Stuff I've Used Up! Super Mega Empties Post: Skincare and Makeup

This is a pretty major empties post, because the last time I blogged about my empties was half a year ago in December last year (it was also a pretty large post, that I split into two parts, part 1 and part 2). This time around, I have even more stuff!

The nice thing about empties is that, for me, using a product up comes with a sense of accomplishment (as in, hey, I actually stuck to something long enough to use it up!) and also a sense of permission (as in, hey, I've used up a lipstick, now I can buy another lipstick)! So for a beauty junkie like me, it's both gratifying and enabling!



Obviously, there's a lot to go through, so without further ado, let's jump right in!

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!

The Body Shop Drops of Youth Review: Eye Concentrate, Bouncy Sleeping Mask, Essence Lotion, Cream, Youth Concentrate

The Body Shop's Drops of Youth collection of skincare products has launched, and this range targets the first signs of ageing and delivers hydration to skin. It is a surprisingly comprehensive range, with a Essence Lotion, Eye Concentrate, Youth Concentrate, Youth Cream, and Bouncy Sleeping Mask. So yes, a total of five products are being launched!

The Body Shop Drops of Youth: A skincare range to target the first signs of aging

Some of you may remember my old review last year of The Body Shop's Drops of Youth Concentrate, which is part of the Nutriganics Line. And while I didn't review it last year either, the Nutriganics line also had a Bouncy Sleeping Mask too. The packaging of the products in the Nutriganics line is slightly different - the "older" Bouncy Sleeping Mask, for example, has a white cap rather than a black one, while the Concentrate had a different lid and dropper.


The Body Shop Drops of Youth: Five products, ranging from lotions to concentrates to masks
Anyway, we'll be looking at all these products in the Drops of youth collection - Lotion, Eye Concentrate, Youth Concentrate, Cream, and Bouncy Sleeping Mask, and as always, we're going to take a closer look at how these products work! Since there are quite a number of products to go through, this post is going to be a tad long, so buckle your seatbelts, and let's get starte!

SK-II Facial Treatment Essence Dupe Part 1: 10 Possible Dupes with Pitera

SKII's Facial Treatment Essence, with the acclaimed Pitera as the main ingredient, is one of the most famous products in the world of Asian beauty. It's got a cult following despite the high price, and people swear by it.

A year ago, I reviewed the SKII Facial Treatment Essence (together with the Clear Lotion and the Mask), I talked about the science behind Pitera (aka Galactomyces Ferment Filtrate), and also tried the product on myself. Once the review was up, I had a number of questions on whether there were any dupes for the SKII Facial Treatment Essence. Of course, I had to go and investigate myself!

SK-II Facial treatment Essence Dupes: Some of these products are said to be dupes for SK-II

Initially, when I started in my dupe hunt, I thought it would be an easy task - maybe a handful of products, and that's it. It wouldn't take long to do or be a lot of effort, right? Turns out, I was wrong! Upon closer investigation, however, I found that there were really many ways to make a similar product. There are products that try to mimic the formula almost exactly, while others bank on selling the star ingredient, Pitera, instead. Perhaps it is the popularity of the Facial Treatment Essence that prompts so many brands to create similar products. In fact, I found so many dupes and similar products that I ended up organizing them into categories:

Category 1: Close Dupes of the SKII Facial Treatment Essence
Category 2: 100% Pitera/Galactomyces Ferment Filtrate products
Category 3: Partial Dupes, retaining Pitera as the star ingredient, but don't closely follow the SK-II formula
Category 4: Dupes of the "Older Version" of SK-II's Facial Treatment Essence, with Saccharomyces Ferment Filtrate instead of Galactomyces Ferment Filtrate

SKII has something of a cult following, particularly with its Facial Treatment Essence

That's quite a list! Clearly, even when brands don't put out a close dupe, they do put out tangentially SK-II inspired products, and that's fine by me - the more options the merrier! As for Category 4, I'd like to clarify that while there isn't an "older version" of SK-II's Facial Treatment Essence in that the key ingredient, Pitera, hasn't changed, P&G (the parent company of SK-II) had previously mis-characterized Pitera as Saccharomyces Ferment Filtrate, and later changed it to Galactomyces Ferment Filtrate upon further analysis (you can read more about it in my SK-II review I posted previously). Despite this error, it seems a lot of companies were inspired to create products with Saccharomyces Ferment Filtrate that seemed close to SK'II's formula, so I thought they might be worth a mention, too, for the sake of completeness.

So, as you might guess, we've got a lot to go through! Hence the "Part 1" in the title of this post - I don't know how many parts we will have eventually, but I do know that we'll need more than one post to go through all these!

The Body Shop Drops of Youth Concentrate Review and Ingredients Analysis

The Body Shop's Drops of Youth Concentrate is a new skincare product, and according to The Body Shop's website, it "works to help boost surface skin cell renewal", so that your "skin feels immediately moisturized and instantly softer". For those who like such products, it also claims to be silicone-free and paraben-free, with "99% natural ingredients".

The Body Shop Drops of Youth Concentrate: Part of the Nutriganics Line

With such a description, I was very curious to check it out and see exactly how it works! I mean, even the packaging has a whole list of awesome things the Drops of Youth Concentrate does - smoother skin, firmer skin, more even skin, fresher skin. What more could a girl want, right?


The Body Shop Drops of Youth Concentrate: Advertised skincare benefits include smoother, firmer and more even skin
With that in mind, I decided to take a look at the product's ingredients list first, in order to really get a sense of how it works, and whether it lives up to its hype.