It's February already! I'm so happy that winter is almost finished (in my head) and Spring will come very soon! In Japan Cherry Blossoms will start blooming from the end of March and that tells me that Spring has come. I can't wait for Spring, because it's my favourite season of the year! Anyway, because I didn't do Empties post in December, I have a quite few empty bottles here for you!
Caudalie Gentle Cleanser
This is such a nice cleanser! This milky formula which smells divine removes dirt and makeup on the skin really gently as the name claims. It leaves my skin soft and moisturized, it doesn't feel dry even 5 minutes after I've washed my face. It lasted pretty long as I only needed a tiny amount to wash my whole face. My favourite part of this cleanser was the scent, I cannot describe it well but it smells very clean and fresh. I totally recommend this cleanser if you're looking for cleansing milk. I also think it's more suitable for dry skin more than oily and combination skin.
Caudalie Cleansing Water
I got it for free when I purchased some Caudalie products on feelunique. It does the same thing as Bioderma does, but less effective. Bioderma removes makeup much more easily. With this cleansing water, I had to rub my eye areas with a cotton pad quite strongly, and that irritated my skin. It still didn't remove all my makeup off, which I don't mind too much because I wash my face with another cleanser afterwords anyway. It smells really nice just as the cleanser does, which makes me feel relaxed whenever I use it. I don't think I would purchase the full-sized one, just because I think Bioderma does better job.
HANA Organic Floral Drop (full review)
I'm not sure how long I took to finish this product. It's basically Rose Water with some essential oils in it. It smells absolutely fantastic and I love the concept behind their products. Their toner (this product) and moisturizer (here for the full review) are designed to use in the evening because it repairs your skin during sleep because that's when your skin barrier becomes weaker. It's pretty expensive and I don't think I would buy it (I received it as a PR sample a long time ago) just because I have other products to try out.
Aussie 3 Minutes Miracle Deep Treatment for Coloured Hair (full review)
I LOVED this product. I usually keep switching over my haircare products depending on my mood but I couldn't resist using this one every single day until I finished it completely. I enjoyed using this product so so so much and I'm hoping to get some bottles when I come to the U.K. next time (which is pretty soon actually!). I wasn't a big fan of the scent which was too peachy and artificial, but I loved how it made my hair so soft, smooth and voluminous. With this hair treatment I didn't have to worry about styling my hair at all. It's a magical product seriously! I don't care the fact it's packed with silicone and polymer, it worked really well on my hair.
Redken Scalp Relief Shampoo (full review) This is another fabulous haircare products! When I was using this product, I didn't think it was anything special. Yes it did kill itchiness on my scalp but I thought that was because my scalp became less sensitive and calmer. But once I finished the first bottle, my scalp started itching again. I repurchased it from lookfantastic.com because somehow feelunique didn't allow me to buy it from Japan. Thank god lookfantastic did allow me to, otherwise I was going to have to live with my itchy scalp. Once I started using this product again, my scalp became calm again.
Tocca Laundry Delicate
It's not a beauty product but I had to include it here! Is it even popular in other countries? I believe it's from the U.S. but I've never seen anyone talking about this product outside of Japan. It's a laundry soap from the brand Tocca, and this small bottle costs 2500yen or so. I always buy it online so that it's much cheaper, but still it was 1300yen or something like that. The reason why I keep buying their laundry soap is because of the amazing scent. There are 4 different scents and my favourite is this "Florence" one. It smells like "In Love Again" perfume from YSL for me, and the scent isn't too strong but not too subtle. I don't use it to wash my clothes but my pillow cover, tights, underwear and my makeup brushes (I'm not sure if that's OK to do so but they're not animal bristles so should be OK). I use a tiny tiny amount at a time and this bottle lasts for more than 6 months. I already repurchased two bottles. One is Florence and another is Cleopatra. I will talk about them another day!
Caudalie Lip Conditioner (full review)
I have repurchased this product twice or three times already. It's moisturizing enough for my dry lips and I also like the subtle vanilla scent of it. I'm not going to repurchase this time just because I have EOS one which I've been enjoying using recently.
URIAGE Lip Balm
I got it from my local drugstore, it's pretty expensive (1,040yen) for a tiny lip balm but it really works. I'm sure I spent more than 20,000yen on this lip balm in the past because this was the ONLY lip balm which worked for me before I met Caudalie and then EOS. It's got a vanilla scent too which I like.
Aveda Invati Shampoo and Conditioner
These were just small samples I got when they launched this series in Japan. It's supposed to
refresh your scalp and remove the daily build ups, and I think it works OK. The formula is really loose and looks like curry, which was a little bit gross. But fortunately it smells of herbs so please don't worry, it doesn't smell of curry. I liked both shampoo and conditioner but am not going to purchase the full-size ones just because they're pretty expensive and I have better ones for cheaper prices.
iMPRIME Repair Method
I got the whole set of the range in small bottles as a PR sample. You wash your hair with normal shampoo, then pat it dry with a towel and spray the "Base 0" all over your hair. Then apply Repair method 1 which is in the red bottle, then apply Repair method 2 which has two different formula, one is called α which is in the green bottle and another is called β which is in the blue bottle. α is for a smooth finish, and β is for drier and more damaged hair. They all smell AMAZING, I loved the scent so much. It smells like a salon if that makes sense, I think it's grapefruit and some herbs which bring out this fresh scent. It really worked and made my hair silky and soft. I don't think I would purchase them ever because when I buy them in bigger bottles, it costs about 10,000yen in total. I simply cannot afford them, but I really really love the products.
I hope you enjoyed it! x