December empties | Hourglass, Soapsmith, Clarins, Kate Somerville and tons more

December empties, let’s be having you.

It’s the end of my year-long empties project and what an interesting time it’s been. If you get the horn for seriously used up beauty products, then you can find all the previous empties posts here.

One thing that suprised me is that even though I wear lipstick every day, I only used up maybe two lipsticks in the whole year. Same for eyeshadows. I wear eyeshadow most days, yet I don’t think I finished even one. So I don’t need to worry about that stuff running out, and I do need to be mindful about buying anything new.

What I’m going to do now is a ‘sparks joy’ declutter of my make up bag. If I don’t love it and I’m just using it up for the sake of it, then it’s just dead energy and what’s the point of holding on to that?

After a couple of months of pretty paltry empties bags, everything seemed to get used up in December. Look at this line up:

A * means I was sent it to review. Everything else bought by me or given as a gift (no, not a #gifted type of gift, a genuine old fasioned type of present from someone who loves you).

Palmers Natural Bronze Body Lotion – Gives a good natural tan & smells like chocolate biscuits. I buy this every summer to look less milk bottly in t shirt season. I wish it came in a smaller bottle, I don’t need it to last 6 months.
Soapsmith Marble Arch Hand & Body Lotion – Absolutely loved this, especially the hint of vanilla and patchouli.
Root + Fruit Power Smoothie skin polish – Lovely scent to this exfoliator, although texture-wise it’s a bit scrubbier than I would like.
Origins Ginzing Eye Cream – Excellent eye cream. Didn’t do anything for my under eye dark circles but then I guess that’s what concealer is for.
Boots Retinol Night Moisturiser – I suspect there’s very little retinol in this, didn’t notice it doing much.
Manuka Doctor 24k gold oil – Lovely luxurious, nourishing and soothing oil. You only need a tiny bit, hence the weeny bottle.
NARS Roseland Velvet Lip Glide – Beautiful colour, already replaced this in lipstick form.

Marks and Spencer Fragrance Duo Roll On – Two nice scents that lasted about a nanosecond on the skin.
Clarins Super Restorative Day – I kept thinking when I was using this what an old fashioned brand Clarins seems to be nowadays. The formulations have probably changed, but the branding is practically the same as it was when I first bought it in the 90s.
Kate Somerville Goat Milk Moisturising Cleanser – Now this feels a lot more up to date. Liked this a lot. Very nice cleanser as long as you don’t mind the slightly sour goat milky scent.
Hourglass Dim Infusion – Lovely soft illuminating blusher. You don’t get much in there though, do you?

Algenist Liquid Collagen Hand Cream – Big fan of this brand, have liked every one of their products I’ve tried.
The Body Shop Almond Milk & Honey Hand Cream* – For a tiny tube this seemed to last forever.
Kat Von D Go Big or Go Home Mascara
Benefit Roller Lash Mascara – Both these mascaras managed to dry out at the same time.
Elizabeth Grant Moisture Stick*
Pat McGrath Sheer Colour Balm – As did both these lip balms. Busy month.

No product of the month this month as I loved it all too much! (Except when I didn’t, obvs).

What’s next on the empties front?

For the next year, I’m not going to do a monthly empties post as I’ve been doing this year, but I will do a seasonal shufty through the products I’ve used up. I think it’s particularly interesting to do this with products I’ve been sent to review – to use them up all the way to the end and report back.

Over the last year I have massively cut back on the amount of products I accept for review (hence you might have noticed far less product reviews here). Much as I love trying out a new product or brand, I think it’s an area where I want to be more mindful. And my focus from here on in will be on more fun rather than more stuff. You can never really have too much fun but you definitely can have too much stuff.