The 2016 Semi-Annual Empties Post: Jan-June

Hello my loves and welcome! It's been a smidge longer than when I normally post but I've got a good one to come back with. I've saved up some of my empties from the past six months and have decided to do a semi-annual empties roundup post, some products I love, some I don't but all worth talking about.


Lush's Lemon Flutter Cuticle Butter: I have always had dry hands and fingers and have used Burt's Bees Lemon Cuticle Butter for a couple of years and loved it. About a year ago, I picked this up at Lush and have been using it steadily. I actually like it a lot more than my Burt's Bees balm because since it's a whipped butter, I can use it all over my hand instead of rubbing it only on my cuticles. It absorbs into my skin nicely and leaves behind a very pleasant lemon scent. A definite re-buy, since this is the third tub I purchased. The only downside I see to it is the price. $17.95 is a bit much for the 1.5oz, but since you're not using a lot of it, it will last a good couple months.

Lancome's Vissionaire 1-Minute Blur: I actually was originally sent this a couple years ago to try out for Allure and absolutely fell in love with it. When I finally ran out, it wasn't available for purchase yet and I switched to using something that wasn't as good. I forgot about it until I saw it available at Ulta earlier this year and picked it up right away. This product is amazing and I might do an in depth review on it once I get another tube of it. I have visible pores (thanks mom) and my skin can appear textured when I wear a lighter coverage foundation, but this product smooths my skin like no other. It doesn't leave my skin feeling sticky or chalky, and my face feels so soft even after I remove my foundation. The downside? It's $57 for 1oz. But it's so worth it. There's honestly not much on the market that's comparable for me. If you don't have textured skin or visible pores, you can totally get by with skipping this product, but if you do and have a birthday coming up, put this on your wish list.

Urban Decay Makeup Setting Spray: I've got to be honest and say that I didn't really love this product. I got a sample size of this and maybe I used it wrong, but this left my face feeling sticky and didn't set my makeup. It also didn't seal anything in because after a normal day of wear, my makeup looked exactly how it normally did, but still sticky. I tried using less, spraying from different angles, spraying more, walking into the spray, sitting underneath the spray, I tried everything to make this product work, but it just didn't for me. I got this deluxe sample from Urban Decay, but the price, $30 for 4oz, is actually pretty good. I won't be purchasing it, though.

Calvin Klein CK1 Matte Top Coat: This one I'm actually going to cry over since it's no longer available. Let me first back up and say I bought this three years ago and I finally finished it. Granted, I've tried different matte top coats in between but nothing ever compared to this one. Not only did it not leave little blobs of white chalkiness like my OPI Matte top coat does, but the brush on this polish was always lovely to work with. Unfortunately, CK no longer makes cosmetics. It's a shame because the packaging was lovely and the products were really nice.

MoYou Nails White Nail Polish: There is a huge difference between MoYou Nails USA and MoYou London. MoYou USA sucks. Like all of their products literally suck. I was suckered into purchasing their set which included this product at last year's Premiere Orlando Convention. Long story short, wasn't happy with the kit and this polish is one of the main reasons. It is a very difficult polish to stamp with. it is very pigmented, so it stamps over darker colors which is nice but that's about it. It's very chalky, it dries way too fast and no matter which top coat I used, it would streak and smear. at $7.99 for a bottle, I feel it's way too expensive for what it does or even says it does. Save your money and wait for a MoYou London free shipping sale. Their white polish is much easier to work with and will save you tons of frustration.

Becca Ultimate Coverage Complexion Creme: I went to Sephora to get matched when I ran out of my foundation and was matched to maybe 4 foundations after a couple different tries. This happened to be one of them and it was lovely. The coverage was nice and evened out my skintone nicely. It was long lasting but I don't necessarily recommend it for people who aren't used to wearing foundation or don't like the feel of it because this is one foundation that you can feel on your skin. I will say that it was a tad too dark for me during winter and since it was heavier coverage, it became noticeable. I switched it to my contour shade and it worked well. At $44, this is on the pricier side of foundations, but not bad considering you don't need much for full coverage. I don't necessarily repurchase foundation, because I really like trying different things, but this is one that I would repurchase.

Make Up For Ever HD Yellow Primer: I bought this product a year and a half ago at The Makeup Show after a makeup artist recommended I use this under my foundation to even out some redness and make it easier to match foundations. I will say at first, I wasn't really a fan of it because I felt that it made foundations too light for me to use. It also has a perfumey scent to it that I didn't mind but I could understand if it's too much for some people. I then started using this with foundations that were a bit too dark for me, mixing them together and then applying it on and it was very nice that way. I know they recently changed packaging and possibly formulas, but unfortunately I haven't tried that yet and to be completely honest, don't think I'll be repurchasing. Not because it was a bad product, but because it kind of became useless to me.

That's all she wrote for my semi-annual empties! I'll be back in six or so months with another batch. Love you guys!

-Cristina

9 comments

  1. I am so bummed about the UD--but glad I saved my money because I would have been all over it. And then I would have been super annoyed!

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    1. It might work for you, try and ask for a sample of it at sephora to test it out beforehand, to see if it works better for you than it did for me

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  2. I'm a huge fan of Lancome skin care!

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    1. I've never really delved into the brand before but I definitely will start purchasing some of their things since I loved this so much

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  3. I have to ask if the CK1 matte top coat smelled like CK1 too?

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    1. lmao if only it did. I actually thought the lipsticks would smell like it but it didn't either :/

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  4. Great post! I just bought lemony flutter this weekend and it's lovely!

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