Empties #24 Huge Holiday Edition
2014 has been a year of travelling and empty products so far this year as I've been seeing the world and loving using up the products that I have in my stash. Today I've got some empties for you that we used up on our honeymoon back in May. I managed to snap these photos at the beautiful Crystal Cove hotel in Barbados just before we attempted to cram all of our honeymoon buys into our suitcase. Even disposing of empties on holiday gives me a buzz haha, I love using things up!
I took a lot of sample size products away with me to try out and use up while I was away but I'm not going to include them here as I don't think I could give something a fair review after only getting one or two uses out of it. With regards to the products I've reviewed here, I'll link all of the places where you can get everything from in case you're still doing your holiday shopping or you want to know up to date prices, etc.
We went away for three weeks and had a huge 46kg baggage allowance each so for once, I decided to take my own shampoo and conditioner as usually Hubby WLL and I share. The duo that I took was the Lee Stafford Hair Growth Shampoo and the Lee Stafford Hair Growth Conditioner along with the Lee Stafford Hair Growth Treatment to use every other day on my hair as it can get so damaged in the drying sunshine. I washed and conditioned my hair every night and the duo lasted the full three weeks so if I was at home and washing my hair every other day or every third day then they'd last even longer which I'm very happy about.
If you've been following me on Twitter recently you'll know that since April I've been trying to grow my hair and this trio, along with the goodness from the sun, really helped to accelerate my hair growth while I was on my honeymoon. They make sure my scalp is completely clean and my hair nourished right down to the very ends which is the perfect foundations for hair growth and my hair felt strong after using them. They smell incredible too, very sweet and girlie which takes me right back to my mid teens when I first started using Lee Stafford products.
I'd recommend picking them up from Boots where they're on special offer. I'll definitely be repurchasing these when I need some more shampoo and conditioner.
My favourite Soap and Glory line has to be the Sugar Crush range as it smells just like key lime pie. Hmm its gorgeous. I wanted to take some really indulgent body products away with me and these were my first choice. The Sugar Crush Fresh and Foamy Body Wash was actually a special 250ml size that I got in a Christmas gift set (I'd HIGHLY recommend looking out for something similar this Christmas) and it was the perfect size for both of us to use up while we were away. You can pick up the HUGE 500ml bottle here which is the one that we usually keep by our bath and shower at home. What we love about it is the way that it thoroughly cleans the body but it feels nourishing too as it is like a cream rather than a clear gel that can strip the skin. The Sugar Crush scent lingers on the skin after use too, especially if you layer the scent with the other products. Mr WLL has sometimes used the body wash to wash his hair too and it has left it clean, soft and smelling great so it gets two thumbs up from him too!
To also use in the shower, we took the Sugar Crush Body Scrub and we used this in generous amounts throughout the whole holiday to help slough away our dead skin cells so that we would get a deeper, darker holiday tan. You can read my full review of this scrub here. After each shower I applied the Soap and Glory Sugar Crush Body Buttercream every night and I really noticed a difference in the softness of my skin after using it. The Body Buttercream is super thick and indulgent which made it take a little while to sink into the skin but it was worth the wait and very cooling if I lay next to the air con after putting it on! It smells incredibly sickly sweet which lasts really well on the skin... although I applied this before bedtime so the scent didn't really matter.
Like with the Lee Stafford products, I buy all of my Soap and Glory goodies from Boots because they've always got cracking offers on that are just too good to resist! It goes without saying, I'd repurchase all of these.
If you read my CVS haul, you'll have seen that I picked up a bottle of the Hello Mouthwash in the Pink Grapefruit Mint flavour as recommended by the gorgeous YouTuber Nikki Phillippi. At the time, it wasn't available in the UK as far as I was aware but I have since found it online on Boots. Hooray!!! Mr WLL and I couldn't be happier about this as we used it everyday on holiday as part of our dental routine and it was LUSH. So refreshing and it left our mouths super clean without filling it full of chemical nasties. As you can see we used the full bottle up and I'll definitely be buying some more bottles of this the next time I put a Boots order in.
The other products are all sun cream and I'm sure you can see that we went through an absolute shed load on our trip. We also started some other bottles of tanning oils (the Hawaiian Tropic Factor 20 Oil) but we didn't finish those so I'm keeping them for future holidays as I hate throwing away products that aren't empty before I go home- what a waste of money!
The first sun protection product that we used up was the Piz Buin Active Sun SPF 20 which is very sweat and water resistant so it is great for if you're going on a walk or swimming in the sun or playing beach sports. It is a really fine, clear mist that dries immediately on the skin. It actually feels quite cooling when you apply it. We used this mostly on the first part of our trip when we were in Florida and it came in really handy when walking and swimming around Discovery Cove and walking around Disney. I'd definitely buy this again as it was so fuss free to use.
Another SPF that we took for when we were going to be in and out of the pool or when Mr WLL was playing water sports, was the Garnier Ambre Solaire Wet Skin SPF 30 which is a clear spray that you can apply to dry or wet skin. This is perfect for if you're just getting out of the pool and your skin is still wet because you can spritz it on your skin and you don't have to worry about burning in the sun if you drift off to sleep as you dry! I did find that this felt a little sticky on my skin once I'd applied it which was something that I wasn't too fond of but I found that it stopped me from burning so I would still use it again in the future.
I took a sample size of the Apivita SPF 50 Face Cream with me to use on our face throughout the whole holiday. You only need a small amount of this as a little goes a long way and it doesn't leave a white cast on the skin. It didn't break either of us out at all and it was easy to remove from my skin in the shower at the end of the day. What I liked the most about it is that it didn't run down into my eyes, making them sting, if I went in the water or got a little sweaty throughout the day.
Another product that we used up was the Garnier Ambre Solaire Resisto Kids SPF 30. This is a spray on lotion that dispenses really quickly so for a milky lotion it doesn't actually take very long to rub in. While I usually prefer clear suntan lotions, what I like about this one is that it is lightweight, fast to absorb and you can see where you're applying it which I think is brilliant, especially if you have children with sensitive skin. I wouldn't repurchase it but that's more because of my preference with sun creams rather than the product itself which I do think is very good. Plus I think that it is very expensive for what it is; I'd rather pay that price or more for an SPF with some skincare benefits too.
The next suntan cream that I used up was the Avene Very High Protection Spray SPF 50. I have posted a full review of this SPF and others in this post here and I stand by everything I said in that post. I would repurchase this.
When it comes to mosquitoes, I have to be super careful as I'm really allergic to them and each bite can lead to a super huge blister. When we go away we take plug ins, bands and various sprays. On this trip, we used up a couple of cans of the Maximum Jungle Formula and a bottle of the Avon Skin So Soft Original Dry Oil Spray which isn't strictly speaking a mosquito repellent but it is well known to be very good at repelling mosquitoes because it contains citronella. I spray it onto my whole body after getting out of the shower and then apply the Jungle Formula just before going out. I have several back ups of these already but I will definitely repurchase them when I no longer have any left.
I used up the whole bottle of the Macadamia Healing Oil Treatment while I was away as I applied it every night after washing my hair and then again before bed. I cannot rave about this product enough. Read my full review of it here. Needless to say, I would 100% repurchase this as it is the best hair oil I've ever used.
// !function(d,s,id){var e, p = /^http:/.test(d.location) ? 'http' : 'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)) {e = d.createElement(s);e.id = id;e.src = p '://' 'widgets.rewardstyle.com' '/js/shopthepost.js';d.body.appendChild(e);}if(typeof window.__stp === 'object') if(d.readyState === 'complete') {window.__stp.init();}}(document, 'script', 'shopthepost-script'); //
JavaScript is currently disabled in this browser. Reactivate it to view this content.
You can read my full review of the Balance Me Super Moisturising Hand Cream in this post but in short, it is super softening and really perfects the skin on the hands. Love it.
The last product that I used up while I was away was the Clinique Lash Power Mascara which has to be one of my absolute favourite mascaras EVER. It creates that gorgeous separated, full of volume lash look that I absolutely love and it is very buildable so it is perfect for day and evening wear. If you've used the Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara before then you'll know what I mean when I say that this mascara gives you the same effect on your top and bottom lashes. I would totally buy this again once I've got through the absolute haystack of mascaras that are in my collection.
I'm snowed under with uni work at the moment so I hope you don't mind that posts have been a little inconsistent over the last month. For August, I'm going to try to post every other day and stick to that routine until my final hand in date on 29th August. Wish me luck!
What products have you used up recently? What are your holiday staples?
Click here to enter my HUGE giveaway to celebrate blogging for 4 years!
More posts from WhatLauraLoves
