Digging Through My Trash

My empties have got away from me to the point that the only feasible way to log any of them is to only tackle the noteworthy items, for better or worse, from the past 7 months or so. These will be in no particular order since I’ve sort of lost track of when I finished off which items.

Skincare

Peter Thomas Roth Hungarian Thermal Water Mineral Rich Atomic Heat Mask

I love the moisture this added to my face. I would love to find a cheaper version of this somewhere, especially for the winter months.

Korres Pomegranate AHAS & Enzymes Resurfacing Mask

This mask felt like a slightly less intense version of Drunk Elephant’s Baby Facial. I was definitely able to feel it working on my face but it only hurt about 83% as much as the Baby Facial.

Boscia Cactus Water Hydrating Cream

I got every last bit of product I could out of this jar like a dog pushing his food bowl around the kitchen flor while he’s trying to lick the last of the gravy at the end of a thanksgiving weekend. I loved how well it hydrated. It was a gel moisturizer but it was deeply moisturizing product while being amazingly not sticky. 

NOTs Once Finishing Cream SPF30 PA++

I’ve had this product for an embarrassingly long time now. I’ve tried so many times to make this work for me but it’s just impossible. The cream is a sickly green color which would work if I had either a lighter skin tone or a different undertone. Whenever I tried using this as a sunscreen I looked like a zombie guilty of cultural appropriation using blackface. Not a cute look, is what I’m saying. 

Elizavecca Galactomyces Pure Ampuole

Of all the products I’ve tried from Elizavecca, Galactomyces may have been my favorite next to the hyaluronic acid serum. I loved that this serum has the glass packaging and ampoule dropper and I especially loved that the product was a liquid instead of a gel. It made application a bit tricky but I just had to pool it in my palm and hope for the best. The texture also made it easier for me to determine what order this should be applied in my skincare routine. Elizavecca has not been featured often lately on 0.8Liter but you can be sure I’m skulking around the site waiting to pounce as soon as I see this product appear again.  

Makeup

Ciaté London Lip Lustere in Call Me

I loved how light this lip gloss was. It felt more like a lip oil in consistency and wasn’t sticky in the slightest. I also loved the light sheen it left on my lips with very little color. I ended up getting a backup of this with leftover Ipsy points so that’s pretty exciting though, I’ll be honest, I thought I was getting a different shade. 

Estée Lauder Double Wear Foundation in 4W1

I never got much use out of this product because it was just too heavy yet too light for my skin tone. I tried mixing it with the too dark 5N1 shade I have to mixed results. This is a product that I would love to hold on to but the foundation started to separate and no amount of shaking could fix that. I’ve never had that problem before but clearly, it’s the universe telling me that my shit is well past expiry. 

Lancôme Drama Liqui-Pencil Extreme Wear in Brûlée

This was a fine product but it only receives an honorable mention here because the liner came out of the pencil itself when I tried to sharpen it one day. 

Benefit Rollerlash Mascara

My heart broke to have to toss this mascara. It started to dry out so that was the ultimate decision maker for me. The deluxe sized packaging is just so dang cute. I loved the bristles so much too! They’re the short, silicone kind that perfectly coat and define every lash but the bristles are so soft and flexible that they don’t hurt my lids at all during application. My lashes always looked longer and fuller when I wore this little guy. It’s definitely on my future grabs list. 

Trèstique Mini Eye Pencil in Swiss Chocolate

I love Trèstique’s packaging and I used this almost everyday as my brown liner/tightlining color but I was dumb one day and it broke during application. It was creamy, didn’t transfer, and provided subtle drama, if you pardon the oxymoron. 

E.L.F. Mineral Infused Face Primer

I finished off a full-sized face primer, y'all! Tried and true. 

Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask

I’ve heard mixed reviews of this little guy but I’ve had nothing but great experiences with it. It hydrates beautifully. The formula is thicker, akin to lanolin, but it’s not uncomfortable. I loved the strawberry scent too. Thank goodness I got another one in a Sephora bag.

Bath and Body 

Bubble T Hibiscus & Açai Berry Tea Restoring Hand Cream

I wasn’t a fan of this lotion. It felt like slapping some fairly pleasantly scented, slimy water on my hands that was about as hydrating as hand sanitizer and pretending it actually did something. 

Soap & Glory The Righteous Butter

Speaking of scented... A tiny amount of this lotion was enough to clear a large elevator. I always felt super greasy after applying too. I managed to finish it off, it only took 2.5 years. 

Natura Brasil Castanha Hand Cream

I blew through this in about a week in early Midwestern spring (see: still too cold for comfort). It smelled mildly like old lady but I loved how well it hydrated my hands.

March Empties

I was honestly doing better at posting. The baby started finally moved out and started sleeping in her own bed, in her own room. I got ahead for a minute pre-typing and posting and then life blindsided me with many distractions, good and bad. Posts will be slowing down a bit as we prepare to move 6 years of clutter, so I'm sorry in advance.

I screwed up and thought I was doing a decent job of being an organized hoarder. As it turns out, this was absolutely not the case. Most of the items from this list are just missing, probably tossed in error. 

February Empties

Over the years I've amassed quite a horde of makeup and beauty items. I tried containing it, organizing it, and purging it to no avail. So I've decided to take a new approach: monthly inventory. I am the type of person who has to bookmark upcoming chapters in a book just to be able to power through a chapter, and that's even when I love a book. Why wouldn't this work with making sure I use my beauty items? It's not a guarantee that I will end up with piles of garbage and unwritten blog posts following up on this project, right? *cough*

January Empties

I thought I would try something new and write up an empties post. I like seeing these from other people to get an idea of what did and didn't work throughout a given month. Also, I'm a slob and a hoarder. This allows me to tap into that latent characteristic of mine. For ease, I divided this into subsections: hair care, bath and body, cleansers, makeup, and miscellaneous.

September/October Subscription Product Reviews

It's too late for preamble. Here are some analyses:

September Haul
 

September Ipsy bag

ToGoSpa Undereye Collagen Gel Masks in Green Tea Eyes-I think I like them. Mild tingle, cool texture but without that cooling minty feeling if you hand sensitive skin. I would typically pass on a product like this but it saved my life when I was sick two months ago, if you'll excuse the hyperbole. I had a massive head cold and a pretty hefty headache, all while I was roasting to death from a combination of fever, chills and summertime Chicago humidity so these things were great for cooling my head. They tend to slide though so I find they work best when I'm lying down. I'm half tempted to buy theses and just leave them in the medicine cabinet but I wouldn't have the will power to save them exclusively for that use. They were absolutely useless for reducing redness and bags and dark circles under eyes but then, I never believed this company's claims because, you know, science. 

Glow For A Cause Body Butter in Inspire-I know I said this wasn't my favorite scent because it smells very perfumes and very adult but this stuff is going quickly. I suppose fruit smells are "cheap" smelling but I'll admit I have absolutely zero class and I prefer those to this highly perfumery (with a hint of citrus crispness). 

Update: it's gone. One of the fastest I've blasted through a sample. Blame the cold. It's so expensive though and no better or worse than any hydrating cream or body butter. 

Eyeko Eye Do Liquid Eyeliner-I love how incredibly black this is, but it doesn't glide on as easily as others and it creates a thick line, but I have small, hooded eyes (I think?) and my line goes on a little too thick for my taste. I fail at liquid eyeliners and the learning curve is steep with this one. I must note however that even though this eyeliner brags of being smear proof and waterproof, it is absolutely neither of these two things. A slight rub of my eyes after it dries or a warm day and my eyes have slid straight to my chin. That much said, I still love how black it is. I just wish I did not have the hand dexterity of a two year old with advances Parkinson's. Part of the problem is that it's felt tip and therefore not overly flexible. It's too expensive for me to repurchase for face scribbles and will be designated as a backup at this point. Judge's score: 6.2 out of 10. The dive started out great with the color but somehow resulted in a belly flop, open mouthed with execution. 

Onomie Powerful Priming Serum-I enjoyed the hell out of this serum. It's slightly (ever so slightly) radiant with micro shimmer and very hydrating. It's miles ahead of Too Faced's Hangover primer. I've used it as a serium, which by the way absolutely works, but looking at the cost per unit, I preferred using this as a primer. Even though this performed better as a serum than a primer, I learned that I cannot hold a grudge against all lotion primers. I would never drop $50 for a bottle though, tyvm. 

 Too Faced Lip Injection Extreme-this product grew on me. It did have a mild plumping effect but it does one hell of a job irritating my lips to get to that point. I also find that for maximum effect this needs to be worn alone, and that won't fly going into the winter months. I like it, but I don't think I dislike my natural lips enough (they are pretty full to begin with) to buy this in the future. That and especially with the upcoming months, protective lip balms will interfere with this gloss's efficacy. 

October Haul
 

October Ipsy bag

Trust Fund Beauty Gimme Good Face primer-the makeup gods have heard my prayers. It's a silicone based primer that my face so needs. I love how filling this is. And it came at the perfect time since I finally ran out of my Elf primer which was embarrassingly old. I have to repurchase the Elf primer for two reasons: 1) to see if they've ever updated it the formula and 2) because the Trust Fund Beauty primer is available for pre-order on the company website at $25 for 10mL and there's probably a pretty long waitlist. Incidentally, that's how large my sample was.

Lottie London Perfectly Precise brush-I'm loving this cute little guy. It's smaller than anything I've used in the past so it's crazy precise. That and it's just so damned cute and soft. Bunnies should be made of this brush's fibers. 

October eyeliner-I should shake Kat von D's hand for this one. The brush is not a felt tip but rather "325 bristles in [a] super tight point" and oh my Jesus, is this thing flexible and crazy easy to handle. It is a complete 180 from the Eyeko liner I struggle to use. I could probably still apply eyeliner properly after 5 cups of coffee spiced with more coffee. The only complaint I have is that it isn't the blackest black that I've seen. The product says it is waterproof though and it does resist water well enough. I would buy the shit out of this. 9 out of 10. Points lost for being glossy and not the blackest black, but I would love to try other things in her line.

Pūr~Lisse Daily Lip Nourisher-I can't say no to a lip balm. This lip balm is very hydrating and what I would look for- it isn't sticky or waxy feeling, tastes a little sweet and I love the applicator. I cannot tell you what it smells like but it has a very nice, almost fruity scent.

Cosmoholic Liquid Lipstick in Mysterious Mocha-I'm still enjoying this guy. It's more of a taupe/mauve shade on me than brown) and shiny a f. It is pretty sticky sp I've been patting translucent powder on top to get a matte look. It also solves my problem of never being able to find nude lip colors for my skin tone.

Please excuse the shit/repeat pictures. It's all i have to work with right now.

Subscription Box Review Part 2

I'm back for round two of subscription box reviews. I will try to make a concerted effort to post more or at least be more timely about reviews. No excuses, as I look at the clock, see that it is 12:30, and know that I have to be at work at 6:00 AM on a weekend. But enough bemoaning my insomnia, let's dive right into the analysis.


Empties in Brief

Finally getting around to a mini, non-subscription box empties. Mini because I haven't rounded up all of the semi quality pictures need yet. Note, this pic is nowhere near quality but at the time and with all the tools (that aren't) at my disposal, it's the best I could do.