Trimming My Stash - March 2021 Edition - Empties And Mini Reviews And An Update *

Hi Everyone, I hope you all had a good weekend, I'd set myself a to do list, and I can safely say that I only managed to complete 2 of the 6 things on the list! Frustrating, but sometimes we just need to celebrate what we do achieve, rather than dwelling on what we don't, so I'm not going to worry about it, things will get done when, they get done!

I've got a bit of a busy week ahead, with an eyebrow appointment, a planned shopping trip, and my second COVID vaccine, and it's my birthday on Saturday but I am going to try and get a couple of posts up this week for you, but first of all I'm going to share a late March empties post with you.
 
AVON Care Nourishing With Cocoa Butter Hand Cream - 75ml
The Body Shop Juicy Pear Hand Cream - 30ml
The Body Shop Vanilla Pumpkin Shower Gel - 250ml
Land Of Nod Salt Body Scrub Relaxing & Calming Lavender - 100g
Philip Kingsley Elasticizer - Elderflower & Rhubarb - 150ml
Elizavecca Milky Piggy Carbonated Bubble Clay Mask - 100ml
Wander Beauty Baggage Claim Gold Eye Mask - 1 x Pair - 4g
AVON Advance Techniques Reconstruction Conditioner - 250ml

Total - 8 Items 

Okay, I know that March is only the third month of the year but trimming my stash wise March was my best month of the year so far. I managed to finish a very respectable 8 items including a nice mixture of skincare, hair care, and body care items.

1. AVON Care Nourishing With Cocoa Butter Hand Cream - 75ml

Following my recent Palmer's Cocoa Butter love in, I've become re obsessed with that sweet and creamy scent. Whilst operation nail growth continues in earnest (although not very successfully at the moment) I'm going through hand cream like it's going out of fashion, and this particular one from AVON was one of my most recent buys.

My mam is already a huge fan of the AVON Care Nourishing Cocoa Butter Multi Purpose Cream, and in my quest for a sweeter cocoa butter scented life, it made sense to try this hand cream.

Designed for dry to extra dry skin this hand cream contains both cocoa seed butter, and vitamin E, It has a creamy texture, without being too heavy, and it absorbs into the skin fairly quickly, leaving my hands soft and hydrated for a good few hours. Scent wise it's lovely and sweet, and creamy with both vanilla and surprisingly coconut notes.

The one drawback is that I did seem to use it up quite quickly, it isn't the thickest hand cream that I've ever used, and I think that I had a tendency for some reason to overuse it.

I would potentially buy it again, but I think I might heed the wisdom of Mummy Lou and buy my own pot of the multipurpose cream to use on my hands - it seems to be a little bit thicker, and I think it would probably be better value for money x 

AVON Care Nourishing With Cocoa Butter Hand Cream comes in a 75ml tube and has an RRP of £2.

2. The Body Shop Juicy Pear Hand Cream - 30ml

Next up another hand cream, and this time it's a festive one from The Body Shop 2019 Juicy Pear range. From one of their sack gift sets, this hand cream contains Italian pear extract, sweet almond oil and shea butter. Light green in colour, it had a dense almost cream gel like appearance and texture.

It was surprisingly hydrating and it absorbed into the skin quickly leaving my hands feeling super smooth and smelling like sweet, yet tart, fresh juicy pears.

Juicy Pear is definitely one of my favourite ever festive scents from The Body Shop, and I really wish that they would bring it back, because the scent of the Pear Bath Blend just isn't the same!

3. The Body Shop Vanilla Pumpkin Shower Gel - 250ml

From Christmas to Autumn, and my next March empty was another seasonal item from The Body Shop. Like Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte you can always tell that Autumn is on its way, when The Body Shop's Vanilla Pumpkin range makes it's hopefully annual appearance in store.

Thankfully I'd stocked up in 2019, but what with COVID and whatever else, the Vanilla Pumpkin range seemed to be in pretty short supply in 2020, and I only managed to get my hands on one body butter.

Containing Madagascan vanilla, honey, anise, and pumpkin fragrance, this was a gorgeous creamy shower gel, with a lovely nutty, vanilla, slightly fruity and spicy scent - delicious!

Alas this was my last bottle of Vanilla Pumpkin Shower Gel, so until Autumn comes around again I'll be teaming up my remaining body butter, with a variety and sweet and spicy shower products.

4. Land Of Nod Salt Body Scrub Relaxing & Calming Lavender - 100g

Now I've never made any secret of the fact that I love a bargain, and as a result one of my favourite shops to go to is Poundland. I don't think I've ever been into a Poundland store without buying something. As well as selling a varying range of branded beauty products, they've also recently started selling their own one off ranges of products including some Lush dupes.

Packaged in a Lush alike little black pot, this product is from their much talked about Land Of Nod range, that's designed to relax and calm, and to help you to sleep. I picked up 2 products from the range a shower gel, and this body scrub which contains walnut shells, sea salt, sugar, and lavender oil. It had quite an olde world smell, I personally prefer the cleaner, fresher, more astringent scent of French lavender, but this had quite a strong but powdery, slightly old fashion English lavender type scent.

The tub contained what initially looked like a pale blue / lilac liquidy gel. It was only when you looked more closely that you could actually see a mixture of very fine, dark and light particles. It was very, very runny and if I'm completely honest I could barely feel the grains. Admittedly I like a quite aggressive, gritty scrub, but the grains in this scrub was just too fine to make any real difference, they should have just altered the packaging and labelled this as a shower gel. I love you Poundland but even at just £1 this wasn't for me x

5. Philip Kingsley Elasticizer - Elderflower & Rhubarb - 150ml

Next up, the first of two hair care products in this post, and this one is one of favourite ever hair products from trichology based hair care range, Philip Kingsley.

Although I don't use it all the time, it's one of those products that makes a huge difference to your hair, whether you use it once, or whether you use it every week.

Containing olive oil, glycerine and castor seed oil, Elasticizer is basically a pre wash, intensive conditioning treatment, that's designed to condition, repair, hydrate and strengthen the hair. All you do is apply the rich cream to damp hair, and then leave it to do it's thing for anywhere between 20 or so minutes to overnight before shampooing and conditioning the hair as normal.

It leaves my hair feeling smoother, and more manageable and it's something that I'll continue to use. I've used quite a few different scents of Elasticizer over the years (just search Elasticizer to see just a few of them) but this super fresh and fruity, Rhubarb and Elderflower version from around 2016 or so is probably one of my favourites. Alas this particular scent has now been discontinued but there are always new limited edition scents been released and the original, which was originally created for Audrey Hepburn is still widely available. A 150ml tub of Philip Kingsley Elasticizer retails at around £35 from various retailers including direct from Philip Kingsley, as well as from Look Fantastic, Feel Unique, Marks & Spencer, John Lewis and Boots.

6. Elizavecca Milky Piggy Carbonated Bubble Clay Mask - 100ml

The next product on the list has a little bit of a cult reputation, and it's something that I bought on a whim a few years ago, after spending too long on social media! Apparently now huge on Tik Tok, there was a time that you couldn't go on You Tube or Instagram without seeing people with cloud like faces after using this mask.

From South Korean brand Elizavecca this mask contains charcoal, clay, collagen, green tea, plant extracts, and carbonated water. It's designed to clean out the pores, and get rid of blackheads as well as leaving the skin smooth and moist.

Open the box and inside you'll find a tub of face mask with a super cute cartoon like design on the label, and a tiny little plastic application scoop. 

The mask itself is grey in colour, and it has a creamy, clay like texture. Despite all of the plant ingredients I still found that it has a sort of clay like, strange slightly plastic scent.

I personally didn't use the spatula to apply it because it was a bit small, instead I used a face mask brush, you could obviously use your fingers but it is a bit gloopy, and it's one of those masks that you seem to almost wipe off as you're applying it. 

As tempting as it is to over apply it from the full cloud like, comedic effect that you often see online, it's probably best to try and apply a thin even layer.

It immediately feels cool on the skin, with just a slight tingle but almost as soon as you apply it you start to experience a tickly, tingly, popping feeling as the mask begins to bubble and foam. It's not uncomfortable but it is quite a strange sensation.

On Application

After A Couple Of Minutes 

It takes about 5 or so minutes to full foam up, and to create that cloud like effect, then all you do is just wet your hands and massage the bubbles over your face before rinsing off the mask with warm water.

After Removal

It doesn't set solid so it's quite easy to rinse off. After rinsing my skin did look a touch pink, but it felt super smooth and it looked really clean, clear and fresh.

I really did buy this mask on a bit of a whim but apart from the funny selfie opportunities, and the cute packaging, I can really see why this mask is so popular, my skin felt smoother and it looked clearer even after one application, and it really did improve the appearance of my pores.

Despite its popularity it isn't the easiest mask to find, so eBay and Amazon are probably your best options, but have a little search online before you commit. Prices do vary but you should expect to pay around £8.99 for your own cloud like selfie opportunity, and you can look forward to a few from me because I have another tub currently on route from eBay.

7. Wander Beauty Baggage Claim Gold Eye Mask - 1 x Pair - 4g

From a face mask to an eye mask and the next product in March's list is this set of eye mask patches from Wander Beauty.

I don't think I've really got too much else to say about these so you can read my full review in my last post here x 

8. AVON Advance Techniques Reconstruction Conditioner - 250ml

Finally another hair product and it's another favourite, and again it's something that you've seen before. From their Reconstruction range, this conditioner contains AVON's unique Keratin Panthenol Complex and is designed to help reduce split ends and breakages. It leaves my hair feeling soft, smooth, and healthy and it has a delicious fruity scent.

Although I'm currently alternating the John Frieda Radiant Red Conditioner with another AVON product, I've already repurchased this conditioner, and I'm going to keep using all of the products in the Reconstruction range.

AVON seem to have had another revamp of their Advance Techniques range, and whilst the packaging has changed on this one it seems to have escaped the cull - the 250ml size retails at around £3 either from the AVON website or via your local AVON representative. 

So there you have it, a slightly late March empties post. All in all a very successful month, alas as you'll see in a week or so April wasn't quite as successful, but I'm going at it with all guns blazing in May. In the meantime though if you have any questions on any of the products that I finished in March then please leave me a comment below, and I'll try and get back to you. Thank you as per usual for all of your support and I will see you later this week with a make up review x 

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