Beauty Empties January

Dear readers, as some of you might have heard via Twitter, I have moved to the UK beginning of this month. Before that, I power decluttered my belongings and tried to get rid of as much stuff as possible which was quite successful. Furthermore, I put a lot of effort into making my office paper-free which was quite successful as well although I haven't completely finished this endeavor (have a look at a picture showing a part of my scanning efforts). Hence, I did not have any time for blogging and sharing news on beauty or life style with you, unfortunately. Beauty and life style just were not so important for me in the last months, except for minimalism and decluttering. I'd like to promise that I will blog more often in the future but - to be honest - I cannot promise that. I am very busy and try to get a lot of stuff done at the moment. However, you should get at least some regular updates on my beauty empties.

Have a look below at my beauty empties of January. In February and March, I did not empty that many products due to too much stress. In March, besides living in a rather uncomfortable shared house, I also didn't take many products with me and my skin and I, we both miss body lotions a lot! ;-) So, I am looking very much forward to using body lotions again in April. The cold, british weather has dried my skin very much and I probably should also do more sports to encourage blood and lymph flow as this helps against dry skin as well. Will start to do more sports again in April as well.

In January, I did not empty and declutter that much beauty wise. Altogether only 22 products have left me and of these only 6 were decluttered. This is not much indeed - especially considered my usual mass exodus. ;-) But it still is more than I managed to empty in February and March. Have a look at the group picture of the products that left me in January:

A short summary and my thoughts about the emptied or decluttered products:

• Shower gels
• Nonique Paradise Punch Shower Gel: I like Nonique shower gels. They are really soft and nurturing for my skin. Unfortunately, the scents are not that great. This one does not have an awesome scent either but it is ok. It smells a bit too artificially like fruits. However, I enjoyed using it and might repurchase it soon due to its softness.
• Belmar Shower Gel, sample: This was contained in one of my twist.bags. It is an aweful shower gel. The scent is terrible and somehow reminds me of medicine. It is very liquid and you have to be careful when using it because it is easily spilled. Surely no repurchase. 

• Body Lotions and Body Butters
• Dove rich nourishment cream, Sample: Quite nice cream, very rich and nourishing. I used it for the feet and I'd repurchase it for the feet. But not at the moment, maybe later. 
• Nivea Cream, Sample: Of course a nice cream. It's a well-known cream you all surely tried as well. Very rich and nourishing, but a nice staple. I might repurchase it some day, but not at the moment. 
• Alverde Body Butter Blood Orange and Elderflower, Sample: Nice body butter. The scent is very soft and quite nice, too. Sure repurchase. 
• Alverde Body Butter Verveine, Sample: Aweful body butter (see also my empties of June 2012), but I have won it with the twitter advent calendar and then I had to use it up. Fortunately, it was just a sample. 
• Perfumed body lotion in the scent of DKNY Pure, Sample: Very nice but no repurchase (I rather don't repurchase perfumed body lotions in genral) 
• Perfumed body lotion in the scent of Signorina by Salvatore Ferragamo, Sample: While the perfume itself is a bit too strong for me, the scent of the body lotion is softer and just about perfect. Really enjoyed using it up. However, still rather no repurchase as I don't like to buy perfumed body lotions in general.

• Hair products
• Sante Clay Shampoo: This is a nice peeling shampoo and as such it of course is quite agressive and not an every day shampoo because it would dry my hair too much. I used to use it before dieing my hair in order to get rid of anything that would prevent my hair of taking up the colour. The scent is a bit strong and not really nice. But as seldomly as I used the shampoo, it was ok. I will probably not repurchase it, but as it is an organic product, I might end up repurchasing it although I didn't really like it that much. 
• Nivea Volume Sensation Styling Mousse: I don't use such kinds of products. With this one I really tried hard and kept it several months. But I just don't have that much time in the morning to extensively style my hair. Hence, I decided to get rid of it and to not torture myself anymore with it. Surely no repurchase.

• Face care
• Louis Widmer Creme Contour des Yeux eye care: I got this eye care from my mum last summer and I really love it. It is a very good and nurturing eye cream that provided the skin around my eyes great company during winter. Sure repurchase! 
• Balea Peel-Off Mask: I should use it more often. It is a great peel off mask. It works very thoroughly. It does not smell great and it stings a bit but I love how it works and I will definitely repurchase it! 
• Balea Anti-Age Mask: I used it immediately after the Peel-Off Mask. This is also a great product. I believe it was a limited edition, however, so probably no repurchase. However, I definitely should use masks more often.

• Face cleaning products
• Rival de Loop eye make up remover oil free: A nice product, suprisingly thorough, but there are better and more thorough products on the market. But it is a great alternative if you are on a budget as this product is a very cheap drug store product. Nevertheless, I probably won't buy it again but I'll keep it on my list of potential repurchases. 
• Ebelin Nature cotton pads: I like them, will repurchase them. They are a bit more expensive than the non-green variant but I like to spend a bit more for a product when it does not pollute our environment that much.
• Sephora Soft touch cotton pads: Really great product. Unfortunately not so easily available in Germany. But I'm sure that I'll repurchase them one day!

• Tooth cleaning products
• Listerine mouth wash in Freshmint: Great product, as usual. It's one of my staples ... :-)

• Makeup
• Bobbi Brown eye shadow in Champagne Truffle: This one had a lot of fallout. So, it wasn't a good product and I got rid of it in January. (Unfortunately, it cannot be seen on the picture because I threw it away too quickly, sorry!!)
• P2 eye shadow in 040 White Connection: I own this eye shadow for a long time now but I never used it. I just don't like that bright white eye shadows. Hence, I asked myself: why should an eye shadow I never use block space in my palettes? And then I decided to get rid of it. It just does not make any sense to keep something that I don't like enough to also use it. 
• Essence Snow Jam Cream eye shadow in 02 (Cyan): Not a colour I use regularly. It is a very bright, sparkling cyan colour which I don't like. I just bought it in January and decluttered it in the same month. But it is better to get rid of it as soon as I realize that I will never use it anyway. It obviously was a mispurchase! 
• Essie Candy Mint Apple nail polish: To get rid of this nail polish was a difficult decision. The colour suits me, but I find it too eye-catching and it does not fit to my every day life. I also cannot wear it to the office. There are not many occasions I would wear such an eye-catching nail polish. So, I decided heavy hearted to get rid of it. 
• L'Oréal Voluminous x5 mascara: This one provides really nice lashes. The lashes become more dense and more voluminous, but also a bit longer. They look great with that mascara. BUT and there is a but, namely: it unfortunately cannot deal with water, i.e. no rainy weather and no crying. When there is contact with the tiniest bit of water, it disperses around the eyes. In rainy weather and after massaging sessions, I often noticed the mascara at places where it shouldn't have been. Hence, I don't know yet whether I'll repurchase it. Maybe the water proof variant in brown if there is such a variant.
• MaxFactor 2000 Calorie Mascara: really a very great mascara, very subtle and not too dominant. Unfortunately here as well: it disperses too easily under the eyes. And it also is not available anymore as MaxFactor has released a new 2000 Calorie mascara series here in Germany. But I surely will test the new series soon ...

And here is a close up of the two decluttered eye shadows: