Skincare Empties! Serums, Essences, Moisturizers, and All That!

Another few months have passed, and with that more empties! Yes I have been trying to use up my products instead of just accumulating them (because truth be told as a beauty junkie you do accumulate a LOT after a short period of time). Anyway over the past few months, I (with a little help from some of my family members) have managed to accumulate quite the literal pile of products. Behold! My empties!

As usual, I wait for months until my empties pile up to the high heavens before it occurs to me to do an empties post, LOL

Since these are a lot to get through, they're going to be split into two parts - skincare, and makeup. We'll start with the skincare first. Basically every face product you can think of - lotions, essences, creams, masks, eye creams, are all in this post. Except sunscreens, because they're grouped with makeup this time round (mostly just to prevent this post from getting too long).

Alright, let's get to it!

Origins Mega Defense Barrier Boosting Essence Oil & SPF45 Review and Ingredients Analysis

Origins Mega Defense range has added the Mega Defense Barrier Boosting Essence Oil and Mega Defense SPF45 UV Defender Sunscreen to its existing range. Origins bills the two products as skin defenders, capable of defending skin against "environmental assualts", which include both pollution as well as UV rays. Both are also meant to be lightweight, easily-absorbed products, making them ideal for warm weather.

Origins Mega Defense Barrier Boosting Essence Oil and SPF45 UV Defender

If you're familiar with the Origins approach to skincare, the brand is pretty big on plant extracts, essential oils, and other plant-derived ingredients, so if you're looking for products with such ingredients, then chances are, you'll love everything from Origins. I personally have mixed feelings about plant extracts and essential oils - I have pretty sensitive skin, so while some plant extract have worked great for my skin and I would have no hesitation in incorporating them into my routine, I've also come across plant oils that have given me breakouts and pimples. At the end of the day, it really boils down to the individual's preference and skin type. For me, it can vary a lot depending on the individual product, the ingredients in the product, and the amounts they're included in - which of course we will look at in this review!


Origins Mega Defense Barrier Boosting Essence Oil and SPF45 UV Defender: New additions to the Mega Defense skincare range
Speaking of ingredients, this review took me a little while to get around to I didn't get the ingredients lists along with the products. So I specially went to an Origins stand to hunt them down for you guys, so I could properly review both the Essence Oil and Sunscreen in their full glory, and so yes, I was at an Origins stand at some point crouching in front of their display items with my camera, obsessively taking photos of the ingredients lists until I got one that was legible. The things I do for you guys! Anyway, without further ado, let's start the review.

Origins Original Skin Retexturizing Mask and Renewal Serum Review

Origins' Original Skin Retexturizng Mask and Renewal Serum aren't new products - they were actually launched end of last year - but since I'm catching up on some old reviews at the moment, I figured, better late than never! And I suppose as far as skincare reviews are concerned, it's always a bit better to wait til you've tried the product more before reviewing it, because then you really get a better sense of how the product works.

Origins Original Skin Retexturizing Mask and Renewal Serum: Targeting A Slightly Younger Crowd

From some of the promotional material I've seen, the Original Skin range is meant to target ladies with a "quarter-life crisis", so unlike traditional anti-aging lines it has a younger target audience. The Original Skin Retexturizing Mask is supposed to be a "two-in-one purifying mask and skin refiner", while the Renewal Serum is billed as a "renewal serum (duh, I guess) designed to restore the glow of younger skin". As with most Origins products, these have a slew of natural plant-based extracts and ingredients.


Origins Original Skin Retexturizing Mask: One of the products in the range
As with all my reviews, we start with the ingredients list, so we get to see what's in the products, and how the products work! So, without further ado, let's begin!

Origins Dr Weil Mega-Mushroom Skin Relief Review and Ingredients Analysis, and My Top 3 Picks

Origins is famous for its plant-based skincare products, and indeed the brand was one of the first mainstream brands to heavily market itself as a natural skincare brand. Chances are, you've probably heard of any of their skincare ranges, with really cute names like Plantidote, A Perfect World, or GinZing. Despite being around since 1990, the brand is fairly new to me. I've never tried anything from the brand, so it was some interest that I started testing out their Dr. Andrew Weil for Origins Mega-Mushroom Skin Relief Collection.

Origins Mega-Mushroom Skin Relief: Mushrooms and lots of other plants to the rescue!

The Mega-Mushroom Skin Relief range is a plant-based range and advertises itself as such, so I thought a quick summary of the science on 1)the oils in skincare in general, and 2) the oils in the product range, may help to set the stage.


The Origins Mega-Mushroom Skin Relief range has a grand total of eight products to suit all preferences.