Found ‘Em: September 2024 Beauty Empties

I Bought This - Affiliate links Press Sample - Affiliate Links 

Whew! Found my empties in my linen closet in a sealed plastic bag. Yay! Now I can finish off Project Pan for 2024 for real and recycle the containers.

Here’s what I used up in September:

Bath & Body 

• Korres Pure Greek Olive Showergel Olive Blossom: I bought this Korres Olive Blossom shower gel as part of a trio of Olive Blossom products. Unfortunately, the gender neutral olive blossom scent was not my favorite. The shower gel was a little different in that it was smooth and non-stripping, but it didn’t create as much lather as I would like. Recommend? You might like it because it is a quality product, and it’s rated by Korres users as 4.8 out of 5. On the other hand, I didn’t like it as much as I expected to.

• RITUALS The Ritual of Sakura Foaming Shower Gel Rice Milk & Cherry Blossom: I’ve been using RITUALS Sakura Foaming Shower Gel for years. Although there are occasions when the foam device doesn’t work quite right, the majority of the time it does just fine. Sakura is my favorite scent among the foaming shower gels, though I enjoy many of the other scents as well. Recommend? Yes, I am finishing up another bottle of Sakura. Then I have 3 bottles of Jing Foaming Shower Gel waiting in the wings. Although RITUALS was out of stock on the Sakura foam during the holidays, it is back in store now.

• LUSH Rose Jam Shower Gel, travel size: I wanted to try LUSH Rose Jam scented shower gel for a long time. After leaving the Apple Store and finding out that my 3 year old MAC desktop computer “died” and I wouldn’t be able to save all of my data, I needed a pick-me-up. I figured I couldn’t do too much damage at LUSH. So I bought a travel size bottle of Rose Jam Shower Gel. The scent is a bit odd, though not unpleasant. The LUSH website describes as scent as a mix of rose and “bright lemon”. I didn’t smell any lemon at all. To me, it was a combination of rose and jam. It lathered well and didn’t dry out my skin. Recommend? Honestly, I would say that the Rose Jam scent may not be for everyone. I would sniff it at the store before buying. I used the travel size bottle up in September, and I still haven’t repurchased.

• LUSH Soap “Outback Mate”: I picked up a bar of “Outback Mate” bar soap while I was at LUSH because I love bar soap in the shower and the colors looked like a great match for my bathroom. In spite of being very nice soap in terms of smelling good (mint & eucalyptus) and not stripping the oils from my skin, the turquoise color dripped and temporarily stained my shower stall. It required constant removal. Recommend? No! I was so ticked off about the color run-off that I would be afraid to buy any other soap with color from LUSH. 

• Eucalyptus & Mint Soap from Portsmouth Soap Co., sample size: I used up another good size sample from Portsmouth Handmade Soaps. It lathered well, had a very light scent, and was non-stripping. A nice bar soap. Recommend? Yes. If you’re ever in Portsmouth NH, stop it and check out their bath and body products.

Skincare

• Eclat Rose Water: As I’ve mentioned previously, I love Eclat Rose Water Toner. The rose scent is subtle, but I can enjoy it on the cotton pad – it doesn’t remain on my skin. I love how much skin feels clean, softened and ready for the next item in my cleansing routine. Recommend? Though I certainly do recommend Eclat Rose Water, it appears that it’s no longer for sale in the US. Boo!

• BYROE TeaTime English Breakfast Tea Essence, travel size: I bought Byroe’s TeaTime English Breakfast Tea Essence in the travel size when it was being sold on Ipsy.com. It’s an innovative looking essence that’s looks like it’s made from English Breakfast tea and milk. You shake it so the two liquids come together before using it. The benefits of this natural squalane and Vitamin B5 essence are hydration and firmness. Recommend? Yes. I love essences, and this one is terrific. The full bottle at BYROE’s website is expensive. I’m glad I bought a second travel size from Ipsy.com!

• Paula’s Choice Triple Active Total Repair Serum: I’ve tried many, many Paula’s Choice products and I like the vast majority of them. Triple Active Total Repair Serum, however, has to be among my very favorites. With retinol and niacinamide (among other key ingredients), it targets lines/wrinkles, discoloration and loss of firmness. Like many Paula’s Choice serums, it’s a lightweight cloudy liquigel. Recommend? Yes, I loved it! If I didn’t have so many other serums to try out, this is the one I would buy.

• Constantia Beauty Natural Silk Sea Sponge: I bought a bag of these soft, small, natural sea sponges. Excellent deal. Recommend? It’s a personal choice. I have used natural sea sponges for years and love them.

Health & Beauty

• Just CBD 1000mg CBD Gummies: Another month, another jar of Just Brands CBD Gummies. Recommend? Yes. They taste delicious and they help me sleep.

• Radius Immuni-Minty Toothpaste with Elderberry: I love this variety of Radius natural toothpaste. It contains elderberry to boost the immune system, and it tastes delicious. Radius toothpaste is a gel that doesn’t make tons and tons of foam but it cleans my teeth very well. Recommend? Yes! I need to buy another tube of Radius Immuni-Minty toothpaste as soon as I finish the Radius toothpaste I’m currently using. P.S. Immuni-Minty is on sale at Amazon for $9.73. I just bought my replacement tube!

• RapidLash Eyelash Enhancing Serum: I had been using RapidLash Serums for several years till I read about the fact that they contain prostaglandins, an ingredient that I would just as soon avoid. Recommend? No. Although RapidLash Serum did work for me, I switched about a year ago to Scorolash serum that works for me and whose formula doesn’t include prostaglandins.

Fragrance

• Lolita Lempicka Eau de Parfum, sample: I’ve told you my saga about the Lolita Lempick EDP before, so I will spare you. The short version is the formula for the fragrance changed. Sadly, this sample is one of the changed versions. Recommend? No, not really unless you can find the “vintage” original from when it first launched in the 1990s.

• Erbario Toscano Vaniglia Piccante, travel size: I enjoyed this sweet and slightly spicy Italian vanilla scent so much that I tracked down a full size bottle. My only regret is that the scent doesn’t last very long on me. (But the Erbario Toscano Vaniglia Piccante Stick Diffuser truly is the bomb!) Recommend? Yes, it is worth trying for us vanilla fiends.

Makeup

• Benefit Fan Fest Mascara travel size: I bought a few of these travel size Benefit Fan Fest Mascaras when they launched in late spring. Because I generally like Benefit mascaras, and because the name Fan Fest made me think it might be similar to my former long-ago favorite L’Oreal Voluminous Butterfly Intenza, my hands-down fave among the fanning mascaras, I had to give it a go. Recommend? Sure, it’s a fine, though unremarkable fanning and volumizing mascara, with a curved wand. Is it a game-changer mascara? Nah.

September 2024 and My Project Pan End of Year Total

In September, I used up 14 products, not counting the Portsmouth Soap sample or the Lolita Lempicka EDP sample. I ended December with 99 beauty empties, mentioning that I still hadn’t reviewed September’s empties and May’s empties seem to be lost. Thus, my final figure for 2024 without May is 113, definitely a respectable figure. Without May, I still didn’t make my goal of 125; in fact, I am 12 empties short. 

For the heck of it, I will go through my photos of late May/early June when my blog started having problems and see if I can find the photos of my empties. If not, I’ll live…especially since I’m already got a bag going filled with January 2025 empties.

The Jan. ’25 empties will have to wait till I return in early February from my short vacay in Playa Flamingo Costa Rica!