April 2021 Empties

All my monthly trash on display for you to see. :P

Sheet Masks Galore:

papa recipe  Bombee Black Honey Mask Pack: Frankly I think I like these even better than the original honey mask! This smells just as delicious but it leaves my skin even more radiant, hydrated, and smooth. The mask itself feels more silky and luxurious. The only downside is that the masks themselves are somewhat small and I feel like they're designed for someone with a smaller face. 

A by BOM Ultra Royal Glow Queen Royal Mask with Honey Energy From Garden: I remember this mask being really hydrating with a light, floral scent. I wish it smelled more like actual honey. 

A'Pieu Air Pocket Sheet Mask in Banana Milk: This is a really hydrating mask that leaves my skin feeling soft and smooth. It definitely has a prominent banana scent. 

A'Pieu Air Pocket Sheet Mask in Green Tea Milk: This is a really hydrating mask that leaves my skin feeling soft and smooth. It definitely has a nice, refreshing, green tea scent. 

Candy O'Lady Holiday Candy Mask: As I've said before, these masks are just alright and I'm not super in love with them because they tend to be floppy around the upper lip and chin areas and don't stay put too well.

Beboe Therapies High Potency CBD Sheet Mask x3: I bought these really wanting to love them and frankly found them to be just OK. My main issue is that the masks are a bit small for my face and that they have a thick, kind of buttery serum on them. I personally prefer more of a milky, creamy serum rather than buttery because that buttery-type serum is too thick to really be absorbed by my skin. I didn't really notice any effects from the CBD other than my skin being hydrated. 

goodal raspberry infused honey mild sheet mask: This one is a mask that I really enjoyed, it left my skin feeling super supple, smooth, an hydrated. 

goodal blueberry infused water mild sheet mask: Like the mask above, this is a really hydrating mask that leaves my skin feeling soft and smooth. I really liked all the goodal masks I've tried and will definitely look into picking up more. 

innisfree Jeju Root Energy Mask in Ginger, Beet, Yam, Potato, and Burdock: I bought a set of these masks and frankly I have to say I genuinely enjoyed every mask in this series. I wouldn't say they differ much mask-to-mask, the main difference being that some have a more cream-type serum whereas others have a more watery, essence-type serum; some also have an ampoule serum but personally I didn't feel a difference between the ampoule and the essence-types. All of these masks add beautiful hydration to the skin, give the skin a nice radiance, and leave my skin feeling like a baby's butt for days! For the sake of not repeating the same description for each individual mask, I've grouped them all together in this description area. 

2. m-61 PowerGlow Peel x2: I really like these for a gentle exfoliation that I can use several times a week. They give my skin a noticeable radiance and help reduce any texture issues.

3. Caudalie Instant Detox Mask x2: I really love that this is a mask designed to clear out pores and that although it does get a bit tight, it doesn't leave my skin feeling dry or uncomfortable once I rinse it off. My skin feels a lot cleaner, this is fantastic for unclogging pores and reducing oiliness (if you're on the oilier side, but it won't dry you out either).

4. Tata Harper Clarifying Mask: Frankly I am not a fan of this mask. It felt ok on my skin as I was using it but afterwards my skin felt really dry, uncomfortably so. 

5. Glow Recipe Banana Soufflé Moisture Cream: If you want a moisturizer that smells like bananas, this is it. I found it alright for my skin and I liked its texture along with how quickly it absorbed, but personally I feel like my skin needs more hydration. 

6. Tata Harper Crème Riche: Speaking of needing more hydration, this cream delivers. It's ever-so-slightly thicker than my personal preference but I find that it hydrates wonderfully. 

7. Natura Bisse Essential Shock Intense Cream: As its name suggests, this is extremely hydrating and I personally felt that the texture of this moisturizer is somewhat too heavy for my skin. 

8. Tata Harper Regenerating Cleanser x2: I love this cleanser so much! It leaves my skin feeling super clean and gives me such a gorgeous glow. I can't really justify its price point but if I was to ever want to treat myself to a pricier, high-end cleanser this would be it. 

9. Tata Harper Hydrating Floral Essence: This gave my skin a nice boost of hydration.

10. Tata Harper Repairative Moisturizer x2: I really liked this moisturizer from the Tata lineup, it was hydrating but wasn't too heavy. 

11. skinfix barrier+ Lipid-Boost 360 Eye: I really wanted to love this eye cream because I have been getting eczema on my eyelids lately and was hoping this would help, because I love their eczema balm so much. That said, it was nice in terms of being lightweight and hydrating but it wasn't enough to get rid of my eczema patches. Perhaps if I used it long-term, that would've been the case as even the eczema balm takes a while to clear my eczema patches up entirely.

12. Trish McEvoy Correct and Brighten Beta Hydroxy Pads Daily Exfoliator : Personally I found this to be a weaker version of the m-61 PowerGlow Peel. As in, I know they're supposed to exfoliate but I didn't really notice much of a difference. 

13. Trish McEvoy Correct and Brighten Professional-Strength Weekly Peel x2: This is another situation of I know it's supposed to exfoliate but it was just ok. For something professional-strength I was expecting to feel at least a little bit of a tingle with these but I didn't feel anything. They did exfoliate my skin but I personally wouldn't spend the money on them. 

14. Overtone Extreme Teal Daily Conditioner: I used this conditioner weekly and it really did help to refresh the teal color I had in my hair at the time. It didn't really do anything to cover my brunette regrowth but it did tint the parts of my hair that were bleached. 

15. skinfix eczema+ targeted body balm: I literally swear by this stuff to clear up my body eczema - the reason I say body specifically is that, being a balm, this stuff is super thick. I don't mind its consistency on my body as I typically get eczema patches on my groin or on my elbows and find that this is really useful in that region whereas it's too thick for me to use on my hands. That said, the groin is an absolutely terrible region to develop eczema patches and I'm so glad this helps to clear it up and keep that area comfortable. 

16. Trader Joe's Oatmeal & Honey Soap: Now, this is something that I swear by to help me with my hand eczema. It's very moisturizing, soothing, and inexpensive so I highly recommend it. 

17. patchology POSHPEEL PEDI CURE: This stuff is absolutely fantastic for getting rid of dry, rough foot skin especially in areas that are stubbornly dry and rough but not thick enough to cut or file the way a callus would be. 

18. Lancome Hypnose Drama Mascara: If you're looking for a mascara to genuinely give you a dramatic lash effect, this is it. I found it to be very volumizing and lengthening. That said, it was very clumpy at first and it tends to smudge so I won't be getting it again. 

19. m-61 Hydraboost Collagen + Peptide Water Eye Cream: I really liked how lightweight this eye cream is and how well it de-puffed my under-eye area. That said, I didn't find that it was hydrating enough and it would sort of irritate my eyelid eczema patches instead of hydrating them.

20. Indie Lee Whipped Body Butter: I really love this body butter! Despite being whipped, it has a very rich texture that is quickly absorbed by my skin, leaving the skin hydrated and silky. This also has a light lemongrass scent that's nice and refreshing. I wish it was less pricey so I could maybe treat myself to the full size every once in a while. 

21. Glamglow Thirstycleanse Daily Treatment Cleanser: I feel like I wanted to love this more than I ended up liking it in practice. I found that I needed quite a lot of cleanser to get it to foam and move around my face the way that I liked and that, because it's a mud cleanser, it ended up drying out my skin a little bit. It smells delicious but that's about its only redeeming quality in terms of making me want to buy it. 

22. Tata Harper Resurfacing Serum x2: This is another Tata product where I noticed a significant radiance to my skin after using it. 

23. Tata Harper Nourishing Oil Cleanser: I found this cleanser to be just ok. I typically reach for oil-based cleansers to remove more stubborn, long-lasting makeup like my eyeliner and this didn't do a very thorough job of breaking the eyeliner down. 

24. Colourpop Faux Mink Lashes in Kitten: I think these lashes are really pretty. They give my looks some oomph and are that good balance between spiky and wispy. 

25. Colourpop Faux Mink Lashes in Wifey: I think these lashes are fairly natural-looking while having a nice length to them.

26.Colourpop Faux Mink Lashes in Babette: These are my favorite pair in the set! They're a nice combination of spiky and wispy while also being long and dramatic, 

27. Tata Harper Resurfacing Mask: This is a refreshing gel mask that leaves my skin feeling very soft and smooth. As its name suggests, it's great for smoothing out the skin's surface and reducing textural issues from pores and dryness. 

28. Tata Harper Rejuvenating Serum: This serum gave a nice, lightweight boost of hydration to my skin, 

29. Tata Harper Purifying Mask: This mask left my skin feeling clean and smooth but I find that the Caudalie mask I reviewed above does a better, more intense, job of purifying the skin. 

30. Tata Harper Hydrating Floral Mask: I wasn't really a fan of this mask - it's really milky and sticky the same way that condensed milk is and it has the sugary scent sort of reminiscent of condensed milk if you also threw flowers into it. Now don't get me wrong, I love condensed milk but like... as a sauce on my French toast, not on my face. It left my skin feeling ok, but still somewhat sticky - and due to it being sticky, it was difficult to wash off. Overall it's ok at hydrating but I don't like its texture. 

31.Tata Harper Illuminating Eye Crème: I really liked this eye cream - it did a nice job of providing instant brightening, due to its illuminating pearl; and it felt really hydrating without being thick or sticky. 

32. Trader Joe's 100% Australian tea tree oil: As much as I dislike the way that tea tree oil smells, I use this for cleaning purposes mostly for my air conditioning units - as this is both antifungal and.  antibacterial. In the unfortunate instance where I suffer from athlete's foot I like to use this when soaking my feet as well. 

33. m-61 PowerSpot Clear: As you already know I absolutely love and swear by this as an acne spot treatment. I find that it really draws gunk up to the surface and helps my acne clear up quicker. 

34. Mario Badescu Rose Body Soap: This smells so delicious, in fact, that I bought it in a full size. As you know I love sweet rose scents and while this one is a little more on the fresh side it also has a little sweetness to it which I think is really pretty.

35. Dove renewing peony & rose oil Nourishing Body Wash: Another body wash that smells really delicious. I really like to use these Dove body washes for shaving as they provide a nice, smooth glide for my razor and leave my skin feeling soft and silky. 

36. Sally Hansen Instant Cuticle Remover: I really like this stuff because, as its name suggests, it really helps dissolve extra cuticle tissue quickly without actually damaging the cuticle the way a cuticle nipper would. It really helps me push away any excess dead skin so that I can have nice looking manis and pedis.  

37. Tata Harper Water-Lock Moisturizer: This has a really nice, refreshing, gel-cream texture that I really like but I found that it's not hydrating enough for my skin. 

38. Fourth Ray Beauty Avocado superfood nourishing Mask: This is a hydrating mask that's nice in the sense that it doesn't just merely hydrate. I think there might be a bit of clay or mud in here that helps to draw out impurities in a very nice, gentle way. 

39. Skinceuticals Tripeptide-R Neck Repair: So unfortunately the retinol in this neck cream was too much for my skin, in that it caused a rash that went on to develop into an eczema patch which took almost two months to clear up. It was so bad, in fact, that I didn't even use up the whole sample. If you're sensitive to retinol products this is definitely a skip. 

40. Tata Harper Revitalizing Body Oil: Personally I found this to hydrate very nicely, especially when I mixed it in with my body butter (to help both go further) but I can't get past how earthy and musky this smells. Just due to the scent alone, I wouldn't go out and buy this. 

41. Bath & Body Works Cactus Blossom Scented Candle: This candle smells absolutely delicious! It's a sweet, floral, slightly musky (in a sexy way) scent that I personally think is just beautiful as both a home fragrance and as a personal fragrance.

42. Tree Hut Shea Sugar Scrub in Moroccan Rose: I don't think I have to repeat how much I love these body scrubs because they're perfectly scrubby and intense without being too much. This particular one has a beautiful sweet yet fresh, clean rose scent to it. 

43. Bath & Body Works Cranberry Woods Scented Candle: This candle, although it definitely reads very holiday, also reads very warm and cozy. Definitely a nice one for chilly nights. 

44. Tata Harper Restorative Eye Crème: This is a really nicely hydrating eye cream that has a very similar texture to the illuminating one. Honestly I prefer the illuminating one to this one because it also has the added brightening benefit.

45. Sol Janeiro Brazilian Bum Bum Cream: I feel like I always jump on these samples whenever I can get them because I love the way this stuff smells but I'm too cheap to go out and buy it in the full size.

46. Dr. Barbara Sturm The Good C Vitamin C Serum: Honestly because this has such a low level of C (I believe it's around 5%) I just found it to be a lightly hydrating serum that didn't really do too much otherwise. Given its high price point I was really expecting to be blown away and that wasn't really the case.

47.GlamGlow GravityMud Firming Treatment: I really like this mask because it has a slightly firming, skin-tightening effect but is gentle and doesn't irritate my skin. I do find it kind of hard and messy to remove though because it peels off but also is difficult to wash off in the areas it doesn't quite want to peel from. 

41. First Botany cosmeceuticals Arabica Body Scrub: I feel like I wanted to love this scrub in theory more than I did in practice. It smells intensely of coffee, because it's coffee grounds and I'm not usually one to complain but the coffee scent is intense and there's nothing sweet to kind of cut through its intense acrid acid scent. It's very scrubby due to it being coffee grounds but it's also very messy... due to it being coffee grounds. I also think it's pricey for what it is so I won't be getting it again. 

48. Bath & Body Works PocketBac Anti-Bacterial Hand Gel in Frosted Coconut Snowball: This is a little too sweet for my liking but it did the job as hand sanitizer and you can't have too much of it nowadays so I'm not mad at it.

Disclaimer: I purchased all of the above with the exception of the m-61 (with the exception of PowerSpot Clear), Caudalie, Tata Harper, skinfix (the eye cream specifically), Trish McEvoy, Glow Recipe, Indie Lee, Skinceuticals, Sol Janeiro, Dr. Barbara Sturm, GlamGlow, Bath & Body Works (the hand sanitizer specifically), and Natura Bisse products.