The Body Shop Piñita Colada bath and body products

I love sweet fresh scents so when I walked by The Body Shop store in town and saw that they had a new range of body products called Piñita Colada I just had to go inside and sniff at the bottles.  And as we all know, once the product is in your hand it's already half bought.  

I was a bit sceptic thought, these scents are either a hit or a total miss.  But somehow The Body Shop totally made it work.  Piñita Colada is a well balanced scent, fresh, fruity, not too much coconut and not too much pineapple.  A smell that reminds me of summer, beaches, cocktails, days off ... the perfect way to start the day (until you realize that it's just another day at the office to look forward to).

I treated myself to the shower gel and body sorbet and they added a sample size body butter.  There's also a scrub in this range.

Where to buy:

You can buy these at The Body Shop, currently there's a promotion of 25% off when you buy 2 skincare or bath and body product.  The Showel Gel costs €7, the body sorbet costs €11.  With the discount I paid a total of €13,5 for both.

Emptied and replaced in January and February

It's time for another emptied and replaced.  I have not been a good girl/woman these past weeks.  I admit that haven't been taking good care of my skin, especially my evening routine has been missing a lot and it's starting to show.  Aside from that I've noticed that I've fallen back into the habit of opening several similar products at the same time, especially body products.  That's why there are no empty body products this time but there will probably be a couple next time.

Facial care:

I used up my Nivea eye makeup remover and replaced it by my beloved Klorane eye make up remover.  The Biotherm Blue Therapy Serum (which was a deluxe sample size) was replaced by a deluxe sample size of Lancôme Génifique youth activating concentrate.  I love serum samples, you only need a tiny drop of these so a sample will last you a while.  I had a weird relationship with my Vichy Normaderm daycream, it didn't do much for me and I was a bit relieved when it was finally finished.  I replaced it with La Roche Posay Redermic R daydream.  I'm already using the eye cream of this line and I was really waiting to try out more of this.

Body care:

I used up a Lady Speedstick spring blossom full size and replaced it by the same one in a smaller size (more of a handbag size).  I really love the Lady Speedsticks, whenever I'm in the US I always bring a few back and I really haven't used any other deodorants since I started using these.  There are still a few backups in my bathroom but I'm really nervous thinking about the day that I run out.

The hand cream was from L'Occitane and it was a great one.  I can't really say what I replaced it with because you'll find an open tube of hand lotion everywhere in this house (and on my desk at work).  I have banned myself from buying more hand lotions because I still have so many unopened ones in my bathroom and you can only use so much hand lotion in a lifetime.

Hair care:

Paul Mitchell's Super Skinny Serum was replaced by Kiehl's Damage Repairing & Rehydrating Leave In Treatment.  I love this Kiehl's treatment, I use it everyday on the ends of my hair and it leaves my hair feeling smooth and healthy (even though I have split ends and am in desperate need of a visit to the hairdressers).

Makeup:

A full size Urban Decay Eye Shadow primer potion was replaced by a travel size (look at how cute that is!).  I still have a few travel sized eye shadow primers laying around and I'm going to use up these before I buy a new one (but I'm already stressing out over which one to buy because there are just so many that I want to try out).  My budget proof Cover Girl Ready Set Gorgeous foundation was replaced by Make Up Forever Ultra HD Foundation (which I totally love) and my Bourjois eye pencil was used up till the very end and I temporary replaced it by the Urban Decay 24/7 glide on eye pencil in Bourbon.  This is just a temporary solution because the Bourbon one has glitter in it and since I use my eye pencil to tight line my upper waterline a glitter pencil isn't the best option.  I'm going to get me a new 'normal' brown one this week.

Samples:

I used up some samples, mostly day creams (in-between emptying the Vichy one and starting the La Roche Posay one).  

And that's all.  I've decided to do an 'Emptied and replaced' every 2 months, I just don't feel like there would be much to show if I do it every month.  If there's anything in here that you want to know more about you can just let me know in the comments.

Emptied and replaced in October

October went by fast and I have a feeling November is even going to go by faster.  Just 3 more weeks of work and then I'm off to somewhere sunny for 10 days.  Much deserved, even if I say so myself ;-)

Anyway, I was on a roll in September, emptying a lot of products and I'm forcing myself to continue this process.  So here's what I emptied out in October and what I replaced it with:

Facial care:

I used up my Neutrogena Alcohol Free Toner and replaced it with Body Shop Vitamine E face mist.  Technically not really a toner but it works the same to me and since I had half a bottle left I decided to use it and not buy a new toner until the face mist is empty.  Also my much beloved Neutrogena Raphid Wrinkle repair moisturizer has been emptied.  I'm so bummed by this, it's not available in Europe and I love this one so much (I do need to put a hydrating serum under this).  Yet another reason to plan a trip to the US soon.  I replaced it by Vichy Normaderm Tri-Activ Anti-Imperfection Hydrating care that I found laying around, I think it was in a Deauty box at some point.

Body care:

Bath and Body works time!!  I finished the Beautiful Day hand cream and got started on my tube of Crisp Morning Air Handcream.  The Maui Mango Surf body cream replaced my Love & Sunchine body cream.  I also found this Clinique Water Therapy foot smoothing cream somewhere in the back of a closet, it was almost empty, I only got 3 more uses out of it and I replaced it by the Body Shop's Spa wisdom honey & beeswax hand and foot butter that I found in the back of the same closet.  I remember I was hooked on this stuff at one point and then they stopped selling it.  So I'm kind of hoping I don't get hooked again since it's no longer for sale.

Makeup:

My sample size Photo finish primer by Smashbox lasted until the end of the first week of October and I replaced it by 2 primers.  Kiehl's Micro Blur Skin Perfection (which I love by the way, you can find a review of this on the blog real soon) and Too Faced Hangover replenishing face primer.  I intended to alternate between both but I'm loving the Kiehl's one so much that I haven't tried the Too Faced primer yet.  When it gets colder I probably will start alternating more because the Too Faced one is more hydrating and that's what my skin needs in winter.  And than there's my Guerlain Lingerie de Peau bb beauty booster ... this one got me through 2 summers.  It's so lightweight it feels like a bb cream but gives a foundation like coverage.  I'm happy this one is now empty.  As much as I loved it, I was so sick of it by the end, I really wanted to try something new and the damn tube kept producing product. I'm now using the Cover Girl Ready Set Gorgeous foundation in the color 110 as my everyday foundation, especially for workdays.  It's very lightweight and gives you that pretty healthy finish.  Another Neutrogena favorite is their Healthy Skin foundation (shown here in 110 Classis Ivory), since the formula is a bit heavier I  currently only use this one on special days or if I'm going out at night. And last but not least one of my all-time favorite Mac eyeshadows: Satin Taupe, that one got replaced by itself.

Nail care:

There they go, my two favorite nail care products of all time, in the bin: trend nail balsam and nail repair.  Trind products are definitely among the best nail products on the market and I already have backups of them at home but I decided to go with Sally Hanssen Vitamin E Nail & cuticle oil and nail hardener and I'm liking them so far.

Miscellaneous:

I've been a very good girl lately cleaning my makeup brushes every sunday.  I usually use the same colors every day when I'm working so it wasn't really necessary color-wise to clean them often but of course it's more hygienic to clean them regularly.  So on sunday I clean brushes!  I emptied my Mac brush cleanser and replaced it by a new bottle.

And that's it!  I'm liking this process a lot: empty out one thing before opening another.  It's working well for most products but in case you're wondering; I'm not even going to try to implement this in my nail polish and eyeshadow collection because I'd never be able to write a post like this if I did that ;-)

Emptied and replaced in September

I know, we're already halfway October but I still wanted to share this with you because I feel so proud of myself.  At the beginning of September I made a promise to myself to try to use as many samples and as many almost empty products as I could and I think I did well.  I had a moment of shame when I was going through my things, there's just so much and everywhere I looked I found something that I had already forgotten I had bought at some point.  So I introduced a no-buy for skincare, face care, primers ... mostly all liquid products that aren't nail polish.  And here's the result, a picture of everything I emptied and what I replaced it with:

Facial care:

I emptied out my favorite facial cleanser: the pore refining daily cleanser bij Neutrogena but luckily I still had a spare one, the last back up so I think it's time to start planning a new trip to the States ;-)

Body care:

I used up my Oahu Coconut Sunset bodylotion by Bath and body works, a Lady speedstick in wild freesia and a shower foam by Rituals and replaced them by  Love Sunshine bodylotion, Lady speestick in spring blossom and a random body wash.

Hair care:

My Take The Heat leave in conditioner went in the bin and was replaced by a Miracle moist leave in conditioner (both by Aussie) and my Phyto 7 hydrating hair day cream was replaced by Paul Mitchell Smoothing Super Skinny Serum (which I got in a Deauty box a long time ago).

Makeup:

I used up 2 (yes 2!) facial primers, both very loved ... Mac Prep+Prime Natural Radiance and Porefessional by Benefit, I'm currently using a sample size of  the Smashbox foto finish foundation primer.  One of my all time favorite foundations, Neutrogena Healthy Skin in the color Buff had only 3 uses left so that one was easy and my Mac eyebrow pencil in Fling was replaced by a combination of Mac Fling and Anastasia Beverly Hills brow powder duo in blonde.

Nail care:

This bottle of nail polish remover didn't make it through the month either and I emptied out these 3 packages of remover pads. They weren't new, I had already opened them and I know that when I'm going on vacation I'll just buy a new package instead of taking one of these so I decided to just use them.  I don't really like these, they just have a 'greasy' feel to them but I do prefer taking these while traveling instead of a bottle of nail polish remover.

Perfume:

My Victoria's Secret Angels Only perfume was replaced by Marc Jacobs Daisy Dream perfume.  I'm not the type of woman who has a lot of perfume, I usually buy a bottle and when it's empty I replace it by something else.  I find perfume to be one of the hardest things to buy, it's just so personal and sometimes I smell something on someone that I like and when I put it on it's just sickening.  Marc Jacobs never lets me down though, especially not his Daisy range.  And I think that Victoria's Secret Bombshell in Bloom will be mine next time I visit a VS store (another reason to start planning a US trip!).

Samples/travel sizes/individuals:

This was definitely the most satisfying of all.  Look at all those empties!!  I always kept sample sizes "for when I'm traveling" but when I travel I just want the products I know and like.  So I used it them all with an exception for Kiehl's samples, I kept those for when I'm going on a citytrip for a few days.  The Nivea travel sized shampoos I emptied and cleaned them out so I can fill them with my own product when I'm traveling. No need to buy travel sized bottles when you can reuses these.

The biggest fan of all of this has to be my man!!  The space he gets for putting his things in the bathroom is very limited and he loved seeing all these bottles disappearing.  October has been good so far also, I think I'm on a roll here so you'll probably get another post like this at the end of October.  It's just so satisfying and feels a bit relieving somehow.  I think I'm on a roll here!