Empties: All The Products I’ve Bought and Actually Finished

‘Oh she has FABULOUS hair!’ I muttered to myself as I clicked on the YouTube video to buy this amazing looking curl activator hair product. I was convinced it was going to give me the voluminous mane I desired.

The product arrived almost a full month later (living in Australia really sucks sometimes) and I eagerly washed my hair, ready to style it with what I was sure was the miracle hair product I’d been searching for my whole life.

I blow dried my hair, flipped it upright and nearly cried. My hair looked awful. It was soft, fluffy and not even close to curly. The product cost $50 including shipping and I was definitely never going to use it again.

It wasn’t just the waste of money that annoyed me it was also the waste of the product. Normally I research everything very thoroughly before I buy it, but show me a teenage YouTuber with Diana Ross hair and I’m like ‘Shut up and take my money because THERE AIN’T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH TO KEEP ME FROM YOOOOOUUUUUU!’. 

Thankfully this was a cult curly hair product and I sent it to a lady in NSW who was happy to pay for the postage. I just wanted it to not go to waste so I was more than happy to pass it on to anyone who threw me a few dollars for the shipping.

Another weird side effect of this product sucking is that I needed to replace it. So I went back to YouTube and fell down a weird rabbit hole of ’empties’ videos or ‘touching pan’ videos where beauty vloggers show all the products they emptied that month.

I thought it was such a damn good idea. I try my hardest to use everything I buy but my hair is a bit precious and sometimes my skin just randomly decides it’s allergic to something I’ve been using without issue for years so I have to stop using it. For these reasons, it’s not that often that I finished an entire bottle or package of a particular product before it expires. Which makes it a rare and quite wonderful occurrence when I DO manage to empty a product.

My empties were plentiful this month and I thought it would be helpful for some of my followers to do a post of all the products I totally used up. I’ve been researching everything very thoroughly before I buy it – reading online reviews, watching beauty vlogger tutorials – and I’m quite thrilled to say this seems to be working. A lot less waste of product and money in the Smaggle house is always a good thing!

Here are my April empties…

Palmer’s Coconut Oil Facial Scrub 

Out of nowhere, for the first time in my life, my skin is starting to get a bit dry. I bought this shortly before my brother’s wedding last year because the skin on my face was starting to shed a little. I scrubbed every second day leading up to the wedding and my face was smooth as a peach on the day. Mr Smaggle actually stole this and finished it off but still, it’s a good inexpensive product I’ll be buying again.

Laura Mercier Silk Creme Foundation 

I’ve always been a fan of Laura Mercier foundations and this was no exception. I won’t be replacing this though but that’s only because foundation has a bit too much coverage for me. I’m more of a tinted moisturiser or BB cream kind of gal. That’s a massive compliment for this foundation though, as I rarely make it through a full bottle of foundation without it expiring. I used this for special occasions where I needed long-lasting coverage and for filming and it was ace for both.

Garnier Fructis Manga Head Putty 

This stuff is my world right now. I loosely follow the Curly Girl hair method, where you only use water-soluble products on your hair. My hair LOVES waxes and powders that give your hair grit and body but I couldn’t find a CG approved version of any of these. A woman in a curly girl group on Facebook mentioned the orange lid Garnier putty as a randomly CG approved product and I haven’t looked back. It’s so good, it gives matte definition without the crunch of gel or mousse. It’s also readily available and cheap! I just bought my second tub of it. Love it. Although a lot of hard core CG-ers claim this isn’t a CG product, they can’t seem to tell me why and it contains none of the non-approved CG ingredients and washes out of my hair easily so I’m going to keep using it.

L’oreal Color Riche Matte lipstick in 144 

This is actually my second tube of this lipstick, I love it so much. Even though this one is finished, I won’t be replacing it as I’m trialling a new one but this one is so good. I don’t think I’ve ever finished a full tube of lipstick so doing it twice for the same product and colour is almost unheard of.

Trilogy Gentle Face Exfoliant 

I read in Zoe Foster-Blake’s book about chemical exfoliants (not abrasive ones) and I wanted to give it a try so I grabbed some of this from Chemist Warehouse and it’s AWESOME. I just bought it again on the weekend.

Sukin Foaming Facial Cleanser 

I needed a new cleanser so I grabbed this because it was small and I wanted to try it out. It’s okay… I didn’t love it and I won’t be buying it again but I love that they sell small versions of their products because now I’m not stuck with a giant tube of a product I don’t love. For the record, Sukin stuff is great, it’s just this cleanser I didn’t love.

A’Kin Leave-in Conditioner 

This is another CG approved product and it’s a cheaper version of the Aveda Be Curly product. I LOVE Aveda Be Curly but it’s $45 per bottle and I use a whole bottle per month on my hair so I’ve been searching for a CG friendly and cheaper alternative. This is $17 per bottle (much better) and it’s a similar formula with wheat protein that gives my hair the best volume. I only use these two hair products now (this and the Manga head) and I’m thrilled. I also use Moogoo Shampoo and Conditioner for cleansing. Note: I think this stuff is called A’kin in Australia and Alchemy in other places.

So there you have it – a list of all the products I’ve totally finished in the last month.

What about you? What empties have you built up this month?

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