Empties.

For my first post I thought it would be fun to talk about some products that I've finished up/emptied lately. Now, I've been hanging on to some of these for a while so there's no real time frame for this post. Lots of people post an 'empties' post monthly, but honestly I don't go through very many products in their entirety on a monthly basis so I will probably only post these every now and then once my little bin fills up!

Aveda Color Conserve Shampoo, Aveda Color Conserve Conditioner, Hask Argan Oil Healing Shine Hair Treatment, Batiste Dry Shampoo, Klorane Masque au Dattier du Desert

Hair:

Aveda Color Conserve Shampoo: A very gentle yet effective shampoo that helps keep my red from fading out. It doesn't lather overly much unless you use a good dollop of it, and I wouldn't call it deep cleansing by any means but it does the job. It contains wintergreen, which feels refreshing on the scalp (nice if you're like me and don't wash your hair often!) and it smells amazing!

Aveda Color Conserve Conditioner: Part 2 of Aveda's colour care system. This is a nice smelling conditioner that leaves my hair feeling smooth and manageable, but it isn't especially moisturizing in my opinion. Without a leave-in conditioner or hair oil applied after towel drying, my hair still feels a little rough. My hair is (very) damaged though so it needs a little extra love. Nonetheless, I do really like it and I have repurchased both this and the shampoo several times - though I have been trying out some cheaper options (stay tuned!)

Hask Argan Oil Healing Shine Hair Treatment: After reading tons of blog posts and magazine articles singing praises to hair oils, I picked this up on a whim. It was super cheap (around $2 if I remember correctly) so I wasn't expecting much, but I did really like it! Pleasantly orangey-smelling, I enjoyed using it and I found that it was comparable to some more expensive oils I've tried since. A small and painless investment if you're new to hair oils and don't want to break the bank trying them out!

Batiste Dry Shampoo in "Blush": Not my favourite scent of Batiste, but I cannot live without this stuff! My red hair colour is prone to fading with frequent hair washing, so I space out my scalp scrubbing with this. Beautifully absorbs oil, lightly volumizes and brushes out easily. Anything that lets me sleep in a little longer and does magic in a flash is a keeper in my books. I'll never stop using this!

Klorane Masque au Dattier du Desert (Desert Date Hair Mask): Since I had the ends of my hair lightened to blonde on top of having been lightened already under my red, things have been a little straw-like. I've been using this every 2 washes or so as a deep treatment in place of conditioner, and my hair feels noticeably healthier and soft. I went straight to the store for another as soon as this ran out!

Bioderma Sensibio H20 Solution Micellaire, Simple Cleansing Facial Wipes, Lush Bubblegum Lip Scrub, Aveda Inner Light Concealer

Face:

Bioderma Sensibio H20 Solution Micellaire: I am CRAZY in love with this product! I have the beauty blogosphere to thank for this discovery - after reading dozens of rave reviews I finally had to see for myself what all the fuss was about. I'm so glad I did - nothing removes makeup as gently and effectively as this does. A true gem, love love love!

Simple Cleansing Facial Wipes: For times where carting along my Bioderma isn't practical (or I'm just too tired/lazy for my nightly face ritual) these do the trick quickly and don't dry out my skin. I brought these along with me to the Winnipeg Folk Festival this summer and they took care of my face through 5 days of sweat and sunscreen!

Lush Bubblegum Lip Scrub: A deliciously exfoliating lip scrub that you can lick off! I love using this before applying lipstick. It smooths out my lips and gets rid of flaky bits which in combination with a lip balm helps to prolong the amount of time before my lips start looking and feeling dry.

Aveda Inner Light Concealer in 01-Birch: A really nice, light/medium coverage concealer that blends well. It has sort of a powdery finish to it which I like, and it seems to help it last. I would love it if the coverage were just a teeny bit better for covering the odd angry zit and for mornings when my eye-bags scream "I was up until 3am!" but for everyday makeup this is pretty good.

Bath and Body Works Anti-Bacterial Deep Cleansing Hand Soap, Onyx Professional Remove It! Salon Formula Polish Remover, Aveda Hand Relief

Hands:

Bath and Body Works Anti-Bacterial Deep Cleansing Hand Soap in "Fresh Picked Tangerines": I love Bath and Body Works hand soaps. They look great next to the sink, they don't dry out my hands, and they come in SO many amazing scents! I'm currently well stocked for the foreseeable future but it definitely takes restraint not to bring more home every time I pop into the store for a little 'sniff sniff' session.

Onyx Professional Remove It! Salon Formula Polish Remover in "Sweet Strawberry": Nothing groundbreaking to report here, I find most polish removers to be pretty equal. This removes my nail polish effectively, and while I don't think any amount of fragrance can possibly quiet down the fumey-ness of acetone, the strawberry smell does make things a little bit more pleasant. All in all a good and necessary product for nail-painters, which I have already re-purchased.

Aveda Hand Relief: One of my favourite discoveries that came with working at an Aveda salon is this hand cream. The fragrance is natural and beautiful - light, refreshing and slightly sweet citrus with a blend of vitamins and echinacea that keeps my hands feeling hydrated for hours. We offer hand massages at work using this lotion, which is a very nice treat and a very signature Aveda experience.

The Body Shop Dewberry Shower Gel, Joe Fresh Style Fresh Grapefruit Body Scrub, Lush "The Olive Branch" Shower Gel

Body:

The Body Shop Dewberry Shower Gel: I picked a few of these up on sale for $1.99, I'm a sucker for a bargain! The smell is nice, it kind of reminds me of a rainy day for some reason - it's a little moody, if that makes any sense. I'm glad I have another one, but I'll probably switch up which scent I choose next time.

Joe Fresh Style Fresh Grapefruit Body Scrub: This has been hanging around forever! I think I just didn't like it much so it lingered a little longer than it normally would have. A friend (at the time) gave this to me as sort of a funny gift, as I had been going through a 'grapefruit scented everything' phase. The scent of this is lovely, yes, but I didn't feel like it exfoliated much at all which was pretty disappointing.

Lush "The Olive Branch" Shower Gel: I really love Lush shower gels and soaps. I think they're some of the best around. This one is a little different from the others I've tried - made of oils that you shake the bottle to combine, it's a thin, watery consistency as opposed to a true 'gel'. It lathers well though and leaves my skin feeling SO soft. I think this would be great if you have very dry or sensitive skin, as it is so super gentle and moisturizing.

Hope you enjoyed my first "real" post, there's more where this came from so please check back soon or follow me via Bloglovin/Google Friend Connect/E-mail! (links in sidebar>>)

Leave me a comment and let me know if you've tried anything I mentioned! :)

- Dee