Empties #1 (Skincare progress!!)

Long before I even knew what blogging was, I was a skincare fanatic. Growing up, I went to the dermatologist early on as my mother struggled with her skin; we attempted to combat heredity! However, as with most people, my skin fought back with vengeance...alas my skincare obsession has been going strong for over a decade now! I've long accepted that I will never go through all my eyeshadows and blushes, but every six months or so I tackle yet another moisturizer lying about...

Acne.org Treatment - This is actually my second tube of Dan Kern's 2.5% benzoyl peroxide treatment gel. One word: effective. If you struggle with acne, please check out his site here if you've never seen it before. This guy knows his stuff! I went on his "regime" program 2 years ago when my skin was going through cystic acne (hell) and it really balanced my skin out. Nowadays I use his gel more for spot treatment, in conjunction with BHAs and AHAs. A repurchase every year sans doubt!

Neutrogena Naturals Purifying Facial Cleanser - I tried this cleanser out in hopes of trying something paraben-free, as opposed to my old standby, Cetaphil. I've always had decent luck with Neutrogena products, and this was no different. It is slightly drying, but suitable for my skin in summer. Only downside is the bottle only contains 6 fl oz (177ml) so this only lasted me two months. To compare, I buy Cetaphil from Costco in a pack of two massive 20 fl oz bottles that last me almost a whole year. Yeah...Still, this cleanser is available at drugstores for about 8 dollars so you can't go wrong. It also totes 90% naturally-derived ingredients. I'd buy it again, but word of caution: "natural" products don't agree with all skins.

Up & Up Eye Makeup Remover - I bought this from Target awhile back since I was at my boyfriend's and needed to get my darn waterproof mascara off my eyes! This did the trick, but I prefer oils...coconut, jojoba, even olive oil. I think I will do a post on oil makeup removing soon. Still, if you do use waterproof eye products, this does work but the bottle lasted me a mere month.

Neutrogena Oil-Free Acne Stress Control 3-in-1 Hydrating Acne Treatment - Whoa that is an unnecessarily long product name, eh? Another Neutrogena product, sensing a trend? This is basically a 2% salicylic acid gel (or BHA), and a very good one at that! I read on Paula's Choice (another amazing skincare site; imagine if she and acne.org's Dan met...) that this is one of the only effective drugstore BHAs on the market because it has the correct pH balance. I think benzoyl peroxide does the trick better for me but I like to use this beneath my daytime moisturizer since it is so light and dries quickly. It's a great drugstore acne treatment, but I think I'm going to try Paula's Choice BHA liquid next. Hers lacks the fragrance and blue dye in this product (WHY there is fragrance and dye in most skincare, I will never understand). 

La Roche-Posay Effaclar H Moisturizer - When I was living in France with my first host family in Toulouse back in 2008 (has it been that long?? trop triste!), my host mom worked in a pharmacie so she used to give me various skincare products and samples. I think that's when my fascination with skincare/makeup began...Anyway she passed me along this moisturizer and I never tried it...found it in the back of my drawer a few months ago and WOW...this stuff is amazing. It says it's a "compensating soothing moisturizer" for "oily skin made fragile by over-drying skincare." I probably never tried it as I have more dry-combination skin but I used this at night when I would get my monthly breakout (the best time) and it perfectly moisturized my skin and even seemed to calm the breakout! I'm already on the hunt online for another tube of this...it's pricey at about $20 for 1.35 fl oz (40ml) but seeing as I cut this one open to get everything out...I need this back in my life pronto.

CVS 70% Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol - If you've made it this far, here we have plain old rubbing alcohol. Why did I include this? Because this is what I use to clean all my synthetic brushes! I learned this method from Gossmakeupartist, who you all probably know and love; his videos are so concise and full of great tips like this. He uses a 99% solution to clean all his brushes as it kills all the bacteria. This is obviously imperative if you are a makeup artist, but if you are anal like me about breakouts from dirty brushes then this should work a treat! I use 70% because my friend who works in a hospital says it's the best ratio for the germs to be killed throughly. I just pour a small amount in a bowl and swirl my brush in it and then wipe it on a dish towel. Let it be noted that I only do this to my synthetic brushes. I have tried with my natural haired ones and it dried them out terribly. With use every few days, I go through a bottle every three months, give or take.

That's all the empties I've got for now! Hopefully I'll be good and there will be some makeup bits in here next time...never say never, right? Do you have any "empties" lying around? x