Products I Used Up - October

It's that time of the year again, where I post some pictures of trash and tell you all about the beauty products I recently used up. Empties posts aren't a regular feature on my blog and here's why, in all honesty, I rarely buy new products, I tend to have two/three major beauty splurges throughout the year and use the products I love everyday until well...they are all used up! Because of this my empties posts can seem repetitive, more often than not I do repurchase the same products, especially when it comes to body and skincare. However, as I had a few new products to share I thought why not, so here's what I used up recently. I'll probably split this into two posts as there's too many products hehe -

Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish - I bang on about this all the time on social media/blog so I won't go into a full review and bore you all to tears. The Cleanse & Polish is a cult classic for me, it's a cleanser I will  always repurchase. The bottle shown here is Jasmine & Osmanthus, a scent that was released over summer, you can read more about it over here.

Emma Hardie Cleansing Balm - A repurchase for me, Cult Beauty have an offer where you receive three 50ml cleansing balms along with three of the EH cloths for only £38. A total bargain considering 1x 100ml tub retails at £38.00. I've tried and love this cleansing balm, especially during the cooler months. You can read a full review here.

Sweet Cecily's Elderflower and Almond Hand Cream* - An all natural hand cream that's housed in a cute reusable glass jar. Although this hand cream felt quite luxurious on my skin I did find it to be a tad too oily for everyday use, I instead opted to use this at nighttime before bed. I'm generally a fan of sweet scents, but the scent of this was so overwhelming, it gave me a headache. Just a tad too sweet smelling for me.

REN Vita 7 Eye Gel (mini) - I've made quite a few REN orders recently and have always received a generous amount of samples with my orders, including this eye gel. I have since repurchased the full size of this as it's so refreshing and hydrating on my sensitive eyes. This provides a perfect base for concealer. Expect a full review of this and a few other eye creams I've been loving ...soon.

The Body Shop Satsuma perfume - love. If you like the scent that runs through the Body Shop Satsuma range, you'll love this scent. I would definitely repurchase this, it's perfect for my handbag.

Antonia Burrell 7 in 1 Supreme Mask - you can read my full review of this mask and other items in the Antonia Burrell Discovery Kit over here. I definitely would not repurchase this mask, but you can read more on that in my full review.

Claris Eye Makeup Remover - I didn't feel like this effectively removed my eye makeup. After two cotton pads soaked with the eye makeup remover I still found that my cleanser removed traces of mascara. Definitely not for me.

The Body Shop Vitamin C Glow Boosting Moisturiser - Full review over here. I've repurchased this moisturiser as for me, it's a more effective version of the Origins Ginzing, for some reason this just works better with my skin. It provides my skin with just the right amount of hydration and works well with my Liz Earle Cleanser & toner.

The Body Shop Hemp Foot Protector - I've repurchased this one, it does all the hard work for me. This cream keeps my feet hydrated, smooth, soft and sexy (well as sexy as a foot can get) - I wouldn't be without a tub.

What products have you used up recently?

MooGoo Irritable Skin Balm

I've suffered with Eczema for the longest time, childhood memories of chamomile lotion and thick diprobase being slathered onto me before bedtime makes me shudder. If you have ever suffered from eczema you'll feel my pain, my skin feels itchy, uncomfortable and gross. Seeing doctors in the past always left me feeling slightly frustrated as most of the prescription products my doctor recommended felt incredibly greasy and heavy on my skin - definitely not daytime appropriate. Luckily as I have grown older my eczema has calmed down significantly, although I'm still prone to the odd flare ups on the backs of my arms, legs and even my hairline and forehead! Luckily I've found my wonder product.

MooGoo is a lovely brand that come from across the pond, from a much sunnier climate...Australia. MooGoo has great ethics as a company, they offer products with clean ingredients formulated with sensitive skin types in mind - I absolutely love how transparent their website is definitely no gimmicks. After talking about Australia and the contrast in temperatures in comparison to the UK, myself and the brand representative for MooGoo got talking about eczema. The lady gave me so much advice, not only product recommendations, but we also touched on lifestyle and diet changes that I could make to improve my eczema. After a lengthy discussion (rather whinny on my part) I was kindly gifted the MooGoo Irritable Skin Balm* to try.

With balm in the title I did expect that this cream would have a greasy texture or feel quite rich for my skin, I couldn't have been more wrong. This lotion has a lightweight texture that left my skin feeling hydrated without any greasy residue or oily texture. This cream doesn't have a scent which did bother me a little at first, but in all honest after a while I barely noticed the scent...or no scent should I say. In terms of my eczema I do think that this cream helped to calm my skin, my skin felt less itchy and also less flaky. This didn't speed up the amount of time it took for my eczema to clear, but in all fairness no cream/lotion ever will only internal treatments in my experience help my eczema to clear up quicker. It's worthwhile mentioning that this product is multi-use and worked really well on my forehead when I had an itchy patch of eczema.

I wouldn't hesitate to purchase the MooGoo Irritable skin balm, you'll see this in my empties post soon, but for the price (FYI £12.50) I found that this product lasted between 5-6 months with twice daily application on specific areas of my body - definitely great value for money. For me this is something I wouldn't be without in my stash. If you suffer with mild eczema, it's definitely worth a try. I always recommend visiting your GP in the first instance as everyones skin is different. However, if like me you have decided to go solo and do your own research and find products that work for you MooGoo is definitely worth checking out.

Do you have any product recommendations that work well with eczema or sensitive skin?

*Gifted at a blogger event

Antonia Burrell Discovery Kit

Having clear, smooth skin makes me feel confident and more often than not I'm always prepared to pay slightly more for products that contain high quality ingredients, have luxurious packaging and feel comfortable on my skin. From my experience paying slightly more for skincare products has always rewarded my skin, although there are some products that I scrimp on (e.g eye cream, micellar water.) With products ranging from £25-£60 starter kits are a great place to start when trying new skincare.

The Antonia Burrell range has been on my to try list for the longest time, after a recent twitter chat (hosted by Antonia herself) I decided to splurge and purchased the Discovery Kit £29.00 which consists of four 10ml samples of her best selling products. Since purchasing the kit I have finished all four products, 10ml may not seem like a lot of product, but you certainly do get a feel for the range, and also how well (or not well in my case) the products work with your skin. Here are my thoughts on the products that I tried, for reference my skin is combination dry cheeks/oily t-zone I suffer with pigmentation and my skin can be quite sensitive -

Natural Glow Cleansing Oil £29.50 - an oil-milk formula which can be applied to dry skin to emulsify makeup. With lemon zest to brighten and tea tree to purify this cleansing oil by far had the best scent I have ever smelled - and I've tried a fair few cleansing oils! In terms of breaking down makeup for me this didn't perform exceptionally well, in fact the Super Facialist by Una Brennan cleansing oil is way more effective for less than half the price! I applied this oil, washed away, used a toner and was surprised at just how much makeup came off on a cotton pad. For me this oil was a little rich and despite cleansing my skin thoroughly after I did feel like this left residue on my skin, this may be great for mature skin types but for my combination skin it was a big thumbs down.

Forest Dew Skin Conditioner £25.50 - A conditioner for your skin? An interesting, yet new concept for me. When I first used this I was slightly confused, I initially thought it was a moisturiser but slowly discovered that it's in fact a toner and can be used after your cleanser with your hands or on a cotton pad. This toner has a milky texture and contains cucumber extract to hydrate/soothe the skin. Similar to the cleansing oil in the range I was left feeling slightly underwhelmed with this one. This removed any last traces of makeup, left my skin feeling hydrated, but if I'm honest this does nothing that my Liz Earle Skin Tonic doesn't do.

Cream Supreme Facial Moisturiser £68.00 - This moisturiser had a lovely lightweight texture that worked really well under makeup. This provided my combination skin with just the right amount of hydration, however, I have to say whilst using this I couldn't help but feel like I've used something similar in the past....the Lush Imperials moisturiser is pretty much identical to this moisturiser with a much cheaper price tag. This moisturiser added a subtle glow to my skin, hydrated my cheeks but never felt overly greasy on my oily t-zone. Worth £68 though? I would have to say probably not, for a moisturiser that's almost in the £70 mark I expected something far more luxurious.

Mask Supreme 7-in-1 £57.00 - A 7-in-1 face mask that claims to hydrate, smooth, detoxify, repair, clarity, brighten, protect and perfect - that's a whole lot of claims! This mask did leave my skin feeling hydrated and clean feeling, but for the price and claims similar to all of the other products in the range I expected a lot more. The reviews on this are so good on the internet I expected so much more, but for my combination skin I didn't find that this was anything substantial or worth purchasing.

Now, I'm feeling like a negative nelly after this review. Perhaps my skin type isn't the target market for the Antonia Burrell range, but considering I described my skin type and was recommended three of the products I have tried I expected something more. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but considering the price I expected the products to feel more luxurious than skincare products I own, I expected my skin to feel smooth and slightly more radiant but unfortunately this wasn't achieved with the range. Definitely not products I would recommend to anyone with a similar skin type to mine, perhaps drier or more mature skin types could benefit, but for the price tag you can buy far cheaper products with similar results.

Have you tried any Antonia Burrell products? What are you favourite high end skincare products?