Blimey, it’s October!
This year hasn’t felt particularly fast, as there have been a lot of challenges, but it’s still crazy to think the end of this year-long project is not that far away.
This entry focuses on July, August and September, but I’ve divided it into two parts.
As mentioned in my last update, I was in Townsville until early July, so the first part covers most of July, all of August and a bit of September.
Although I’d been working on a lot of these all year, it was great to actually get them all done and dusted. I was particularly proud that I finished up a face powder during this time! It’s the Kosas Cloud Set powder, which I really enjoyed using. Granted, I’d dropped it at one point so a part of it had broken off, but still getting through a powder is not easy!
I would definitely buy that powder again, but I have others needing to be used up. Also, the packaging is pretty but not the sturdiest - the lid separated from the pan even before I dropped it.
Other items of note: I enjoyed the CeraVe cleanser and will probably repurchase in future; I loved the Kate Somerville Goat Milk cleanser and would love to use that again - but it’s so expensive. The Glow Recipe Face Mist was also lovely to use but I think I can probably find others that do the job for less.
The Nivea WonderBar I wouldn’t recommend. You can see the box packaging in the pic; it was a bar cleanser so has disappeared down my drain. I stopped using it on the face because even though it said “Hydrating” I still found it drying. I wound up using it in the shower. By contrast, that Alpha Keri body wash was bloody lovely. It’s an Australian brand that’s been around for 50 years, but I’ve only just tried it this year. They’re often 50% off at Chemist Warehouse, and this litre bottle lasted a good five months. I will definitely re-buy, although I’m using their avocado body lotion at the moment as my regular body moisturiser and it is gorgeous, so I might be tempted to get the body wash version of that.
The No7 Hyularonic Acid was so smooth and easy to use, I went through that very quickly; the Jeval conditioner is lovely and I’m not far off finishing the shampoo (I can never finish shampoo/conditioner at the same time because I always use more conditioner in my thick hair!); and that Noughty To The Rescue hair mask is definitely one I enjoy using.
Now onto the second part of the quarter, which was September 9 to October 4, to be precise. This is when I was in Sydney for the Sydney Fringe season of my show “Titanic: The Movie, The Play”.
For this trip, I took a bunch of smaller products and sample sizes that I have knocking about my cupboard expressly to try to use them up during my southern sojourn.
The hotel I stayed in had advertised their bathrooms as having Kevin Murphy products; Kevin Murphy is a relatively fancy haircare brand that I’ve used previously with mixed results. I’ve never really LOVED what I’ve tried; however, even if these were the cut-price hotel room versions of his stuff, they would probably be decent enough for me not to have to lug down a shampoo/conditioner or go out and buy them there.
Because I was there for over three weeks, I wound up asking the guest services for a bunch, so primarily what I used up in Sydney were these little bottles of shampoo, conditioner, body wash and body lotion.
Something else happened that made me collect these - Sephora has started a recycling program that gives you points for bringing in empty products. Mecca has a beauty product specific recycling bins too, but you just drop them off. Sephora awards you 50 points for up to 5 products, 100 for up to 10 and 150 for more than 10.
Over the course of my stay I wound up with enough empties to make two trips to earn 150 points each time.
This was the first batch:
The Lancome Genrifique sample was not really enough to get a sense of the product, but I don’t think I’d bother. The Dermalogica cleanser was nice, the Tula moisturiser was OK, but again, a bit meh.
This was the second batch:
A note on those Byron Epsom Salts: I actually bought those on night 3, after a long day’s bump-in, when I went out to get something healthy for dinner from Woolworths. I don’t have a bath at home, but the hotel room had one, so I was inspired to buy some Epsom salts and treat my muscles to relaxation when I got back.
Of course, walking back to the hotel, I tripped on an uneven pavement tile on George St and collapsed to the ground. I wound up in emergency where x-rays showed I had fractured my ankle. I’ve been in a moonboot now for four weeks, with at least another two to go. Needless to say I didn’t use the epsom salts until a few days before I actually left. They were fine, but I really do wish I’d stayed in that night and just ordered takeaway.
The La Roche Posay Cicaplast Baume is one of those products that’s always flying off the shelves at Chemist Warehouse and Priceline. It’s a lovely, creamy product that’s great if you have redness or irritation on your face, or indeed any scratches or nicks on your body. I got a head cold in Sydney and it was nice to put around my nose to relieve soreness from blowing my nose all the time. I’ve got an Avene version of this in my cupboard I need to use first, but I’ll definitely repurchase at some point.
And a shout out to that Elemis Dynamic Resurfacing Facial Wash. That was DAMN gorgeous to use, left my skin so soft, and the small size lasted a good three weeks. It is hellishly expensive, but really the only one out of the lot I’d consider. And at a 200ml size, it would last a decent while.
So those two batches of empties got me 300 points total at Sephora, and when I can next get to Sephora in Brisbane I’ll take in the rest. You can get little sample size products with your Sephora points, but I tend to save them then convert them to 10% off vouchers. It’s not a lot, but it’s something, and at least they’re going to a proper cosmetic recycling program.
Oh! I forgot, I also threw out a Rexona deodorant spray and a 250ml bottle of Le Tan sunscreen in Sydney just as I was finishing packing. They were almost finished, but I didn’t want the hassle of packing them. Didn’t get photos though.
So all up that was 57 products and 1 small sample.
I would love to try to use up more make-up products: I made decent progress on a couple of foundations/skin tints while in Sydney so I’m hoping by year’s end I’ll have those done. However, colour cosmetics are so much harder to use up because you just don’t use them as often as face & body products, and you use so much less!
What I’m definitely going to do is another declutter, like I did in the second quarter. Get rid of stuff I’m just not using; maybe give some stuff away if it’s still decent.
So fingers crossed I can end this year strongly!