little white truths

Hello all and welcome to my second empties post for the month! You may remember that I promised myself I would do three empties posts during March because I have so many finished products lying around that I'm starting to feel overwhelmed, so we're on track for that and I hope to do a third one by the end of the month.

So without further ado...

Sierra Bees Organic Lip Balm x3

I received an eight-pack of these as a GWP ages ago, and I finally got around to using them earlier this year. I've reviewed them here.

While I enjoy these products as dedicated lip balms, I've also been using them on my dry feet, knees and elbows: I don't have a dedicated 'treatment' balm at the moment and I would rather use what I have instead of buying something new. These come in a bundle of fun flavours and they're nice as lip balms but I almost prefer to use them elsewhere because they manage dry skin in a flash. Repurchase? Yes, partly because they're so cheap!

Chantecaille Brilliant Gloss in Love

Full review here. This came in one of my Mecca Beauty Loop boxes and I really loved it. It may actually be the first high-end gloss I've ever owned (I get through glosses quickly so it's just not worth spending big bucks on them for me), and it was one of those products that I enjoyed while I had it but I wouldn't buy it.

Why? Although I loved the texture and feel of the formula on the lips, I don't think you need to spend this much on glosses so this will forever be an 'admire from afar' product for me. Purchase? No.

Lanolips Lemonaid Lip Aid with Lemon Oil

This is the second one of these that I've been through and I must admit, I don't love the product as much as everyone else seems to. I've reviewed it here.

Although it's a nice gloss, it's not hydrating on me and I learned pretty quickly that it dried my lips out with frequent use. So in the end I was using this on my feet too (see the theme here?), just to get through it. Repurchase? No.

As always I won't go on about these products too much here because I've already done that via Project Pan, but suffice to say:

Of these, I would only buy the Maybelline product again - the others I can take or leave.

Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle Repair Anti-aging Day & Night Moisturisers

I've reviewed the day cream here and the night cream here. Both products were sent to me for review, and while I don't think they were bad products, they also didn't do enough for me personally.

Both spread and applied well and felt lightweight on the skin while still delivering a nice amount of moisture. My main issue with these products was that they weren't hydrating/nourishing enough for my dry skin, and I also didn't see the kinds of results that you would expect from using retinol products twice daily - so I suspect they didn't contain enough to do much for my skin.

Purchase? No to both.

Elizabeth Arden Prevage Anti-aging Moisture Lotion with Sunscreens and Prevage Anti-aging + Intensive Repair Daily Serum

Both these products came in a kit, which I've unboxed here. I bought the kit for the Booster and these samples were an added bonus - nothing to be sneezed at because the moisturiser costs a lazy $175 AUD for the full-size and the serum an even-lazier $265. Yikes.

Thankfully (given the large price-tags), neither of these blew my socks off and I didn't like the moisturiser at all: it was super greasy so it felt like it blocked my pores, and indeed I broke out while I was using it so I stopped applying it to my face and instead used it up on my neck and dec.

The serum was nicer and I do think it's a good product, but I don't think you need to drop $265 on a serum to get a good one - indeed I've used products costing a fraction of the price that did more for me than this did. I felt it gave my skin some good nourishment but that's about it.

Purchase? No to both.

In sum

This wasn't my best bunch of empties, I must say. Indeed the nicest thing in here was probably the Chantecaille gloss, but I'm not going to throw $50 AUD at a lip gloss so the most likely repurchases in this lot are the Sierra Bees lip balms and the Maybelline concealer in Light, which I preferred to use as a foundation lightener because it didn't have enough coverage for me.

Let's hope my next bunch of empties is more inspiring than this one!

Hope all's well with you guys, and speak soon x