September Skin Care Empties 😎

It’s the end of September! Here’s what I finished! September’s empties was quite satisfying. I knocked out a ton of products this month! I’ve been meaning to finish up some of these products, such as the Benton Aloe Propolis Soothing Gel (finally!) and Canmake Mermaid Skin Gel UV SPF 50+ PA++++ (White)! And some others. 😁 Now here are my thoughts on my September empties! Enjoy! 😊

iUNIK Propolis Vitamin Synergy Serum:

Here goes my last bottle of iUNIK Propolis Vitamin Synergy Serum! I purchased this serum to help moisturize and brighten my skin. That’s what this serum claims to do. It says right on the packaging that it’s powerful calming, nourishing and brightening, and is for wrinkle care. Some beneficial ingredients in this serum are Propolis Extract, Hippophae Rhamnoides Fruit Extract, Niacinamide, and Sodium Hyaluronate. I went through a few bottles of this serum. It’s a serum that feels nourishing and soothing on the skin, but it does feel sticky and takes a while to absorb into the skin. I didn’t like the texture of the product. After finishing a few bottles of this serum, I didn’t notice much of a difference in my skin. It helps to hydrate, but it didn’t help with wrinkles and didn’t brighten my skin. All it was is a hydrating serum. I’ve decided that I’m not going to purchase it again.

Benton Aloe Propolis Soothing Gel:

Benton Aloe Propolis Soothing Gel was one of those products that I couldn’t let go, which is weird because the ingredients aren’t too exciting. It contains Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Water, Glycerin, Propolis Extract, Betaine, Cucumber Fruit Extract, to name a few. The product was lightweight, somewhat hydrating, and soothes the skin. It also didn’t break my skin out. I loved it for a while. But, I haven’t been using on my face lately, and I don’t miss it at all. Thinking about it now, I don’t think it did much for my skin. I just kept it around because it didn’t clog my pores, and I needed a product that moisturizes my skin just a little bit. I had a hard time finding a moisturizer that works on my skin. This was the closest to a product that moisturizes my skin. It worked for a while, but I’ve found something better.

Canmake Mermaid Skin Gel UV SPF 50+ PA++++ (White):

I finally finished the last Canmake Mermaid Skin Gel UV SPF 50+ PA++++ (white version!). It took me so long to reach the last bottle. Finally, I have! So the white version is the unlikable version of the ‘Clear’. The white version didn’t break me out, but it leaves the skin with a noticeable white cast and dries out the skin tremendously. Well, on my skin it did. It didn’t look good on my skin. It accentuated every fine line and wrinkle, pore, and flake. There’s no way I’m going to purchase the white one again. It’s terrible. I don’t recommend it at all. Stay away from it unless you like having a white cast and dry skin. The cooler weather is coming up, so it’s best to stay away from this sunscreen.

Gold Bond Ultimate Neck & Chest Firming Body Treatment Cream:

I’ve been using Gold Bond Ultimate Neck & Chest Firming Body Treatment Cream at the beginning of this year. I’m on my second tube. The product is pretty tiny. It’s only 2 oz. The cream is supposed to help improve skin elasticity, texture, firmness, boost hydration, and repair dry, depleted skin. It contains salicylic acid to exfoliate to help reveal younger-looking skin. After finishing the cream, I feel that this cream is just another body cream. I didn’t notice an improvement in skin elasticity or texture. It’s just another product that’s making claims and under-delivering. It’s not a bad product when it comes to moisturizing, but there’s more affordable options out there that moisturizes the skin. I couldn’t tell the difference between this cream and my other moisturizing creams. I’m glad I’m done with it. I won’t repurchase again.

Differin Oil-Absorbing Moisturizer SPF 30:

Another sunscreen I finally finished before the winter season! It’s the Differin Oil-Absorbing Moisturizer SPF 30! I’ve been trying to finish this sunscreen up too. I don’t use it on my face anymore. I stopped after it started to make my skin oily while causing breakouts. Also, it burns my eyes too. It’s just not the type of sunscreen for my sensitive facial skin. My skin is very picky with sunscreens. This one failed the test. So I used this sunscreen mainly on my hands. It’s moisturizing, lightweight, and feels just like a non-greasy moisturizer. When I finished it, I never looked back. Out it goes!

Up & Up All In One Micellar Cleansing Water:

I stopped using micellar cleansing water on my face. I had half a bottle left, but I couldn’t finish the rest. The product does help to remove residue and makeup from the facial skin, but I just don’t like the way micellar water feels on the skin. It’s just one of those products that I can live without. So with the rest of the micellar water, I ended up using it to remove my eye makeup. I had to use it for something. I didn’t want to waste it. Once I finished the whole bottle, I tossed it out and didn’t repurchase. It’s not just this micellar water that I don’t care for. It’s micellar water in general. I haven’t found one that I liked. It feels like an extra step in my skin care routine that I don’t need. A cleansing oil alone removes my sunscreen and makeup just fine. I’ve had no issues just using a cleansing oil followed by a face wash. It works, and I don’t have to use another product like this one to aid in the product removal process. I prefer to keep my skin care to a minimum as much as possible, lol.

CeraVe Eye Repair Cream:

I’ve tried a ton of eye creams and this one just sucked. lol. There’s no other way I can put it. The ingredients look nice. It contains Niacinamide, Ceramides, Hyaluronic Acid, Almond Oil, Aloe, Vitamin E, and much more. But it doesn’t live up to its claims. The eye cream is supposed to reduce the appearance of dark circles and puffiness. Ceramides help to repair and restore. Nope, none of that happened. It didn’t help with dark circles or puffiness. I love ceramides, but it didn’t do anything for my skin in this eye cream. My skin still felt dry using this eye cream. It just didn’t do anything. I wouldn’t recommend this eye cream. It just wasn’t a good pick.

RoC Line Smoothing Daily Cleansing Pads:

I finished two containers of the RoC Line Smoothing Daily Cleansing Pads. The product claims to visibly reduce fine lines and improve tone and texture in 1 week. Diminishes signs of photo-aging and uneven skin tone, dark spots in 4 weeks. Visibly diminishes wrinkles and pores in 12 weeks. There are 28 pads per container. After finishing this product, I didn’t notice many changes in my skin besides softer and smoother skin. It didn’t help to reduce fine lines or wrinkles. Tone and texture, not so much either. Signs of photo-aging and even skin tone? Nope. Diminishes wrinkles and pores? Not at all. Just softer and smoother skin, lol. It’s a good physical exfoliant (pads with tiny little bumps on it) that cleanses the skin very well. My skin always feels squeaky clean afterwards, which is nice on this oily skin of mine. I liked this product, but I don’t really need it in my routine. I feel like it’s one of those products that’s just fun to use. I won’t purchase again.

Neutrogena Sport Face Oil-Free Lotion Sunscreen SPF 70+:

I tried Neutrogena Sport Face Oil-Free Lotion Sunscreen SPF 70+ on my face, but that didn’t work out. It felt really greasy and oily on the skin. It has a chemical smell to it too that I didn’t like. It also broke me out. I wanted it to work out due to the price and that it’s SPF 70+. I finally finished my last tube of this product, and I’m happy that it’s gone. It worked well on my body but not my face. I won’t repurchase it again for the body because it’s only 2.5 fl. oz.

For my August Empties go here 👈🏻

Review: Simple Micellar Cleansing Water

I have a few bottles of micellar cleansing water sitting around. I’ve been picking up on my cleansing routine too. Check out on the latest cleansing oil that I reviewed iUNIK Calendula Complete Cleansing Oil. Out of what I have, I decided to start off with Simple Micellar Cleansing Water. I really just picked one. This one looks pretty decent. The product claims to remove contaminants that irritate the skin leaving the skin clean and fresh. Boosts hydration by 90%. Also, it contains vitamin b3, vitamin c, and triple purified water. That’s very interesting, but these are just claims. Since I have nearly a full bottle of Simple Micellar Cleansing Water left, let’s see if it actually works or not. I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks already. Here are my thoughts on this product!

My experience

I started using micellar cleansing water again to boost my cleansing routine. I’m currently using a cleansing oil, oils, some wipes, and facial cleanser. Yeah, that seems a bit too much, but I have a few bottles of micellar cleansing water and cleansing oils to use up, haha. Following this routine hasn’t done anything negative to my skin either. It seems to be working just fine. My skin is left clean and spotless each time afterwards. So with Simple Micellar Cleansing Water, I dispense some product on a single facial wipe (which isn’t too wet to begin with) and wipe all of my makeup, sunscreen, dirt, debris, oil off of my face after a long day. Prior to using a facial wipe, I used a cotton pad, but cotton pads tend to be too small, and I always end up using more than one for the whole face, which was pretty wasteful. A face wipe seems to work better for me. It gets every corner of the face and every cervices. I only need to use one face wipe.

After using Simple Micellar Cleansing Water for a few weeks, I can’t tell if my skin has improved or not. The product does help to remove gunk off of the skin, but so do other cleansing products (cleansing oil, oils, facial wipes). I don’t think it made a huge impact on my skin in terms of cleansing. I have tried using the micellar cleansing water alone without other products too. That means no cleansing oil, oils, or facial wipes. Just the micellar cleansing water and a cotton pad. From what I remember, it didn’t remove everything off of my face, especially my eye makeup (eyeliner and mascara). My makeup was still on my skin. Each time I run the micellar cleansing water over my face with a cotton pad, there would be more makeup on the cotton pad. It just took forever to remove my makeup when I could easily do it with an oil-based product. The reason why I switched over to an oil-based product in the first place. It breaks down makeup better and much more easily. I think Simple Micellar Cleansing Water may be too gentle on my skin. My skin does lean towards the oily side and needs something with more cleansing power.

So Simple Micellar Cleansing Water feels too gentle on my skin. I don’t mind the gentleness of the product. I actually do prefer skin care products that are gentle on the skin, but it didn’t help remove all of the gunk on my skin at the end of the day. On a good note, it does leave my skin feeling hydrated. In other words, it didn’t dry out my skin. Also, it didn’t irritate my skin or clog my pores. No breakouts! But I do follow up with a facial cleanser afterwards all the time to make sure my skin is completely clean. So is there a point in using this product at all? Honestly, it feels like another extra step in my skin care routine that I don’t need. And nothing really stands out about this micellar cleansing water from the results I’ve seen so far. Maybe it’s the brand? The product? I might have to try out other micellar cleansing water products to see if there’s a difference. I do have a couple of other micellar cleansing water products sitting around. I’ll get around to them soon…

Pros & Cons

✅ Pros

• Doesn’t dry out the skin
• Gentle on the skin
• Contains vitamin b3 and vitamin c
• No breakouts

❌ Cons

• Doesn’t cleanse the skin or remove makeup thoroughly

Conclusion

I was hoping that Simple Micellar Cleansing Water would remove my makeup, but it failed to do so. I find it pretty wasteful that I have to go through multiple cotton pads to remove my makeup, and my makeup would still be on my skin after multiple attempts. It just didn’t work for me. I’m better off using an oil-based product to remove my makeup or trying out another micellar cleansing water product that’s more suitable for my skin type. Or using a combination of an oil-based cleansing product and micellar cleansing water to remove my makeup. But is that necessary? lol. It definitely seems like an extra step, additional product in my routine that I don’t need, haha. But I do love how gentle this micellar cleansing water is on my skin and how it doesn’t dry out my skin, but it’s just not cutting it. No wonder why I haven’t touched it in a while until now. lol. After I finish the whole bottle, I won’t buy it again. I really don’t think my skin is going to miss it, since it hasn’t done much for my skin.