Empties No.3

If you stopped by my blog recently you probably noticed that the blog posts have dried up somewhat. I don't know when it happened, or why, but I seemed to lose my blogging mojo for want of a better word.
I miss blogging though and thought a wee empties post would be an easy way to dip my toe back in the water. :-)

Nivea Extra Gentle Eye Make Up Remover
I've tried a lot of make up removers over the years and quite a few of them have made my eyes sting or become puffy. This is my go-to eye makeup remover. Its gentle, removers even the most stubborn mascara and doesn't leave my eye area looking red or puffy. At £3.35 in Superdrug it gets a massive thumbs up from me!

Lush's Dark Angels Fresh Facial Cleanser (£6.40 for 100g)
I have a love/hate relationship with this cleanser. My skin approves of it, I like that it cleanses and exfoliates at the same time but lord, its a messy one. Its stained a few of my face clothes and I normally have to give the sink a good rinse after I've used it. For this reason I have banned myself from using it anywhere other than when I'm in the shower. :-)

Blistex Med Plus For Lips (£2.30 in Boots)
Everyone has their favourite "take care" lip product. This is mine. Part of my bedtime routine is to use a lip scrub and then slather this on before jumping into bed. I wake up with soft lips and its great in the winter for repairing your lips if they've become a bit weather beaten in the cold air.

Olay Regenerist 3 Point Super Serum (currently £19.99 in Superdrug)
I liked this product. I loved the smell. I loved how it sat on my skin. It definitely firmed up the eye area but I absolutely detested the bottle. It is pump action (which is fine in itself!) but you can't see into the bottle. A few times I thought it was empty only to try it days later and find there were a few applications left.

L'Oreal 3 in 1 Purifying Micellar Water
I used all of this so it obviously wasn't terrible but I don't know what it did for my skin either. My face never felt particularly clean after it so I ended up using it as a makeup remover for the most part and it did the job well. I know others that have loved this product though, so I think its just a me thing.

Have you tried any of these products?
What did you think?

Spring Beauty Swap (2014)

I follow Kat (@Talesofpaleface) on Twitter. A few months ago she started talking about a Spring Beauty Swap. I'm relatively new to Twitter and blogging but I was intrigued.

I decided to sign up for the swap. I said that I was happy to be paired with someone from the UK or international. It made me smile when I got paired with Carol (@flittychick), a woman who, like myself, is also from Ireland.

We spent a few weeks corresponding via email, talking about our lives, our interests and we spent some time reading each other's blogs. There's still so much to learn about Carol but I would love to keep in touch and get to know her further.

When her parcel arrived I felt like a wee kid at Christmas. Nowadays its so rare to get something in the mail, other than bills. Plus, how often do you receive something as an adult and have no clue what's inside?

When I opened the box I was met with the most delicious scent. It didn't take long for me to realise that it was coming from a Pixy Limelight bath bomb and a Pixy Honeysuckle soap. Both smell divine and I can't wait to use them! I knew about Pixy from before the swap. A local beautician used to stock a few of their bath products but then she stopped so I was really surprised and happy to see these items in the box.

There was also a can of Batiste Dry Shampoo. As you'll have seen from a previous Empties post, I had just finished a can and kept meaning to get another. This one is the cherry fragrance which I haven't tried yet so I'm looking forward to giving it a go.

Onto the Yankee Candle sampler candle. The scent is soft blanket, genuinely one of my favourites! We're both Yankee Candle fans, now I just need to introduce Carol to Busy Bee Candles and watch her struggle to pick her favourite. ;-)

There's a tea tree and peppermint intensive treatment hand pack. I tried the foot pack previously so I'm keen to compare the two.

Carol must have known I was a tea tree fan because she also sent one of her favourite Boots face masks, a tea tree and witch hazel peel off mask. There's something very enjoyable about peeling your face off after one of these types of face mask!

Then there was a tube of Nivea Soft. I've used this before and love it - the smell, the texture, how soothing it is on my hands. The funny thing is that Carol mentioned how she uses it on her face, neck and hands. I raised an eyebrow thinking its a bit strange to put hand cream on your face but whatever works! It wasn't until I looked at it again that I realised its for face, body and hands. How did I go through an entire tube before and not notice?! Dunce. :-)

She also very kindly enclosed a truck for my little boy. I wish she could have seen the smile on his wee face when I showed him what someone had sent him. He's obsessed with wheels of all sorts so his face just lit up.

Thanks to Carol for all the wonderful treats and thanks to Kat for organising the whole thing!