Empties: August 2018.

I was away working for much of August so it absolutely flew by. The heat has been unrelenting this year so I didn't use much makeup and kept to a simple skincare regime (I actually took a 10-day break from acids and retinol) and slathering on the sunscreens.

My empties pile looked a little different as a result and I only used up seven full sized items. However, I did finish an astounding thirty-nine samples and minis!

Skincare.

I only finished two full-sized items of skincare in August which I think is my least ever! 

I have been making an effort to use up my opened face oils as I have one by Votary that I have been waiting to crack open (I now have and it is lush!) Caudalie Vinosource Overnight Facial Oil was a good all-round night time oil. This is marketed as being for very dry skin but I found it worked well for my combination/dehydrated face, so perhaps something was lost in translation and they meant dehydrated? It feels very mild and I liked using this after a treatment, when my skin was stressed, or if it needed of a burst of moisture. It isn't cheap but the price of is very reasonable compared to other oils. I think that this would be a great introductory facial oil if you are new to them.

The other full sized item I used was Lancome Bienfait UV 50+. I love this facial sunscreen, and there are not many sunscreens that I say that about! This one is effective, comfortable to wear, and it doesn't make me breakout.

Onto skincare samples!

Lancome Bi-Facil Eye Makeup Remover is a bi-phase remover that is very effective. I find this is gentle on my sensitive eyes and I always grab one of these if I see them as a 100 point reward at Sephora.

Eve Lom Cleanser is an iconic cleansing balm that was the first balm cleanser I ever used. It's not my favourite cleanser, I fall in and out of love with the smell of this one and I find that it can be a little difficult to totally wash off but it does do a good job of dissolving makeup and it doesn't leave my skin feeling stripped.

REN Ready Steady Glow AHA Daily Tonic is a new-ish launch from REN. I love the fruity scent of this exfoliating cleanser and although it does have a little tingle to it it doesn't feel too aggressive. This mini has lasted me for quite some time and I will be adding a full-sized bottle to my stash before too long because it does indeed give good glow!

Kat Burki Brightening Serum is fantastic! It is quite an expensive serum but I think that it is one worth saving up for as my skin looked fresh and clear when I used this. It is one of only a few products I have tried that work almost immediately. Every time I used it I had a 'looks in mirror and thinks skin looks great today' moment. I used up seven sachets of Vichy V Idealia Serum. I thought this was okay, it felt hydrating, but I didn't notice it doing anything other than that and I wasn't a fan of its hairspray like scent that was initially quite strong.

Chantecaille Bio Lifting Cream and Serum were both okay. The cream is on the heavy side and the serum is a little tacky so I used them at night but both of them had good slip and spread out well. There was nothing wrong with either of these but I don't think that they warrant their high price tags.

Trilogy Rosehip Oil is another okay product. I'm not a huge fan of rosehip oil - I prefer an oil that is more aromatic and I also find it can be a little too 'oily'. This does have a good price point and as it is a heavier oil a little goes a long way making it great value for money. This is another oil worth exploring if you are new to oils and want to try an inexpensive oil that hydrates overnight.

I used two samples of Mila Moursi Cellular Renewal Cream as a daytime hydrator over a serum. It was a little heavier than I prefer for a day cream and reminded me in feel of Clarins Beauty Flash Balm (I felt as if it made a lifting mask-like layer) but it did work well with other products

Lancome Energie de Vie Nuit is an overnight moisture mask/sleeping pack. This gel formula feels nice and cooling but I didn't find it to be that great a moisturizer.

I misread the teeny tiny label of Uma Absolute Anti Ageing Eye Oil and used it as a face oil. I must say that it was a truly lovely oil, its spa-like lemony scent was very aromatic and it was light in texture and absorbed beautifully. I used this at night when I was sleeping in a heavily air-conditioned room and the next day my skin looked amazingly plump and glowy. I wouldn't use an eye oil as I dislike the area around my eyes feeling greasy but I would certainly love to try a facial oil by Uma.

La Mer The Eye Concentrate and The Illuminating Eye Gel were both okay. The Concentrate smelled faintly of violets which I liked and it absorbed immediately to offer temporary hydration. (This is my favourite out of all four La Mer eye creams/serums). The Illuminating Gel is a clear gel, much lighter in texture than The Concentrate. Again this absorbed well and did a good job of temporarily hydrating the eye area. I didn't dislike these in any way but I simply don't think that they live up to their hype and high price points.

I used a sachet of Supergoop Everyday Sunscreen SPF50. I have used this a few times before and like it. It offers good protection, layers well with other products and is comfortable to wear. I had mixed feelings about Drunk Elephant Umbra Tinte Physical Daily Defence SPF 30. It is a thin formula that feels a little oily and smells somewhat biscuity. I really disliked this the first time I used it as I found it somewhat difficult to apply - it caused some of my skincare products to roll and if you add too much of this to your skin at once it doesn't absorb very well. Once I had sorted out the application issues I found this to be a good option to use on no makeup days as it did impart a natural looking healthy glow. I did use all of this deluxe sample up but I wasn't impressed enough by this to consider buying it.

Fresh Rose Mask is a hydrating gel mask that I have used many times. It feels very nice on the skin, has a delicate rose scent that is pleasant to wear and any residue rinses away easily. My skin always feels soft and hydrated when I use this. (I like to use this as a cooling hydrating mask after a treatment). Vitabird Dual Sheet Mask is a hydrating sheet mask. I found this wasn't a great fit for my face - it appeared to have been produced for small, round faces! There was a lot of extra serum in the pack that I used on my decolletage but I don't know that the serum or the mask did anything in particular. I'm still not converted to sheet masks I'm afraid!

I also used up three make up primers in August. It was so exceptionally hot I needed to use one whenever I put any makeup on. Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer is my go-to primer and I used up two sample vials of this one. I also used a small tube of Jane Iredale Smooth Affair Primer and I must say that I was pretty impressed by it as I am kind of fussy about the feel of primers on my skin! This gel cream was cooling and pleasant to wear, it was basically weightless and it did a good job of keeping my makeup in place, I would happily use this one again.

Haircare.

I used up two full sized haircare items, both of which were from the drugstore.

I love pretty much everything by OGX and their Biotin and Collagen Shampoo was no exception. It had a creamy vanilla type scent that I liked and although it felt a little waxy it lathered and rinsed away well. I noticed very little breakage when I was using this and would get it again.

Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition Conditioner was a very thick conditioner that felt a little oily. It was such a thick product that it was actually quite hard to squeeze it out of its somewhat flimsy feeling bottle. When I first started using this I was quite impressed by it but as time went on I felt that it was doing little more than detangling my hair as it started to feel quite dry. I'm generally not a fan of the Fructis range and this one was a bit of a miss for me.

I used up travel sized minis and sachets of both Oribe Gold Lust Shampoo and Conditioner. This smells so good and it always leaves my hair in great condition - very soft but with some volume and body. Honestly, my hair looked great when I was using these even though I was in need of a haircut. If I could afford to I would use this range all the time.

Christophe Robin Hydratant Santal Leave-In Conditioner was a leave-in conditioning cream. I found that I needed to be careful not to use too much of this as it could make my hair a little greasy looking, but when I used the correct amount it did a great job of making it look smooth and sleek, even in high humidity. I was a little disappointed that this didn't smell more strongly of sandalwood and while I liked it well enough there are plenty of other leave-in products that I prefer.

Bodycare.

I used up two full-sized bodycare items. 'Almond and Coconut' scented Softsoap Body Wash was a creamy shower gel that lathered well and left my skin feeling softened rather than stripped. I liked the subtle summery fragrance of this too as it wasn't too strong or sickly.

Nivea Express Hydration Body Lotion is my favourite drugstore body lotion. It is very light in texture, has a fresh clean fragrance and absorbs instantly. It's the perfect warm weather body lotion for me - I used up a bottle in July also!

 I've read a lot about Frank Original Coffee Scrub body scrub so I was excited to try out a sample of it. It did smell nice and it did leave my skin feel very soft but it also left my bathroom looking a total disaster. This is basically a mix of oils and coffee grains (why buy it when you could easily make your own?) and as the grains didn't dissolve and were mixed with oil they clung to my tub and were very difficult to rinse away. I had to clean my bath out twice, so needless to say I am never going to use this again, it's just not worth the time and effort of the cleanup and the possibility of getting a clogged drain.

Softsoap Earth Blends Body Wash in 'Coconut and Fig' scent was a typical gel type shower gel. The coconut and fig scent was very refreshing and perfect to use in the summer. This would be great to take on a beach holiday! I do love the luxurious formulation of Molton Brown Body Washes but the 'Eucalyptus' sample I used was scented with a piney rather than a minty Eucalyptus and, to my nose at least, smelled a little too much like a cleaning product. I repurposed Honest Beauty Refreshingly Clean Gel Cleanser as a hand wash as it was far too frothy and drying to use on my face.

Nivea Oil Infused Blend Body Lotion Cherry Blossom and Jojoba was perfectly fine but this sample sachet only contained enough lotion for one arm and half a leg which was very annoying. I feel such tiny samples are hardly worth giving away, if it is a body product I want enough for my whole body, thank you very much.

I used two up two tubes of hand cream. Ahava Dead Sea Hand Cream with the fragrance 'Powder' was moisturising without being rich or greasy and it did indeed smell of powder, very baby powder like which wasn't offensive but also wasn't my favourite. I have had the full sized tube of Royal Apothic Hand Cream scented with 'Field Poppy' on my bedside table for quite a long time as although I like the formula a lot (these hand creams are very similar to the Crabtree & Evelyn ones which are some of my favourites) the scent of this one was very strong and a little overbearing, it reminded me of a man's cheap aftershave.

Finally, I finished two perfume vials. Loewe 001 Woman EDP is a rich warm sensual amber fragrance. Normally I would wear something like this in colder weather but this was a good summertime evening scent.  The other fragrance I finished was L'Etat Libre de Orange EDP 'Fils de Dieu'. I love most of the fragrances from this modern perfume house and this is one of my favourites from them. With nods towards South East Asia, Fils de Dieu mixes coconut with ginger and spices resulting in a warm powdery scent. It's very unique and it is not a traditional beachy coconut, it's more like a blend of spices and scents that you would find in a Thai curry - and I mean that in a good way! -  it is truly warm and delicious as well as being a modern take on powder.

I was surprised at how few full sizes I finished in August but the amount of skincare minis and samples I finished was very pleasing and it has freed up some room for a couple of big GWP's I'm getting this month. I'm going to keep going with the samples and minis and try and use up as many as I can of my foil sample sachets as I haven't had a proper 'Month of Foil' for quite some time. Sample September - I'm ready for you!