Sometimes I do this post after three months, sometimes it’s four months – this time it was five. It’s worth noting that Luke and I were away for two weeks during this time for our wedding trip, and we finished off a bunch of hotel samples during that time which I did not keep or photograph. We also had someone staying in our house watching our pets during that time, and I believe a hand soap or two was finished, but I did not ask him to save the empty bottle, I don’t need him thinking I’m crazy haha.

Our basket was fairly full, but I would have expected a bit more from five months. We have finished off quite a few things already in March though, so I think my next post of empties will be a big one.

I still use medicated shampoo every time I wash my hair, and I didn’t keep the empty bottle of that I finished off.

Head & Shoulders Men Shampoo – I didn’t use this, it was Luke’s. It’s something he’s had/used in the past, so he must like it.

Herbal Essences Shampoo – this bottle was huge, and lasted us forever. We had finished off the conditioner with the previous batch of empties.

TGel Shampoo – psorasis shampoo that doesn’t require a prescription – it’s not terrible

American Cream Lush Conditioner – I liked this, and would buy it again

Hotel samples of conditioner – I don’t remember what hotel we got these from, they were fine

Hand soaps:

Bath & Body Works – Snow Kissed Citrus, Vanilla Bean Noel and Raspberry Meringue

Softsoap – Tangerine Treat

Bath Retreat Citrus Bubble Bath – this stuff smelled good and it made bubbles – what more could you ask for?

Colgate Toothpaste – the old faithful of toothpaste, my favourite stuff!

Jergens BB Body Cream – I’m pretty sure we got this free one year at Stars on Ice, and I kept it on my desk at work. It was decent hand cream

Protopic Cream – this is a prescription cream for my psorasis, and it works really well. I use a lot of this stuff.

Neutrogena Sunscreen – meh

Elizabeth Arden mascara – it was fine, it was mascara. Not my favourite one I’ve ever tried, but not my least favourite either.

Overall, we really didn’t finish off a lot during this time frame, but our basket already has 4 or 5 things in it from March.

 

The box of empties was quite full after this 3 month stretch!

Here’s how it broke down:

As always, there was a solid representation of Bath & Body Works hand soaps. During this time frame, we finished off the following scents:

• Lemon Meringue Cheer
• Fresh Balsalm
• Turquoise Waters
• Pacific Cool Breeze
• Lavender Blossom
• Pink Grapefruit

I still mainly use medicated shampoo, and Luke has very little hair – so the only shampoo finished off during this time frame was a foil packet. We did, however, finally kill off this giant bottle of Herbal Essences Body Envy conditioner! This thing was a monster, it lasted so long! We also finished off a regular sized bottle of Herbal Essences Naked Conditioner.

Monat samples – Renew Shampoo and Restore Leave-in Conditioner –  I honestly wasn’t a huge fan, and don’t see what all the fuss is about when it comes to this stuff. I definitely wouldn’t spend $50 on a bottle of conditioner from them.

Pantene Expert Dry Defy Shampoo and Conditioner – this was fairly basic, nothing special.

Of course, the old-faithful of toothpaste! I love classic Colgate!

I seem to have an empty box of Q-Tips every time I write up one of these posts – those little suckers are handy for so many things! There’s also a few perfume samples sitting in there:

• Versace – Bright Crystal (ok)
• Juicy Couture – Viva La Juicy (not a huge fan)
• Marc Jacobs – Honey (own a full size version of)

• Gilette Shave Gel – basic, straightforward, but Luke likes it
• Bread & Butter: Daily Face Shave – Luke really liked this brand, but it appears the company has gone out of business. I think he might still have one or two left, but once it’s gone, that’s it.
• Amika Dry Shampoo – I really like dry shampoo, that stuff really works! This one worked really well.
• Bed Head: Power Trip Hair Gel – This was not something I used very often, and this bottle was probably still over half full – it had just been too long in between uses and it dried up. From the few times I used it over the years though, this had a very strong hold.

• Bath & Body Works: Warm Vanilla Sugar Shower Gel – such a classic scent, and their shower gels are fine.
• Moroccan Oil – this bottle lasted a long time, and I don’t know if it ever actually helped my hair out in any way. I liked the smell of it though, and the way it made my hair smell.
• Lush Snowman Shower Jelly – I love Lush’s jellys – they always smell awesome, they jiggle and they leave me feeling nice and clean. What more could you ask for?
• Lancome Visionnaire Cream – this was better cream than most – my skin is so dry I go through obscene amounts of moisturizer. This is a small, sample sized jar.
• Nivea Aqua Sensations Eye Cream – also a small jar, I used this all over my face – I figured if it was sensitive enough for eyes, it was sensitive enough for my psorasis-stricken face. It wasn’t amazing cream, but it did its job.

Not a bad few months of finishing things off!

I was trying to do this every 4 months, but this one is for 5 months because I was lazy and didn’t want to take pictures at the end of May…and then of course it took me half of July to get around to writing this post…

The first time I documented my empties was back in September 2014 over on my old blog. I did it off and on for the next year or so, but just recently started doing it as more of a quarterly thing. If you’re interested in seeing my old posts about this, you can see them here:

• Old Empties Posts

Now, on to the things we finished off during this 5 month span. Worth noting – I was diagnosed with psoriasis during this time, and have just recently started using normal shampoo again (interspersed with medicated shampoo) – so you won’t see many empty shampoo bottles (but don’t worry, we did shower over the past few months!).

The bin was fairly full, as it should be when we’re talking about a five month span.

Hand soap (all from Bath & Body, of course…). Scents finished off:

• Sea Salt Citrus (I love citrus scents)
• Fresh Sparkling Snow
• Citrus Sun Shine
• Vanilla Bean Noel (such a classic!)
• Winter Cranberry
• Candy Cane Bliss
• Winter Candy Apple (not my favourite, but Luke is a fan)
• Sparkling Alpine Woods (this bottle was huge!)

Herbal Essences Conditioner – not the best conditioner out there, but it’s cheap and we have a surplus of it.

Aveeno Baby Body Wash – I had bought this when I got my leg tattoo since you are instructed to wash with unscented soap. It’s went back into heavy rotation since it was mild enough to use with my psorasis.

Cooling Mint Jelly – this is similar to Lush’s shower jelly (which I love), except Lush’s is far superior in every way.

Empty Lush bag – I don’t remember what this was exactly, but I know it was either a bubble bar or a bath bomb.

Toothpaste – I love the original Colgate so much. It’s the one we always had in the house growing up, and now I insist on a tube of it always being open in our house.

Q-tips – I use these for everything – removing nail polish, removing makeup, etc. etc etc.

Bread & Butter Face Clean – this was Luke’s, he seems to be a fan.

Ecopure Man Aftershave Balm – Again, Luke’s. I didn’t hear any complaints and he finished off the bottle, so it must have been ok.

Avon Skin So Soft – Basically Avon’s version of Veet or Nair. I have no idea where I got this from, I don’t think I know anyone who sells Avon. Is that even still a thing?

Bath & Body Works Hand Sanitizer – We actually finished off two of these things! Normally they just go missing before we can finish the bottle…

Coolway Boost Repair Treatment – It appears this company has gone out of business, so no sense in giving a review on this.

Nivea face cream – I use moisturizer a lot – even more since being diagnosed with psorasis. This was nothing special, but it did it’s job.

Vanilla Body lotion (foil sample) – I kept this foil sample on my desk at work, and used it up over the course of a few days. It smelled nice.

Perfume samples – I love perfume, and own a few too many bottles of it… I’ve been trying to get through my collection of these little samples lately, and was able to finish off 6 of them over the 5 month span.

• Prada Candy Florale – I prefer the original Candy, which is one I own a full size bottle of. This one was still really nice though!
• Calvin Klein Reveal – meh. Not my favourite, but it was wasn’t terrible either.
• Diesel Loverdose Tattoo – one of my favourites, I also own a full size bottle of this one.
• Ralph Lauren Midnight Romance – this one was ok – again, not my favourite and not one I need to own full size.
• Narcisco Rodriguez For Her – this was nice! I’ve liked all of the samples I’ve tried of this brand, but for some reason do not own a full size of any yet…
• Marc Jacobs Daisy Dream – I own the original Daisy perfume, and this one is similar to that one. I do love the Marc Jacobs full size bottles though 🙂

Luke also finished off one larger sample:

• Yves St. Laurent La Nuit De L’homme – Luke loves this one, and owns it in a full size bottle already 🙂

Our basket for the next quarter is already starting to fill up 🙂

 

These 4 months were actually fairly decent for finishing off products in our house!

Bath & Body Works Hand Soaps – this is basically the only brand of hand soap we use, and there’s usually 7 bottles of it on the go at any given point in our house (3 bathroom, 2 bottles in each – you need variety!, plus a bottle in the kitchen). I really enjoyed the smell of all 4 of these ones.

Veet – because who wants hairy legs? Let’s burn that hair off with chemicals!

Herbal Essences Shampoo – that bottle was huge, and lasted forever.

Live Clean Body Wash – this was unscented and mild, but lathered up nicely.

Colgate Toothpaste – my favourite toothpaste! This stuff is one of the cheapest ones out there, but I love it.

Foil samples – toothpaste (again, my fav kind!), Tresemme shampoo/conditioner and Crabtree & Evelyn hand cream (this stuff smelled really nice!)

Normally I wouldn’t include deodorant, but this one will be one of the last regular ones I ever use. I’ve almost completely made the switch to organic deodorant these days. I don’t actually know if it’s better, but it has to be better for you.

Julep – No Limits Cream – I really liked this moisturizer (once I figured out how to get it out of the container). Once I get through my insane collection of face moisturizers, I would consider purchasing this one.

Julep – DD Creme – I’m sure this would have been nice, but they sent me the wrong shade (it was way too dark for my pale skin), and then I forgot about it so it just sat buried beneath my other makeup until it went bad. Opps.

The little bottle was a sample of face moisturizer. I have dry skin, and recently diagnosed psoriasis – I go through a ton of moisturizer lately.

Bread & Butter Daily Face Shave – this was Luke’s. He seems to enjoy this brand, he’s had it a few times now.

The next two bottles were leave in stuff for my hair. I never really notice much of a difference when I use these things, but I never style my hair or put product in it, so I’m not the best judge.

The last bottle was conditioner.

That little pink bottle was some weird face product sample I received in a subscription box. It has a bunch of warnings all over it and seems like serious business – I didn’t like the feel of it on my face at all.

Origins face wash – Luke used this, as it was designed for oily skin. He used it all, so it must have been ok.

The middle bottle was a hotel sample of body wash.

The top one is Lush, Angels on Bare Skin. Meh, not my fav from there.

Little perfume/cologne samples –

Azzaro for Him – Luke has a full size bottle of this, it’s ok

Yves Saint Laurent  L’Homme – Luke owns the full sized bottle of L’Nuit de L’Homme (which is just a variation of this one). The one he owns smells amazing, and is better than this one.

Calvin Klein Euphoria – I own a full sized bottle of something from the Euphoria collection, but I don’t think it’s this exact one…

For awhile, I was obsessed with monthly subscription boxes, so I amassed an insane amount of beauty products.  I would open things, use it twice and then forgot about it. Then, after seeing this on another blog I put a box in our bathroom and starting collecting the empty containers of all beauty products we used up each month (I wish I could remember which blog I found this on so I could offer the proper credit).

We went for quite awhile of not doing this, but I decided to bring it back a few months ago. These are our empties from June-July-August-September 2016.

We have 3 bathrooms in our house (completely necessary for two people haha), so we have 2 different scents of soap on the go in each one at any given time – one foaming and one deep cleansing.  I only shop at Bath & Body Works during one of their sales, and we have no problem with using Christmas scents in August, as you can see haha. My personal favourites of the ones shown above would be the Vanilla Bean Noel (always a classic!) and Coastal Water Lily.

We brush our teeth everyday! Hurray for us! I also love the plain, boring old Colgate you see above, and we ALWAYS have a tube of that on the go.

With two different showers in our house, there are at least 4 or 5 bottles of shampoo/conditioner on the go at any moment. At some point over the summer, we finished off a bottle of Herbal Essences Naked Conditioner. It’s not the greatest stuff in the world, but it does the trick.

The little bottles are Bath & Body Works  White Citrus Shampoo and Conditioner. I have no idea how old these are, but they came from a hotel stay at some point over the past few years.

We also have multiple bottles of shower gels/body wash on the go at any moment. I’m not a huge fan of Bath & Body Works shower gel, but there always seems to be a bottle in each shower. This Forever Sunshine one did smell pretty good. The other bottle is Satsuma Body Polish from The Body Shop. This is by far my favourite scent from this store, and I liked this stuff. It was a nice gentle exfoliating cleanser that a bit of grittiness to it.

Pure Smile Strawberry Milk Essence Mask is the actual name of this product. It’s a Korean product that looks ridiculous on (it’s like a weird white slimy sheet with holes cut out for your eyes, nose and mouth that you leave on your face for 20+ minutes) but it made my face feel so nice and smooth afterwards.

I’ve always loved Lush products, and their shower jellies have a permanent place in our home. Whoosh is an amazing smelling, bright blue squishy soap that we’ve had many times in the past, and I have no doubt we will buy it again in the future.

Obviously these products both belonged to Luke.  I had to ask him what he thought of these things – “the Sensitive Skin line from Nivea is better than their normal line in my opinion. The moisturizer is great, I’ve used it before and I’ll use it again. The aftershave is a really great product, but it’s a little pricer than other brands (Gillette aftershave is only like $3, this stuff is closer to $10). The glass bottle is also a little unnecessary.”

This is definitely my favourite eye makeup remover. I’m not technically out of this, since I pour it into a travel sized bottle and there is a little bit left in that. This is gentle on my eyes, and easily removes eyeliner/mascara without the need to scrub. I’ve already purchased a brand new bottle of this, it’s worth every penny.

Luke also used up both of these.  Growing up, there were always products from The Body Shop in my house and I swear by their stuff. I do not have blemished skin or oily skin, so I don’t use the Tea Tree line myself, but I do know it works. Luke says he will own both of these products again (Body Wash and Skin Clearing Foaming Cleanser), but he is trying to get through some of our pre-existing collection of things first.

 

This is part of the 3-step Clinique program, but it’s the only one I ever purchased. You are supposed to cleanse your face (Step One), and then use this lotion (Step Two) before applying moisturizer (Step Three). I liked this, it was very gentle and made my face feel even cleaner. I would consider purchasing this again in the future.

Syn-ake Venom Lifting Cream is another Korean product in my collection. During my subscription box addiction period, I purchased a lot of Memeboxes, a Korean-based beauty product box. This was just moisturizer. It wasn’t the best I’ve ever used, but far from the worst. It did what it was supposed to do.

This hairspray took a long time to finish off, and yes, that is only a 63g bottle. I rarely do anything to my hair, a lot of days I’m doing good if I remember to brush it before throwing it into a messy bun on top of my head.  For what I know about hairspray, this stuff was really good.

I’m not a huge makeup person at all, I might wear it once a week. Even when I do put makeup on, it’s fairly simple and straight forward – concealer under my eyes, a sweep of blush and mascara. If I’m really feeling adventurous, then I go for eyeliner as well. I am very particular about my mascara though, and once I open one it is only in use for a maximum of 6 months. I prefer small, sample sized ones like these three since I don’t feel like I am wasting as much. I ended up LOVING all three of these: Clarins Be Long Mascara, Benefit Roller Lash Mascara and Tarte Lights Camera Lashes Mascara. If I ever get to a point where I needed to purchase a full size tube, I would consider any of these. (I’d say in order would be Tarte, then Benefit and then Clarins).

These two fragrance samples belonged to Luke. I bought him one of the sample packs from Shoppers Drug Mart, where you receive 10 of these little samples for $75-$80, and then a coupon which lets you trade in for a full-size version of your favourite one. The Paco Rabanne 1 Million is actually the scent Luke traded in his coupon for, so he now owns a 100mL bottle of it – it was a hit (and from my point of view, it does smell amazing!). The other one, Arrogant by English Laundry, is also a really nice smelling scent. According to Luke, it was his 3rd or 4th favourite from the sample pack.

These are also from sample packs from Shoppers Drug Mart. I absolutely love these things, it lets you try out scents before committing to spending a ton of money on them. I have a huge perfume addiction, and I actually have 50mL bottles of both of these scents – Hot Couture by Givenchy and MyNY by DKNY. They both smell amazing!

If anyone is interested, here are links to previous Empties posts from my old blog:

• September 2014
• October 2014
• November 2014
• August 2015
• October 2015
• November 2015