look on my empties, ye mighty, and despair*
*Or be happy, because you lot love empties posts as much as I do.
Is it weird that seeing my basket of empties fill up makes me happy? Like, I’m COOKING. I’m forming my little opinions and ruminating on replacements. My last empties post was in mid-September, so this encompasses everything from the last three-four months. Dig in!
Biore UV Aqua Rich Watery Essence SPF50
I talked about this in my 2023 favourites post, so I won’t spend too much time on it here, but this was a great introduction to Asian SPF. It’s definitely not as hydrating as others, though I found that most days I didn’t really need an extra moisturising step. I’m using the Beauty of Joseon one now, and find that to have everything I need on the moisture front. I am very excited to explore more options – maybe the Isntree one next? The world is my oyster!
Hello Sunday The Everyday One SPF50
This is the second one of these I’ve finished – I picked it up again due to its handy size for travelling, then abandoned it in favour of the Biore one. I like it well enough as a moisturising SPF, though it’s clearly not my first choice. It has a very glowy finish that could become greasy for people with oilier skin. I personally like the dew. Dew me up baby.
DHC Deep Cleansing Oil
Another product I picked up on my travels! There will be a few of them in this post. This is a basic but effective Japanese cleansing oil that removed pretty much all of my makeup in one go – bar waterproof mascara, which required an extra bit of work, but nothing I’m not used to. I think if I needed a new makeup remover and this was accessible (I see it from time to time in Superdrug), I’d go for it again. The bottle I got was also a very nice size for throwing in a toiletry bag and didn’t leak, which is more than can be said for many cleansing oils.
Pestle & Mortar Vitamin C 2-Phase Serum
This has graced my empties posts many times now, and if that isn’t a sign that something’s good, I don’t know what is. I replaced it with the Image Iluma serum, which is one I used years ago and decided to try again. I’m trying to expand my Vitamin C repertoire so I have a favourite at all price points – the Image one is a tenner cheaper and more often on sale, so…
COSRX Propolis Light Ampoule
I’m actually sad this one is gone, as I’m not 100% sure you can get it over here very easily. This is a soothing, hydrating serum with a high percentage of propolis, an ingredient produced by bees that is believed to fight bacteria and infection. My skin gets irritated easily, and of course is always facing the ever-present threat of breakouts, so this felt like I was doing something nice for it. Anything that helps keep things calm and hydrated, I am all over.
Let’s take a beat here to talk about what’s “worth” the price when it comes to skincare. These Obagi retinol serums are not cheap, but I personally don’t mind spending on active ingredients, especially retinol that’s been clinically tested and developed by dermatologists. I buy it when there’s a discount going and it usually lasts me around six months, so to me, the initial cost is borne out. I don’t spend much on cleansers, hydrating serums, or moisturisers, because they’re either not on my face long enough or simpler in formula. I also find the results from this retinol are really noticeable, more so than any other I’ve used, and I’ve tried serums from across the price spectrum. So when I recommend a more expensive skincare product, I hope you understand I’m not doing it carelessly. I’d be interested in hearing what retinol products have really worked for you – please, drop them in the comments!
Kate Somerville Exfolikate Intensive Exfoliating Treatment
2023: The year where I was like, wait, I should be exfoliating a lot less. My skin got really sensitive and angry, much like myself, so I dialled everything back and cut out all active ingredients for quite some time. Now if I exfoliate at all, it’s once every week or two just to move on the dead skin cells my retinol has turned over. Exfolikate contains a combo of lactic and salicylic acid, and is closer to a mask than a toner – you slather the green gunk on, massage it in for about 30 seconds, then leave it for a minute or two to work before washing it off. It tingles a bit, but nothing crazy, and the next morning, my skin looks shiny and new. I have another tube on the go, and this is reminding me to use it sometime this week.
La Roche-Posay Cicaplast B5 Spray
It might not be a surprise to you that me realising I should exfoliate less led to this run of barrier-repairing empties. I loved the LRP Toleriane spray once upon a time, but it seems to have been discontinued, so I bought this one instead. It feels super hydrating, almost like a serum in its own right rather than “just” a mist. I liked using it before my hydrating serum, ofc, and also after a shower when I don’t feel like doing my whole nighttime routine just yet, but don’t want my face to become a husk. Would repurchase.
La Roche-Posay Cicaplast B5 Baume
This was also in my 2023 faves, so if you’ve read that you’ll know already: Cicaplast is almost single-handedly keeping me together. No other product has done more to repair my skin. In the week or two where I was in between tubes, I was actually lost. I need it in my life.
More “baume”! I just love that baume. This one was for the rest of my body, which was as dry and irritated as my face was last year. It’s heavy-duty stuff, but it didn’t feel heavy, sinking in quite quickly despite its richness. My one gripe is that it’s maybe too thicccc for its own delivery system, and there was quite a bit of baume that was just unreachable once I got near the bottom of the bottle. I replaced it with the Naturium Bio-Lipid Restoring Body Lotion, which has a lighter texture but feels just as moisturising.
La Roche-Posay Toleriane Dermallergo Eye Cream
I’m going to sound like a broken record saying “This was in my 2023 favourites” but I am and it was. It brought my flaky dry eyes back from the brink and I’m on to my third tube.
Andrew Fitzsimons Apres Sexe Texture Spray
This is the last empty that featured in the favourites, I swear. I really rely on texture spray to take my hair from meh to “Maybe it is actually styled?” and this is a great one. I also really loved the scent! I’m using a spray-in wax I got from my hairstylist at the moment, but I’ll probably go back to this afterwards.
Essence Lash Princess
I have two of these, one waterproof, one not. Lash Princess is one I always recommend to people because it’s cheap, it’s good, and it’s easy to find. I’ll always go for the budget option when it comes to mascara, because…
…It’s so rarely worth shelling out more! This was fine, especially after it dried up a little. But the brush was messy, and the bristles were maybe too spiky? Like, if you made even the slightest wrong move, it hurt. The selling point of this mascara is that you can layer coats to build the effect, but I got what I needed out of one or two coats, so that wasn’t particularly exciting to me. Not a bad mascara, but I dunno, I’ll buy another four Lash Princesses for the price instead.
Nars Afterglow Lip Balm in Orgasm
This was a bit of a strange product to me. It sits in the middle of two categories, and excels in neither of them. It wasn’t as hydrating as I’d want an actual lip balm to be, nor did it have enough colour to sit amongst my other balmy lipsticks, so I ended up just keeping it on my desk to dab on before a meeting or some such. It might be just that I didn’t like this particular shade, but I’m not very interested in trying another one to figure that out.
Giorgio Armani My Armani To Go Essence-in-Foundation Cushion
I really enjoyed this sheer, luminous cushion foundation, which was just the ticket when I was searching high and low for a lighter daytime base. Now that I’ve found Sculpted By Aimee HydraTint, I’m not rushing to buy a refill right this instant, but I’ve kept the case should the need ever strike me.
Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Flawless Filter
Look, I don’t really know if I totally finished this or not – the packaging of this is as impenetrable as the the Pentagon. But it felt like time to replace the bottle for various reasons, it being old as hell a main one. You know my feelings on this. I love it. I so rarely do my makeup without it, though I have been experimenting with some other glow boosters, like the Saie Glowy Super Gel (though that is closer to Glossier Futuredew than FF). This was in Shade 4 and I replaced it with Shade 2, which is more of a pearly-champagne than gold and matches my complexion a little better. A forever favourite at this stage.
Thank you for reading Vanity Project! The next instalment shall be a review of the Glossier foundation. Spoiler alert: I’m into it. See you then!