it was late but we got there in the end, as I say the Colour Vibe review will be up soon, but if you have any questions on any of the other products that I finished last month then please let me know x 

*Press Samples