October Empties

My list of full and sample sized empties that have been used up during October.

bubb & DIMPLES Luxury Hand & Body Wash in Rose 100ml - Good lather and left my skin feeling squeaky clean. See my full review here

bubb & DIMPLES Luxury Hand & Body Wash in English Garden 200ml - See my review here

bubb & DIMPLES Rose Sugar & Salt Spa Body Scrub 100ml - I loved using this scrub, it had a really good amount of 'grit' to polish my skin and was really moisturising. One to buy again. See my full review here

bubb & DIMPLES Cocoa Butter Cream with Vitamin E 100ml - A very rich and luxurious body butter, sadly too thick for my skin. See my review here

Trilogy Clean + Balance Conditioner 250ml - Didn't have enough ooomph for my thick hair. See my review here

Freyaluna Marigold & Bergamot Soap - sample size - Part of the Freyaluna Try Me box, see here. Lovely scented soap and so beautifully packaged

Freyaluna Rose Lotion - sample size. Delicious lotion, just the right consistency for me.

Freyaluna Chamomile & Lavender Lotion - sample size. Again, a wonderfully scented lotion and a good consistency

Freyaluna Patchouli and Orange Hand Cream - sample size. Another lovely product. I used this at night time as it was a bit rich for me to use during the day.

Peppy Galore Herbs de Provence Body Mousse - sample. I bloody loved this sample and have to get the full size ASAP. Such a great fragrance and really worked with my skin.

Neal's Yard Remedies Melissa Hand Cream 30ml. I really love this hand cream, the refreshing lemon balm really gives my skin added zing

Neal's Yard Remedies Rehydrating Rose Facial Polish - sample size. I have loads of these stashed but always forget to use them, I don't know why because they really make my skin glow!

Neal's Yard Remedies Bee Lovely Busy Bee Balm 15g - A lovely scented, multi-purpose balm. I really liked this but probably wont buy again for some time.

Neal's Yard Remedies Beauty Sleep Body Butter 200g. Got this as I LOVE the Concentrate but the butter is too thick for me. I applied it at night and could still feel it on my skin in the morning. Not for me

Neal's Yard Remedies Eye Make-Up Remover 100ml - A staple for me for the last few years. I wont be re-buying just yet though as I will be giving REN's 3-in-1 Cleansing Water a try

Dr Alkaitis Night Cream - sample size. This came with my SoukSouk box in August. Not sure if my skin got any benefits from this sample.

Dr Organic - Aloe Vera Deodorant 50ml - Holland & Barrett has this as a buy one get one half price, no tea tree ones so I ended up with two Aloe Vera ones. Wont be buying again.

Bathing Beauty - POP Fabulous Effervescent Foot Reviving Tablet - single use. I used this after a long, long day on my feet in heels. I got home and popped my feet in for a soak with this and they felt so much better! Part of my swap with Sandra from Beauty Balm See what I got for her here, see what she got for me

Suti Fabulous Foot Balm - sample size. Another item from my swap with Sandra. This was such a lovely minty balm. I got a few uses out of it and it make my feet so soft.

Tata Harper Hydrating Floral Essence- sample. One more from Sandra! This smells really refreshing, I love facial mists and this one was just lovely.

REN Mayblossom T-Zone Control Cleansing Gel 5ml - This didn't really do anything for me, I felt no benefit from using it although I did get a good few uses out of it.

Neom Travel Candle in Harmonise 75g. (pine, ceaderwood and eucalyptus) I picked this up with the idea that I would trial it and see if I liked it enough to buy a full sized one for Christmas. I don't think I will be parting with £40 for a full size, it didn't fully impress me.

Autumn Beauty Swap - with Sandra from Beauty Balm

A few months ago, I saw on Twitter that Kat from Tales of a Pale Face was organising a Beauty Swap.  I headed over and put my name down straight away! Although I am new to writing my own blog I'm certainly not new to reading them and reading swap posts is something that I have always really enjoyed. Its great to see what two relative strangers have bought for each other and what they both thought of the products they received.

So, a couple of weeks ago I was sent an email from Kat pairing me up with Sandra from Beauty Balm. I honestly couldn't believe my luck! I have followed Sandra for AGES and have always really valued her reviews and opinions. I felt like a groupie and even did a (well, more than a few) little squeals when I found out we would be paired up. We agreed on a price limit and posting date and off to the shops we went!

I picked up my parcel from the Post Office today and LOOK AT THIS WONDERFUL ARRAY OF GOODIES! I'm not great at taking photos and the natural light was just fading but you can see just how beautifully everything was presented.

Sorry again about the photo quality, I had to use my phone as my camera is playing up and wouldn't do what I was telling it to do! As soon as it is working again, I will edit the photos with new ones.

I started opening things very calmly and very patiently - this lasted for about three things before I descended on the rest of them in a mad frenzy!

And this is what was inside:

Sandra gifted me some incredibly scented tea lights from St Eval Candle Company in Apple & Elderflower. I am in love with these already. They hold such a crisp, fresh fragrance and even my husband likes them.  I will be putting some more of these on my Christmas wishlist.

Something that has been on my wishlist for months is bodhi's Neroli Lucé Revitalising Face Oil-with Tunisian Neroli, Frankincense and Sea Buckthorn oils. Over the moon to have this at last!

A Bathing Beauty POP Fabulous Effervescent Foot Reviving Tablet - with Peppermint, Tea Tree, Witch Hazel and Peach Kernel oil to cleanse and nourish feet. I love anything effervescent; that magical fizzy noise it makes and the look of bubbles forming rapidly in water! 

Also from Bathing Beauty Sandra included a Super Lux Rose and Shea Butter Soap made with Fair Trade Shea Butter and crowned with 10 pink rose buds. This looks so pretty that I almost don't want to use it! I will though and I'll enjoy every moment.

From A'kin there was a Lavender & Anthyllis Leave in Conditioner.  My hair is going to love this, I can tell! A leave in conditioner for dry and frizzy hair, it can be used on either wet or dry hair to defrizz and protect. I've said before that I find natural hair care products that suit my hair difficult to find so I'm keen to get this on and try it out.

Sandra added a mascara from Avril - A girl can never have enough mascaras and I'm about to come to the end of one so very good timing!

Also a Wellgreen Lewes Lip Balm in Orange - this will be perfect for those cold Winter months that are just around the corner.

Something else to help balance the skin during the Winter is a Collagen Mask Pack by Naisture. Again, I've read lots of great reviews on this mask so pleased to have the chance to try it out myself.

Sandra added some samples along with everything (how lucky am I?!) - bodhi's Mint Thé shower gels, Dr Bronner's Magic Soap in Lavender (my favourite), Tata Harper Hydrating Floral Essence, Suti Fabulous Foot Balm, Vapour Multi Use Blush in Courtesan.

I'll be using the super cute Caroline Gardner mini notebook to do mini reviews and quite happily drink the gorgeous Brewhaha Rose Tea while I'm at it!

 I am incredibly happy with everything picked for this swap, thank you so much Sandra!

You can read what I picked for Sandra and what she thought of everything here.